crazym0nkey

How the hell did my rear windsheild shatter?!?

Our area has a freeze warning and has been under freeze warning for a few days now. My whole rear windsheild is in bits and pieces and it looks like its being held together by my tint.

I know that no one tampered with it. This morning at around 4:30, for some reason I hear a POP while I was sleeping, so it might have been pretty loud. Next thing I hear is my pager beeping signaling a warning. I hurry check outside if some asshole is messing with my car, but the streets are empty so my I was guessing some idiot tried opening my doors and just bolted when my car warning went off. So I go back to sleep and went out to check just now when I wake up. I look out the window and see some kind of weird thing going on with my rear windshield, and thinking that someone threw something at it. I go outside and look at it to realize that it just shattered on its own. I will get pictures as soon as possible. I'm somewhat sure that the freezing temperatures had to do something with it.

Now I want to know if this is covered under some kind of warrenty? Car has just passed the 4 years mark (actually it passes tomorrow). I have only 35k miles too. My transmission just got recently replaced, battery died, now this!

If this isn't covered under warrenty, is it covered under insurance? I guess I depends on the plan I have, so I have to contact my parents about that. If not, how much does it cost to replace the rear windshield? Cheaper to buy at some OEM replacement site or order it from the dealer?

This sucks so bad. Will get pictures in an hour or so. Anyone else deal with this before?

death

Most likely it won't be covered under your warranty unless it looks like it's a defect in the glass. Def. check with your rents regarding insurance coverage.

I had a crack in my front windshield a while back and had it replaced by my dealer under warranty (I think I got lucky).

In any case I shopped around a bit getting prices since I wasn't sure if the dealer would cover it. Make sure you get quotes from multiple companies and TALK THEM DOWN in terms of their price. They will be flexible trust me my first quote was near $500 for the front windshield installed. Once I was done getting quotes and talking to multiple local companies I had them down to under $250 installed.

Papa_Sean

Depends on your insurance. I used to own a honda civic and while driving down the highway one day a pebble hit my windshield. The crack kept getting longer each morning I woke up. Luckily I had full coverage and my insurance company took care of the whole thing. Otherwise it would have cost me $350

crazym0nkey

Well here are the pictures I took.

Note, my car is extremely dirty as well.

From the outside.





Now a view from the inside.


Now it looks like someone MIGHT have hit it at that one point near the bottom left. But from the outside, there it is not too visible and the point were it looks like it got hit is only less than a centimeter in diameter.

Here is a close up of that one questionable area and I try my best to show how small it is.




How that spot looks from outside?


It looks really undisturbed. The spot looking at outside is about 3 defroster lines right from the middle of that last picture.

I'm thinking about just going to the dealer and getting an OEM replacement because I really don't have the time to shop around.

Is it even safe to drive around? I need my car to get to school. Dealer is closed today, said parts department will be open tomorrow. Will see if I have window coverage if the dealer says that it might not be covered under warrenty.
Thoughts?

Studio

Thats too strang. You can really tell when something or someone breaks a window with tint. And yours hows absolutly nothing.

Does the back of your car face the street? or is it parked in the street? Was there a layer of ice on your car in the morning?

crazym0nkey

My rear faces the street. There is a freeze warning in this area for the last 2 days and probably will be continuing on for another few days. It seems that it weather.com indicates that it was around 30-20 F degrees last night which is actually below freezing point. It did not seem wet that night, but I do always park next to sprinklers which explains all the water dots all over my car But those sprinklers don't even come on till around 7 AM, and I heard a POP at 5 am. I'm sure that it was NOT a bullet and this area has rarely any crimes (well the area I live in), and that pop sound was most likely the instant the window just gave up and shattered.

I didn't wake up until 11:30 AM and finally checked then. So it could have been wet, but the sun was out early so it could have dried up This sucks though. Just going to go to the dealer tomorrow and get it fixed no matter what.

Malayalee King

iTrader: (1)

this is crazy. back east, i'd leave my car in freezing rain, snow, many freezing days and this never happened. so in my opinion, the weather out here isnt that cold (SJC, left my car outside and no cracking yet )

i would definetly check with insurance and at the very least take it to get appraised by your insurance to see if they suspect something other than the weather causing it.

good luck

ChrisQ1980

Someone threw something at it, and being that cold it cracked. It wouldnt shatter like that on it's own. If it did the alarm never would have warned you either.

AMGala

iTrader: (4)

are there any rocks or other objects like that around your car that might have hit it?

crazym0nkey

I scoured the ground, grass and under my car for a good 30 minutes.

NO rocks what so ever, no objects. Nothing. If someone threw something I would have seen them the minute I went to check my car once my pager went off.

IF there was impact by an object, it must have been only a tiny, and tiny I mean maybe 1 centimeter diameter rock/object. If your going to smash a window, who the hell is going to throw a tiny pebble to accomplish this?

Is it not plausible that windshields can freeze over and then crack on its own? Not to mention it was extremely windy as well. I'm not ruling out the fact that it COULD have been vandals, but its very uncommon in my living area. My thoughts are that my car is extremely dirty, all that dirt, frozen water and heavy winds were the right conditions to actually cause something like this. But everyone's thoughts and comments are appreciated.

