bought a 2006 TL used with 66,000 miles on it and no reported accidents or out-of-the-ordinary repairs, but within 9 months of purchase...

the hood supports are busted... they'll fail and the hood will slam closed.

The passenger-side window has started randomly failing to go up, it takes a few tries, and acts like it got stuck then lowers. Guessing there is something wrong with the motor or door

there are a ton of tiny little nicks in the windshield and driver side window that I just noticed... in between shoulder and head level. They are about the size of a pencil tip and there are probably 40 of them in each place.

To me, this seems to hint that something happened to the car that the previous owner covered up, any ideas what could cause these problems? the window nicks are particularly puzzling to me... can airbag deployment cause that?

 

hood supports can go out. your window issue decription sounds like window regulator failure a fairly common diagnosis. not sure about the other

 

No, no and no..

Hood pistons fail just like your shocks fail and need replacing...

Window having an issuse going up or goes up then comes back down is a very common issuse. Clean out the window weather strip and lube it up, if that fails replace window regulator and motor (comes as one unit)

Nicks and chips in the windshield is also common for everyone that drives a vehicle on the road. Little rocks, sand ect gets blasted on the windshield causing what you have. An accident will most likely bust the glass. Airbag cover that hits the windshield will crack the glass, the cover hits the glass at 200 mph..

 

little chips in the pass glass (if on the inside) are most likely in the window tint (easily fixable with new tint) if you say there at that many of them in a small area. It is from the passenger taking there seatbelt off and tossing it around them, and the metal buckle hits the glass and nicks the film.

 

im sorry, i meant "driver side", but i bet the pass side has a little bit of them too

 

My Tl seems to get small windshield nicks much easier than other cars. I've always thought glass is glass but I'm starting to think the TL's glass is softer or something to do with the aerodynamics that allows a larger percentage of stuff to hit the windshield. I wouldn't worry about it, I had mine replaced a year ago and I keep a huge following distance from others on the freeway and mine is alreay spotted again.

The hood shocks tend to go out with seasonal changes. They can be fine in the summer and when the temp gets lower they won't hold as well. This is pretty much true with any pressurized gas shocks.

I wouldn't worry about any previous damage. Everything you mention seems to be normal TL stuff.

 

I totally agree with "I hate cars" with respect to the TL getting it's more than fair share of glass chips. My '07 TLS seems to be the target for front facia and glass damage more than any other car I have owned and I'm not a tailgater driver at any speed. Seems like the low nose design may be causing this but I'm not sure.