Cat cracked my windshield and roof glass

[canasion35]

Where is the paw print lul

 

[James7]

• That cat couldn't have weighed more than 6 kilos. I've got a couple of 12 pounders myself and although they are indoors-only, I don't think that they could damage automotive glass
• I've had some neighborhood outdoor cats jump up on my car but the only evidence is their sometime muddy paw prints up the hood and over the windscreen. Have never had any glass damage; paint maybe but I'm not anal enough to fret over every single scratch my car gets.
• Photo you provided of the windscreen showing the damage is horizontal. The cat's movements were vertical. Furthermore, the photo appears to show the right A-pillar, the passenger side of a RHD vehicle, with a chip or dent at the very edge of the glass. The cat in the video did not approach the edge on that side.
• If you are asserting that the damage on the edge propagated a crack horizontally, then I'd say that it's more likely that something hit there and skidded or was dragged across the glass.

From the photo, the glass seems to be scuffed rather than cracked. At least that's my impression. Having had a couple of windscreens replaced on my vehicles over the years, all of the damage have been very sharp, thin lines. Or a divot when a rock hit it. I don't have any experience with the multi-layered glass that's now used with these new vehicles. Have you had the glass inspected by a repair company?

The photo is the windscreen incident (most recent. The video is of the previous incident of the cat breaking the roof glass.

 

[derekmw]

yeah, I saw the video and there is no way the cat doing what it did in those videos, cracked your glass. Even if it's wolverine and this cat had it's nails replaced with Adamantium. If the glass could crack from nails of a cat weighing ~10lbs, we'd be replacing our windshields every few weeks.

 

[James7]

yeah, I saw the video and there is no way the cat doing what it did in those videos, cracked your glass. Even if it's wolverine and this cat had it's nails replaced with Adamantium. If the glass could crack from nails of a cat weighing ~10lbs, we'd be replacing our windshields every few weeks.

It’s a design flaw in the car IMO. Glass is extremely strong but weak if you attack it directly from the side. A seal is needed to protect it.

 

[M1tch]

Cover your roof in cayenne pepper. When it licks itself after being on your roof it won’t come back!

 

[RSpanner]

I would most certainly be driven into a Catatonic state if that happened to me.

 

[brkaus]

i have a raccoon using the cabin intake vents at the back of the hood on my Dodge truck.

 

[rpiotro]

We have two cats. The female is small. About 8.5 lbs. However, I have a bookcase that is 6'6'' tall. I've seen her jump from the floor to the top of it. There must be a very momentary high-pressure kick to do that. With sharp claws concentrating the force.

However, I'm a little skeptical of the OPs story but I'm not totally dismissing it either. How about reversing my example? Drop an 8.5 lb. weight with two sharp points onto the glass from 6.5 feet? Whaddya think? Who wants to try this experiment?

 

[RSpanner]

I don't think a cat is doing this. There's no way they have the weight or strength to do that to glass. I have parked my Model 3's in our garage for the past 5 years and our cats are always jumping on to and off the car. Even jumping onto the roof glass from cabinets above, and I've never had a single scratch on the glass. The only problem I get is the body paint when the slide off the car - but the doesn't take much to scratch Tesla paint.

 

[RSpanner]

Yesterday, noticed a 13" hairline crack, extending from the front edge of the leading roof glass pane.. about 12" from the side. No chips, no sign of what caused it. Stress..I assume. Why, is the glass "bad" in some way?

 

[RDoc]

Yesterday, noticed a 13" hairline crack, extending from the front edge of the leading roof glass pane.. about 12" from the side. No chips, no sign of what caused it. Stress..I assume. Why, is the glass "bad" in some way?

If it's that small, it probably was a field mouse jumping on it.

 

[PianoAl]

This would solve it: I used this when our second car was rarely used. It's not hard to put it on, but every day??

Have to say I'm also skeptical that the car can break the glass. The video didn't load for me.

 

[MikeRTX]

I'm not calling the OP out, as he apparently does believe the cat broke his glass. But I ain't buyin' it.

A cat claw, even if successfully applied to the edge of laminated automobile glass, isn't going to penetrate the glass layers, and even if it somehow did, the cat doesn't have enough strength or weight to physically separate and break the glass layer(s). Attempting to apply such force (if the cat were sufficiently motivated, and malicious) would probably break the claw before breaking the glass.

I think it's a coincidence that the cat gets on the car. The rooster crows when the sun comes up, but the rooster doesn't make the sun come up by crowing.

 

[Gasaraki]

We have two cats. The female is small. About 8.5 lbs. However, I have a bookcase that is 6'6'' tall. I've seen her jump from the floor to the top of it. There must be a very momentary high-pressure kick to do that. With sharp claws concentrating the force.

However, I'm a little skeptical of the OPs story but I'm not totally dismissing it either. How about reversing my example? Drop an 8.5 lb. weight with two sharp points onto the glass from 6.5 feet? Whaddya think? Who wants to try this experiment?

a cat's feet is padded and they have 4 feet. The weight distributed is 2lbs. 2lbs is not enough to crack anything.

 

[RayK]

a cat's feet is padded and they have 4 feet. The weight distributed is 2lbs. 2lbs is not enough to crack anything.

All true but if my 16.2 pound cat fell from a second story window and landed with one foot on the glass, that would be more than 4 pounds (i.e., force equals mass times acceleration). Still not saying that the OPs example is valid, but I have my doubts that that "tiny" feline caused the window crack.

edit: Here he is:

 

[RSpanner]

If it's that small, it probably was a field mouse jumping on it.

the crack is 13" long, and 4" from the end the level of the glass is not equal. Running my fingernail across the crack stops my nail. I think it is a stress crack, others have had them.

 

[PianoAl]

All true but if my 16.2 pound cat fell from a second story window and landed with one foot on the glass, that would be more than 4 pounds (i.e., force equals mass times acceleration). Still not saying that the OPs example is valid, but I have my doubts that that "tiny" feline caused the window crack.

edit: Here he is:
View attachment 1060315

Well, on this one, we have a real world example. Note the reflection of the cat as it falls:

 

[RayK]

Well, on this one, we have a real world example. Note the reflection of the cat as it falls:

Ouch! Okay, maybe a cat can break a windshield...

 

[Sweed269]

I figured it out.

 

[stopcrazypp]

the crack is 13" long, and 4" from the end the level of the glass is not equal. Running my fingernail across the crack stops my nail. I think it is a stress crack, others have had them.

If your car is still under warranty, Tesla generally covers stress cracks. Make sure to take plenty of pictures however to document the entire crack (take wide as well as up close pictures). Make sure to show there is no impact point. If Tesla finds an impact point, they won't cover it.