Also if someone did throw something at my car, I think the window would have just completely fall in. A rock with a frozen window would definitely go through the whole window. If something was thrown.... that person throws like a 2 year old.

The Dougler

iTrader: (1)

heres probably the only thing that i can think of that would do that to glass and not leave a mark. Im not sure if you guys have ever heard of this but if you throw a piece of ceramic at tempered glass it creates a resonate frequency that will make it shatter just like with very little force. I've done this before at work with side window glass that has been scratched and cant be sold, we used to smash the ceramic off an old spark plug and through it at the windows in our dumpster, they literally "pop" into the little cubes of safety glass, its pretty cool to watch. if your ever at a junk yard try it out for yourself, only need a little piece of ceramic too about the size of a pebble. Thats my explanation or something simialr to that, just go get it replaced at the dealer, your insurance will probably cover it without you haveing to pay the deductable.

csmeance

if you guys remember, thread was a thread on bulletproffing the windows. In the thread, there was a video on how a hole puch could shatter a window without leaving a trace. Since the tint is holding the glass together, i'd suppose it was a criminal shattering the galls. Like someone said, if the glass had shattered naturally, the alarm wouldn't have sounded if you had one without glass sensors. BTW, what happened to the acura symbol on the trunk?

Luke7

My friend was driving down the interstate in his Lincoln. The rear window completely blew out. Yea, it just blew out behind the car and ended up on the road. Stange things sometimes happen. I'm glad mine is sitting in my heated garage!

CJITTY

Wondering if a BB gun and very cold window could make it shatter like that? In the bottom left corner in the straight on pic, it looks like a small black hole?

crazym0nkey

Why is it that the glass HAS to shatter naturally for the alarm to go off?

Maybe it wasn't clear but the alarm itself did not go off. It was the warning signal that went off. My pager still beeps me when the warning goes off.

Whats wrong with my Acura symbol? I'm just standing there .

There is no hole in the glass. I have checked it from outside and there is no hole in the glass. Although that is possible someone shot a BB gun at it, but I was checking outside within a minute and my place is at the end of a dead end area. Not ruling that possibility out though.

csmeance

in the 3rd picture, around the acura logo, it is very dull and it looks like there is a clothere there instead of the high gloss from the paint...

EDIT: it's ur shorts that make appear to be dull, it is exactly on the A symbol

BrotherDavid

I think we're going to have to bring in matlock on this one!

No evidence. No motive. A real eyebrow crusher!

onsknth

FWIW - I was an accidental vandal once and the result was identicle to what happend to you... Fellas, like 25 years ago, I learned my lesson.

Low power BB gun, only two pumps and parked cars about 25-30 yards away... The idea was to hear a delayed "ping" as the lazy BB hit the parked cars. In my shot (we were taking turns), I actually saw the BB leave the barrel and arc right into the center of the rear window of a car, I saw the glass shatter from the middle to the edges!

Anyway, there's a lot of other things that will do that too, like the ceramic from spark plugs, supposedly it's a dense hit that shatters the glass.... A center punch is evil, but a lot less bulky than that stupid looking "Saftey Hammer."

mezzerTL-S

your rear window broke due to something we in the glass business call
"spontanious breakage", tempered safety glass goes thru a furnace to be heat strengthened, there are certain chemicals that are used in the process, what happens is two of the chemicals mix toghether to make a microscopic stone called a nickel-sulphide stone and can't be detected, as well there is no warrenty against this type of breakage, 99% of the time these "stones" mix in the furnace the glass breaks during the tempering process, however some pieces make it thru and this is the result, if you see kind of a point where everything starts that is where the stone was, it kind of looks like a cats eye. You're alright to drive around a bit with it like that but eventually the tint will give out and you'll have a mess to clean up, note that this will NOT occur with the front windshield as it is made of Laminated safety glass and is not heat strengthened

Jeff

CJITTY

damn...that window guy knows his stuff!!! case solved?? looks like it to me...Findings-SWC or Spontaneous Window Combustion!! maybe insurance can cover that now!!! good luck!!

fsttyms1

This exact same thing happened to a different member a few years back. I tried finding the tread but couldnt. It was basically something like mezzerTL-Sstated

crazym0nkey

Were you refering to this thread? https://acurazine.com/forums/showthr...ndshield+crack

Well my insurance deductable is $1000 So I'm going to call the dealer and try to see if this case would be considered a warranty case . Although I'm pretty sure they are going to just say some vandal did it. But it doesn't hurt to try. This dealer is the only dealer around me so if it isn't warrantied, then I'm just going to have to bite the dust and pay for the new rear wind sheild.

Thanks for the well explained cause. So it is possible that glass can shatter like that on its own by spontanious breakage. Good to know and may actually be the solution to the problem right now.

mezzerTL-S

No problem and no, non-tempered (regular) glass will not break in that manner. nor will laminated glass (front windshield). As far as the dealer warrenty, I think that unfortunately you might be out of luck as there is no warranty from any of the glass MFG. that temper the glass, mainly because they know that this exists. However never hurts to try .
Jeff

AcuraKidd

iTrader: (1)

I got a suggestion, although it might be kinda stupid...

see if any of your neighbors have cameras pointing to where your car was parked, and ask them if you could see what happened that night.

The reason I'm suggesting this is because on my block there are atleast 3 houses who have cameras and one of them always points to my car.