Cracked windshield after annual service

[EdisonR]

Hi,

Well... the windshield of my S has a large crack on the passenger side. I picked up the car from the SF service center this afternoon. It didn't notice anything wrong. I drove home to Berkeley and parked the car, didn't notice anything either.

My wife and I took the car for a ride a few hours later and she immediately noticed the crack on her side of the windshield and now of course it's obvious but I can't really tell when it started.

I took pictures prior to dropping the car at the service center and they show no visible crack.

So now I don't know if this happened at the service center but the coincidence is pretty odd. I exchanged email with them and they said to drive the car back there for them to inspect the windshield but I don't know if it's safe to drive.

I attached a few pictures to this thread, does anybody know if this is safe to drive across the bay bridge and into the city, around 13 miles?
Did this happen to anybody else before? I mean dropping the car for annual service and noticing glass damage?

Thanks!

 

[boaterva]

It probably won’t pass inspection but I can’t see why you can’t drive it. It’s not going to explode or anything. It’s laminated glass on purpose so you can’t go through it and kill yourself.

Good thing you have pictures of it but weird how you didn’t see it on pickup. Could it have happened overnight? No signs of cause? Does it look like a stress crack and not a rock/bb/etc crack.

 

[patrick40363]

Hi,

Well... the windshield of my S has a large crack on the passenger side. I picked up the car from the SF service center this afternoon. It didn't notice anything wrong. I drove home to Berkeley and parked the car, didn't notice anything either.

My wife and I took the car for a ride a few hours later and she immediately noticed the crack on her side of the windshield and now of course it's obvious but I can't really tell when it started.

I took pictures prior to dropping the car at the service center and they show no visible crack.

So now I don't know if this happened at the service center but the coincidence is pretty odd. I exchanged email with them and they said to drive the car back there for them to inspect the windshield but I don't know if it's safe to drive.

I attached a few pictures to this thread, does anybody know if this is safe to drive across the bay bridge and into the city, around 13 miles?
Did this happen to anybody else before? I mean dropping the car for annual service and noticing glass damage?

Thanks!

call your insurance company and get it replaced.

 

[EdisonR]

Actually between pickup, driving home and my wife noticing the crack only 3 hours passed. This is very odd.
I can see there's an impact at the base of crack, looks like it could have been made by a small rock or a tool.

Good thing you have pictures of it but weird how you didn’t see it on pickup. Could it have happened overnight? No signs of cause? Does it look like a stress crack and not a rock/bb/etc crack.

 

[EdisonR]

Does anyone know if the windshield has to be changed by Tesla?

 

[Ghosty]

It probably won’t pass inspection but I can’t see why you can’t drive it. It’s not going to explode or anything. It’s laminated glass on purpose so you can’t go through it and kill yourself.

Good thing you have pictures of it but weird how you didn’t see it on pickup. Could it have happened overnight? No signs of cause? Does it look like a stress crack and not a rock/bb/etc crack.

It can easily be overlooked. Same thing happened with my previous ICE. Took it in to MB for a big service. When they returned it - I got in my car and off I went. However, right before I got back to the office I noticed the big crack on the passenger side. Drove the car right back.

Service manager - claimed windshield was already chipped. He claimed the power pressure wash exacerbated the crack. This made sense - but either way it was NOT cracked to such extent. So they offered to pay deductible on my glass claim with insurance. This was a compromise on my part to avoid a heated argument with service manager.

OP makes a good point - always take pics of your car before you take it in to service. Shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes to snap pictures/video right before you turn in. In fact, I'd take the video right outside the service center. Good tip OP.

 

[boaterva]

Interesting. Yes, definitely either pics or HD video the whole car! Current smartphones have excellent video quality for this.

 

[TexLaw]

You can drive it. It won't come in on you or anything. You will need to replace it. Typically, auto insurance includes glass replacement (but you may have a deductible).

What most likely happened is that you caught a rock on the edge of the windshield. That often leads to a sudden crack like that, even if it takes days to happen. Once it happens, though, it happens very quickly. I recall one time (years ago) that I was just sitting at a stop light on my way to work and . . . POP! A six-inch crack suddenly appeared across my windshield from the driver's side edge. By the time I left, it had extended another couple inches or so. There was a small rock impact on the edge where the crack began.

I suppose the initial impact could have happened during the service, but it also could've happened well before.

 

[patrick40363]

Does anyone know if the windshield has to be changed by Tesla?

I thought I read that Tesla service takes care of it since no other glass company carries them?

I also seem to remember that the insurance company waives the deductible for the windshield replacement. I am in CA so it might be the same for you.

 

[EdisonR]

Thanks for the the replies. Geico is telling me that my coverage is "under review", whatever that means and they will give me an update on Monday. Tesla told me they're the only who can take care of it so that's clear
I am still surprised as to how quickly this happened,

 

[TechOps]

You could ask the service center to pull their surveillance cam footage and see if it was there when you drove off?