Cracked windshield: should Tesla, Safelite or fix it?

[eddieb3]

UPDATE: I called my local Tesla SC in Costa Mesa, CA this morning. I was told that I needed to use the app to make an appt. I told them I first needed an estimate to determine if my insurance company would cover it before I went in and they said they couldn't give any estimates until they saw the car. I think that was just a default BS answer cuz a cracked windshield is a cracked windshield. They don't need to see anything. It is what it is. Oh well.

The earliest date I could get for an appointment on the app was May 2nd. So I decided to try using Safelite and see if they can do it quicker and do the whole thing without having to take it to Tesla to do any calibrations or whatever. I called my insurance company because, for glass, you are routed directly to Safelite anyway. They told me they can do the whole thing (including camera alignment which they brought up before I did) on Monday, April 15th. It's a week out because that's how long it will take them to get the glass delivered. I asked if I would need to take my car to Tesla after for anything and they said no - it will be good to go on the 15th once they do the install.

They already gave me an invoice for this even though insurance will pay. It costs $759.09 + tax.

I will provide an update after they do the install with the results of that. Hopefully, that will be the end of this saga. In the meantime, I'm holding on to the Tesla appt. until this is all done...just in case.

 

[eddieb3]

I'm in OC CA as well, and when I called Safelite they would not do it for me because they'd only be able to get the glass from Tesla, and then I'd need to bring the car into Tesla for re-calibration of the sensors and cameras. But that was about 3 months ago, so maybe they now have the calibration capabilities?

Read my post I just posted right after yours. In a nutshell, they said they can get the glass, but it will take a week. They also assured me that once they are done, there will be no need to take it to Tesla for anything else. They can do it all including alignment/calibrations. The Irvine office of Safelite is going to do the work at my house. So yes, it does sound like things have changed in 3 months which doesn't surprise me. Or I hope things have changed and I'm thus getting the right story here. I will update here again once the work is done.

 

[eddieb3]

UPDATE #2: Well, that didn't take long. Safelite called me back 2 hours after confirming my appt. for Monday of next week and told me that they can't get the glass. Therefore, they canceled my appointment and told me I needed to go directly to Tesla. Not that they can't get the glass in time. They told me they can't get it at all - period.

I know others in the past have said they had Safelite do it. All I can guess is that they are currently having a supply chain problem in obtaining the glass. Just my timing on this. Glad I kept the Tesla appt., but now I have to wait until May 2nd to get it done. In the meantime, I have a 15" crack right in the middle of my line of sight while driving. It couldn't be in a worse spot.

 

[moridin2002]

UPDATE #2: Well, that didn't take long. Safelite called me back 2 hours after confirming my appt. for Monday of next week and told me that they can't get the glass. Therefore, they canceled my appointment and told me I needed to go directly to Tesla. Not that they can't get the glass in time. They told me they can't get it at all - period.

I know others in the past have said they had Safelite do it. All I can guess is that they are currently having a supply chain problem in obtaining the glass. Just my timing on this. Glad I kept the Tesla appt., but now I have to wait until May 2nd to get it done. In the meantime, I have a 15" crack right in the middle of my line of sight while driving. It couldn't be in a worse spot.

My experience at the Rocklin, CA service center was quite different. They no longer do glass replacement. Only Safelite does it now. Safelite still has to source the glass directly from the service center, because there are no approved aftermarket alternative windshields yet and its a giant PITA because Tesla will not allow B2B accounts. Safelite has to get a credit card and pay for the glass when the technician picks it up, rather than allow an accounts payable department at Safelite to deal with it. My insurance company's system misreported the type of vehicle to Safelite (put it in as Model S for some reason - probably do to with an issue with the automated API), so it 2 weeks to get that sorted and get the right windshield on order.

Anyway, I'm going on 5 weeks since I started the process and am still waiting. Crack has no propagated across half of the windshield right through my line of sight. Tesla originally told Safelite it would be 1-3 weeks for the windshield to be in stock. 3 weeks is up today with no sign of any stock incoming to the service center.

 

[Leeclanual]

UPDATE #2: Well, that didn't take long. Safelite called me back 2 hours after confirming my appt. for Monday of next week and told me that they can't get the glass. Therefore, they canceled my appointment and told me I needed to go directly to Tesla. Not that they can't get the glass in time. They told me they can't get it at all - period.

