Rear window has a big CRACK in it!

[timk225]

My 3 is an early production April '18 build. Never had a problem with the windows until today. For a couple weeks, I've heard a glass cracky sound from the rear of the car. I thought it was maybe the cold weather, but if glass isn't moving, how is it making noise? This is the car's 4th PA winter with temps getting down to 0 degrees sometimes.

I was on my way home this morning, and for the first time I noticed the crack line in the rear view mirror. When I got home, I checked, and yep, it's cracked, all right. All in the area of the rear defogger heating elements. I wonder what caused it. Body flex? Driving through a car wash with the rear heat on or was recently on? Something else?

Anyway, here's a picture of the crack (made roughly in a red line in Microsoft Paint). I hope the insurance covers this!

I've never done anything special to the windows, no coatings or tinting or anything. No jacking the car up on one side. No unusual (for me) rough road driving lately.

Is there a recall for this sort of thing?

 

[medphys3]

The cold weather updates seem to be doing odd/new things.

In the app, when preheating the car, it now shows that the rear defroster is on and the window is definitely warm to the touch. I don’t remember it being this way last winter. If you are like me, I rarely (if ever) use my rear defroster. I wonder if the heating/cooling of the window is causing issue on some cars?

 

[Gauss Guzzler]

There's nothing you can do to either cause or prevent this. Either a local barfight spilled out onto your car or the glass just had a defect.
Tesla will often cover weird cracks like this under warranty if there are no signs of impact. Out of warranty they might be kind enough to cover it under goodwill. Otherwise it's a pretty expensive repair at ~$1500.

 

[Jeremy3292]

Comprehensive auto insurance will cover it no problem.

 

[daniloreyes]

Was this taken to tesla and they covered or you just went to your insurance?

 

[Vines]

Any damage to the inside of the glass on the glued on wire heating elements themselves for the defroster? I wonder if this was a thermal stress issue, if the crack propagated from the middle and nowhere at the edges.

 

[timk225]

I never got the glass changed. It's still on the car. The crack didn't get any worse and I see no signs of water leaks / fogging inside the window, so I've driven it for nearly a year now with the outer layer cracked. I had taken it by the Tesla service center when it first happened, and they said they found a rock chip at the bottom center, so maybe that is what caused it.

 

[daniloreyes]

Oh dear...