RickyRatchet

i was driving my 04 TL on the highway going around 130km/h when all of a sudden i heard a loud noise, glass shattering and the wind was so loud! luckily i had the sunshade closed, i opened it and saw my sunroof was shattered and there was a 2' x 1' hole in it. there were no cars in the immediate area when it happened and i didn't drive under an overpass. i know it's still possible something could have hit it, it didn't sound like this was the case. being xmas eve no body shop or stealership is open, not until saturday according to acura plus. tonight i did some research and see how it actualy is a problem that has happened to a small group of aziners. i just wanted to say that i am now one of those victims. i know you guys want pics and i will put some pics up tommorow.

i'm going to go into my stealership and i'm not too happy about it, i will try and get them to pay for it. i doubt they will but it's still worth a shot, even if i have to make a scene! otherwise i will go with my comprehensive insurance.

does anyone have a ballpark figure of what this fix will cost? i'm guessing around $750 but i really have no clue, i've never even heard about this happening to anyone else till it happened to me and i did the forums search.

also if you order the oem replacement does it come tinted?

chairguru22

damn... that sucks. I wonder what the deal is? what are the other threads that you found? I hope everything turns out ok.

jayunsplanet

iTrader: (1)

Why does this sound really familiar? Or am I getting it confused with the random rear-view mirror explosions?
Anyway, glad you're ok. Good thing your cover was pulled shut. Let us know how the fix process works out for you.

Tripnbeats

http://www.acuraoemparts.com/delray/...All&vinsrch=no


452 outta pocket

RonJonTL757

Trew

iTrader: (1)

Sorry to hear about this. You're not alone. You should tell your dealer that this has happened to other Acura's before.

Here are some threads of members with the exact same issue. Read through them and see if you can find any ammunition to fight the dealer:

3G TL
https://acurazine.com/forums/showthr...ttered+sunroof

https://acurazine.com/forums/showthr...ttered+sunroof

04 RL
https://acurazine.com/forums/1g-rl-1996-2004-77/04-rl-sunroof-glass-shattered-496124/


PS: The search tool is a wonderful thing

csmeance

Only a handful of folks have had their sunroof break. There are several factors leading up to it:

1. As you travel faster the pressure around your car decreases, but the pressure on the inside stays the same (why your ears pop when opening/closing windows at high speeds). As you drive faster, the more the windows are being pushed out.
2. In combination with the window being forced out, a flaw in the glass could compromise it's strength, thus causing the "blowout"

Tripnbeats

makes sense

chairguru22

It must be inside pressure AND defective glass because otherwise you would need to be going EXTREMELY fast. Mythbusters anyone?

RC51Ryder

That is scary since I have my roof shade open whenever I'm in the car. Yeah and someone should send this to Mythbusters. They have definitely run out of ideas with crap they are testing now.

imj0257

iTrader: (1)

I wonder if someone has had it explode with their sunshade open. GL to you and keep us updated!

ATLTypeS

This happened to my co-worker in his 07 G35 Sedan. He was on his way to work and the sunroof shattered out. He did have the shade open but the glass didn't really fall on him as the sunroof blew toward the outside of the car. Dealership still blamed it on a rock but there is no way, it had to be a pressure thing. He claims he was only doing 70, driving in with the morning traffic. lucky for him he was covered under his insurance.

wilsel

Probably just a small piece of space debri that fell, and ricochetted off.

I hate cars

It's no secret that sunroof is under a vacuum at freeway speeds. I've had my car past 150mph with no issues. You had damaged or defective glass.

o4Komodo

iTrader: (2)

Well he was going fast enough to get a rather-large-yet-small fine.
100km/h = max. speed on canadian highways
120km/h = when they generally ticket---but let you off 95% of the time
130km/h = bust your ass
140km/h = bust your ass even more
150km/h = goodbye car---hello "car-cube" hello larger butt-hole.

coreshredder

deff inside preasure plus change in weather.. extreme cold might do it?

chairguru22

150km/h is about 93mph which I think I can say for the majority of people here, definitely drive at least that fast on the highway. It's so easy to go fast in these cars. Before you know it, you look down and are shocked to see how fast you are going.

RickyRatchet

here are some pics i just took today because i'm still waiting on the ones that my friend took an hour after it happened. i was travelling for christmas so i had to make the 200km drive the following day after i taped it up with 3M duct tape and plastic. the hole grew after the ride with it being taped up so that's what these pics are of. i hope the original pics show how it was blown outward. i think the plastic and tape with the wind pushed it down and broke some more away. right after it happened you could clearly see that the glass looked like it was blown out from the inside of the car. i rolled back the plastic for these pics.










tripnbeats - thanks for the price check, i'm guessing it will be 1000 or more if just the part is $450US

trew - you're right the search is a wonderful thing. i read both of the 3g threads you linked before i made my post. i never checked anything other than 3g, thanks for the link on the RL though.