I know others in the past have said they had Safelite do it. All I can guess is that they are currently having a supply chain problem in obtaining the glass. Just my timing on this. Glad I kept the Tesla appt., but now I have to wait until May 2nd to get it done. In the meantime, I have a 15" crack right in the middle of my line of sight while driving. It couldn't be in a worse spot.

Call Tesla and tell them car is not drive-able for safety reasons and you want a loaner... since safelite can’t get the glass your insurance will have to pay Tesla’s price.

 

[BerTX]

UPDATE #2: Well, that didn't take long. Safelite called me back 2 hours after confirming my appt. for Monday of next week and told me that they can't get the glass. Therefore, they canceled my appointment and told me I needed to go directly to Tesla. Not that they can't get the glass in time. They told me they can't get it at all - period.

I know others in the past have said they had Safelite do it. All I can guess is that they are currently having a supply chain problem in obtaining the glass. Just my timing on this. Glad I kept the Tesla appt., but now I have to wait until May 2nd to get it done. In the meantime, I have a 15" crack right in the middle of my line of sight while driving. It couldn't be in a worse spot.

I got one of the Rainx repair kits from Walmart to try to stop the crack while waiting for repair. I figured it couldn't hurt. It stopped the crack from spreading and made it almost invisible. YMMV

 

[Nocturnal]

FWIW I had a small chip in my windshield for the past 2 months. I had safelite come out to fix it, now it's a long crack and I have to replace the windshield. I wish I had just left it alone. :/ Heck, I could have slopped some super glue in there and it probably would have held up.

 

[Wratran]

Please use the search function, you’ll be surprised how many posts ask the same question.

This is just a lazy guy that offer no help to the question...why even bother to type anything...

Tesla replaced my windshield at their service center.
I do not know if they have someone come in to do the actual replacement. The new windshield has the TESLA logo on it

 

[KingTito]

FWIW I had a small chip in my windshield for the past 2 months. I had safelite come out to fix it, now it's a long crack and I have to replace the windshield. I wish I had just left it alone. :/ Heck, I could have slopped some super glue in there and it probably would have held up.

Same exact thing happened to me. On a road trip caught a rock. Small chip and very very small crack radiating from it.

Thought I should get it filled before it got worse.

Waited a few weeks and wasn’t getting any worse but finally had time to get to Safelite. They starting filling it and turned into a very long crack.

Had to order a new windshield which they luckily got in 2 weeks and replaced with no issue.

I’ve had many replacements due to long cracks over the course of the last 20+ years but this is my first experience with the repair process.

I’m now more inclined to not repair and see if it gets worse. But perhaps just mine and your bad luck.

 

[Jedi2155]

I tried to go through the Safelite route for my windshield back in 10/26/18, waited two months but Tesla never sent the part. Gave up after january and had Tesla did the work. Got a call in early April from that Safelite saying they finally got the windshield lol (6 months later...)

It was about $950 for the work at the Tesla shop.

 

[rlb4]

Same exact thing happened to me. On a road trip caught a rock. Small chip and very very small crack radiating from it.

Thought I should get it filled before it got worse.

Waited a few weeks and wasn’t getting any worse but finally had time to get to Safelite. They starting filling it and turned into a very long crack.

Had to order a new windshield which they luckily got in 2 weeks and replaced with no issue.

I’ve had many replacements due to long cracks over the course of the last 20+ years but this is my first experience with the repair process.

I’m now more inclined to not repair and see if it gets worse. But perhaps just mine and your bad luck.

Everyone's results will vary depending on the crack and skill of the repair person. I just had my quarter sized crack repaired today. There was a longer crack radiating out of the center that I was worried about. The repair turned out great. Probably 80-90% less visible. The longer crack was completely sealed. Very glad I tried repair first. Replacing a windshield is never as good as from the factory.

 

[moridin2002]

I tried to go through the Safelite route for my windshield back in 10/26/18, waited two months but Tesla never sent the part. Gave up after january and had Tesla did the work. Got a call in early April from that Safelite saying they finally got the windshield lol (6 months later...)

It was about $950 for the work at the Tesla shop.

