was very frosty last night, so to help the wife on her way i started and defrosted her RX400h, using de-icer, including driving it around the block to ensure it was not iced up after i washed it before it got dark last evening.
after she left she phoned to say the windscreen had cracked across the bottom, about 2 foot long!
anyone heard of this sort of thing happening before?
i imagine it could happen if you pour hot water on a cold screen etc but it was de-iced enough for me to have driven it a mile or so before she left!
its a company car so no expense to us but seems curious
pegasus1
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 01/12/2008 at 21:06
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It happened to me in a Jag XJ right before my very eyes accompanied by the sound of cracking glass - two foot long and at the bottom of the screen. I was blasting it with hot air from the blowers at the time and I guess there was a tiny fracture there to begin with.
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Could it have been a defect in the screen which was made worse by the cold. Then drive over a traffic calming measure of some sort puts some stress on the screen and it quicky becomes a 2 foot crack.
A small crack on a screen can quickly become a big crack.
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Stress fracture. Had it 2 x with a Honda, the crack just appeared with no obvious stone chip - the crack started as 2in then got bigger by the hour until it nearly reached from the top to bottom.
Replaced FOC under warranty- 1st time (4 weeks) no argument, 2nd time 34 mths required persistence on my part.
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F-I-L has an RX400h....earlier in the year, in a quite remote part of the Scottish Highlands he had a windscreen co. turn up to replace the windcreen...and... the chap dropped it in the driveway, damaging it...ouch. Bet he wasn't popular back at the depot. Mind you F-I-L said it looked well heavy, so maybe he should have had a driver's mate?
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Same happened to me this year with the Vectra, entirely my fault. Wiper was stuck to the glass, gave it a good yank to free it, resulting in 2ft crack along the bottom of the screen
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Should have tried the warm/tepid water approach. The screen cracked anyway.
A lesson for all of us - I am surprised pulling a wiper broke the screen. I'd have thought the rubber might give first. Was there a weakness in the screen already?
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Wasn't aware of one, but that was definitely the cause. Sometimes I just don't know my own strength... :-)
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I had a tiny crack, not a repairable chip, in a toyota screen and came out early one very frosty morning to find that it had cracked about 9" from the split on the passenger side and across the screen towards the centre. I didnt bother to replace it and when I traded it in the salesman took a cursory look at the car and i doubt even noticed the split against the light at the time.
MGs
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When my 2001 Passat was off the road for a bit, I had a couple of hire cars. An Astra had a tiny stone chip - cold weather and poor roads had it start spreading. Hire company said it could become a large crack at any time. So poor me had to accept an Alfa 156 as the only alternative for two months :-(
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And you would rather the Astra?
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