o4Komodo - i know i was speeding but 130km/h(80mph) is relatively not driving very fast. it is driving fast but i wouldn't think fast enough to affect the cabin pressure enough.

from all the posts i've read and since i went on google, it looks like this glass was defective from the day it was made. it was only a matter of time before it finally broke. the only thing i've learnt from this is it could happen to any of us at anytime so if you're not using your sunroof then keep the sunshade closed in case it does shatter.

as soon as i get the first pics i'll post those as well

RickyRatchet

imj0257 - i forgot to answer your question about the sunshade in my last post. from what i've read it seems that with the people that have had this happen with the TL, i think 3 out of the 4(including myself) i read had their sunshade closed. with the other cars because this has happened with a huge variety of makes and models, it seemed pretty much half had it closed, half had it open.

I hate cars

It's not pressure alone. If there was enough to make the sunroof blow, your ears, eyes, and sinuses would be hurting so bad you couldn't drive.

It's probably a combo of pressure/vacuum and bad glass.

chairguru22

Just thought of this too... Did you by chance have the air recirculating within your car? That would add to the pressure difference.

paliknight

holy shit. thank goodness no one was injured. good luck with repairs. it should really be covered by acura though.

ssmtl2nv

iTrader: (2)

Wtf, as long as your okay.....

YeuEmMaiMai

u got glass coverage on your car? that should pay for it

tl_rox

<Pictures> what the...? Hope everything's taken care of...on a positive note, atleast you don't have any glass particles on/in you, definitely having the sunshade closed help!

TLTrance

Any dealership that blames this on a rock is just plain stupid. The likelihood of that happening is probably less than 1 in a million. And even if it did happen, the sheer speed of the car (relative to the speed of a typical falling rock) would cause the force of impact to lessen considerably. Plain physics and common sense should tell anyone that its virtually impossible for a rock to cause this. Besides, the timing would have to be impeccable.

Kracker

The same physics would tell you that generating a pressure difference enough to blow out (or in) the sunroof isn't possible either (without causing your ears to bleed at the same time).

The only thing I could come up with is manufacturing defect with the glass. Maybe report it to the NTSB. If it wasn't a rock or bullet then NTSB should know about it too.

RickyRatchet

i didn't have it on recirc, i also didn't have it on auto. i very rarely have it on recirc

i do have it, $300 deductible, i won't know till tommorow whether or not acura will pay for it. worst case scenario it will cost me $300


TLTrance - i agree, i never heard anything hit it either, i could see it blown outward too. i don't see how it's possible that a rock or bullet or space debris has done this, however it can't be ruled out. i'm confident that this is not the case in my situation and that it is defective tempered glass from manufacturing. it was only a matter of time before the light vacuum and pressure shattered it.

we'll see what the dealership says tommorow. i'm also still waiting on my friend to send me the other pics, she's kind of mad at me right now tho so we'll see what happens with those. as far as all the other comments about glad i'm ok and good luck, i thank all of you aziners!

nfnsquared

Not necessarily. We're not talking about pressure above 1 atmosphere in the car, but a lower pressure above the sunroof due to airflow over the top of the car. How much lower? I have no idea what the pressure drop is for cars, any aero engineers out there? So, if there was a defect in the glass, it would still be possible for it to explode outward without sensing it in your ears.

I hate cars

It's under a vacuum, yes. Enough to cause this kind of failure, no. If this was caused by vacuum alone, the center would not be the failure point. The glass would break at the mounting hardware.

If a super vacuum caused the failure, you would have the inside windows popping inwards and bleeding eyes/ears everytime you opened the sunroof going down the freeway.

RickyRatchet

i hate cars - in your opinion, would you agree that the reason this happened was my TL received defective glass from the manufacturer. overtime it couldn't withstand the light vacuum and light pressure that eventualy caused this blowout?
that is of course if my opionion that my sunroof was blown out from the inside and not hit with a rock or some sort of debris is correct.

LoveMyTL-S

May want to get the moon roof tinted on the inside, in case this happens again.......

LoveMyTL-S

Here's something I found on Google:

Ford's expert testified that the typical scenario for such spontaneous glass
breakages is that a small scratch or chip is inflicted on one of the window surfaces from
rock chips on the road, grit or sand lodged between the window and window seal, or
sharp objects coming in contact with the glass surface. Typically such scratches or chips
are not visible to the naked eye and, over time, the scratch or chip enlarges to the point
that it penetrates the compressive surface, although it is still too small to be noticeable.
Spontaneous glass breakage of tempered glass occurs on all models of vehicles regardless of manufacture and vehicle line. Ford's expert testified that even today there is no technology available to avoid occasional breakages of this type.

Not sure if this was the case in your moon roof, but who knows.

monacm2

Hey RickyRatchet, did the stealership end up covering this?

EVOLICARUS

this happened to me in my 2000 civic, but it was the front windshield that exploded for no reason. shit was scary, i almost wrecked on the highway