My local Tesla service center no longer does the repairs. They are contracted out to Safelite. Aaaannnddd, to top it off, Tesla is a horrendous company to deal with to order parts if your a business. Safelite cannot open an account, they have to come in, with a credit card, pay for the windshield, and then go pick it up. And, just like you, Tesla parts forgot to place the order (even though I called them 3 weeks after the initial order from Safelite to verify it was still coming in to which the parts person asked for my VIN and verified that it should be in that day). I'm going on 2 and a half months now due to issues with insurance sending the right info to Safelite and then Tesla screwing up the ordering.

 

[dragonxt]

Everyone's results will vary depending on the crack and skill of the repair person. I just had my quarter sized crack repaired today. There was a longer crack radiating out of the center that I was worried about. The repair turned out great. Probably 80-90% less visible. The longer crack was completely sealed. Very glad I tried repair first. Replacing a windshield is never as good as from the factory.

Can you elaborate on "replacing a windshield is never as good as from the factory?"

 

[rlb4]

Can you elaborate on "replacing a windshield is never as good as from the factory?"

I don't have any personal experience with replacing a windshield but have heard that the seals are never as good as from the factory.

 

[magudaman]

I am at the 4 week mark of waiting for my glass with a big crack 3/4s of the way across the windshield. The glass shop says tesla is a absolute nightmare to deal with. They have to go to the service center daily to see if their glass orders are in since tesla will not call them. Then on top of that they said the fastest they can get glass from order to delivery is 4 weeks. I will post an update when I have one,

 

[dragonxt]

I don't have any personal experience with replacing a windshield but have heard that the seals are never as good as from the factory.

Seals either work or they don't. Whatever you heard is likely false.

 

[eddieb3]

UPDATE #2: Well, that didn't take long. Safelite called me back 2 hours after confirming my appt. for Monday of next week and told me that they can't get the glass. Therefore, they canceled my appointment and told me I needed to go directly to Tesla. Not that they can't get the glass in time. They told me they can't get it at all - period.

I know others in the past have said they had Safelite do it. All I can guess is that they are currently having a supply chain problem in obtaining the glass. Just my timing on this. Glad I kept the Tesla appt., but now I have to wait until May 2nd to get it done. In the meantime, I have a 15" crack right in the middle of my line of sight while driving. It couldn't be in a worse spot.

UPDATE #3 All Star Glass, who I believe is a pretty large nationwide outfit, now tells me that they got a quote from Tesla on the parts and have submitted the estimate to my insurance company for approval. Once they get that, they will order the parts.

But they don't have my trust for several reasons. First off, when they left a message, they told me they got a quote for my Tesla S. S? I called them and they said the VIN came up as a Model S (another poster here had that experience). Uh...no. The 3rd character of the VIN is the model. Mine is a 3 and not an S. Verified they had the correct VIN and they did. They said they will investigate. I shortly received a voice mail telling me they have my car as a 3 and did ask for the correct parts. Really?

Second, I was told that their techs were certified to do any calibrations, etc., so any price they give the insurance company will include that. I specifically asked that. Well, they sent me the quote and it has a big disclaimer I would need to sign stating the car requires recalibration and they specifically do NOT do that and I must have that done by someone else.

Third, their quote is $1,372!! And this does not include any recalibration. Tesla quoted me $1,100 in a text because they wanted me to be aware of the price and the fact that I would have to pay that myself and then submit to my insurance company for reimbursement.

I will wait to be informed that the All-Star quote was either accepted or rejected by insurance. Once that happens, I will call my insurance and tell them that Tesla will be doing this and it will be cheaper for them than this 3rd party outfit.

 

[Daniel in SD]

Seals either work or they don't. Whatever you heard is likely false.

Yeah and if they don't work you find out a couple years later when your blower motor rusts out. Ask me how I know
Taking off a windshield is not a risk free process, there are plenty of ways to scratch up the paint and damage the trim.

 

[KingTito]

I don't have any personal experience with replacing a windshield but have heard that the seals are never as good as from the factory.

So far so good with Safelite replacing my M3 windshield with OEM glass. No sound difference. They didn’t scratch anything or scuff anything. I washed it after waiting 3 days. No leaks. Yet.

I actually watched the guy for a few minutes and he was very careful and protected areas of the cars.

This is my 4th windshield replacement on various cars.

Never had a problem. Knock on wood.

 

[jkoya]

So far so good with Safelite replacing my M3 windshield with OEM glass.

Did you have to wait long for Safelite to get the OEM windshield ?