Windshield Stressed From Factory??

[beeeerock]

I live in the land of road bullets. Rock chips are a way of life and I expect to get them. However, my windshield is showing the most damage of any rock strike I've experienced in any of my previous cars. To be honest, I don't even know that I heard the hit when it happened... there was a day that I though I might have picked up a minor chip on the passenger side of the glass (heard a 'tick', not a 'SMACK!'), but an examination showed nothing. Then this happened about two weeks later:

I've traced over the cracks in red and put a blob where I found this (the marks near it are smears from me trying to clean the area for the photo). My forefinger is actually on the glass, to give an idea of how small the mark is:

I have to assume it was a rock hit, but it's the smallest one I've ever had that turned into a crack. And the crack goes all the way to the edge of the windscreen.

I assume I'll be getting my insurer to replace it under my comprehensive policy. However, when I spoke to Tesla about how to get the glass, who to use etc., a comment was made about how there had been windshield stress issues earlier in production but mine 'should be past that'.

That got me thinking... is there still a problem? Should this be Tesla's replacement or my insurer's?

If this is any indication of what to expect in the future, my insurer is going to disown me, because this damage would never have triggered a crack let alone a windshield replacement in any of my previous M-B, VW, Volvo's etc. At this rate I'll be doing a dozen windshields every winter.

I don't want to try sticking it to Tesla if this is simply bad luck. But I don't think my insurer should be paying for it if there is a Tesla issue here.

Thoughts?

 

[FlasherZ]

Early Model S windshields had known stress points on the right side, about 1/3 the way up the windshield to the edge of the right side. If your windshield cracked from there, and there was no evidence of a rock chip, then Tesla will replace it. Because you have an impact mark, it's likely that your insurer will have to cover it.

(For what it's worth, it's not the size of the impact but the way it hits. A very sharp, pointed rock at a high speed of impact will generate a crack every single time because tempered glass is always under stress.

 

[mknox]

(For what it's worth, it's not the size of the impact but the way it hits. A very sharp, pointed rock at a high speed of impact will generate a crack every single time because tempered glass is always under stress.

Like this:

 

[FlasherZ]

I've seen that one before - and in the second part (linked from the end of the video you posted) he attacks a windshield with a piece of it and it creates a spider.

 

[mknox]

When my car was new, I was driving to work when the tiniest grain of sand hit the windshield and made an almost inaudible "tick" as it hit. Sure enough, I ended up with a 1" or so crack right then and there. I was very surprised because I had been blasted with much larger stuff on previous cars with no trouble at all. (Maybe it was a piece of broken spark plug!). I had a local auto glass shop do their repair where they force some goo into the crack. It's held for two years and there is just the tiniest spot that looks like a water droplet when the sun hits it right. You can't see the crack at all.

 

[AmpedRealtor]

Meanwhile, I've been hit by two marble-sized stones at freeway speed that went *bang* so loudly they made me duck. Not so much as a mark on the glass.

 

[beeeerock]

Early Model S windshields had known stress points on the right side, about 1/3 the way up the windshield to the edge of the right side. If your windshield cracked from there, and there was no evidence of a rock chip, then Tesla will replace it. Because you have an impact mark, it's likely that your insurer will have to cover it.

(For what it's worth, it's not the size of the impact but the way it hits. A very sharp, pointed rock at a high speed of impact will generate a crack every single time because tempered glass is always under stress.

Good to know the typical location - that's not where mine is.

We seem to have our highways and streets 'sanded' with 3/4" minus crush gravel... with the odd bigger nugget that somehow escapes the screen. I don't think I've ever made it through a winter without at least one new divot in the glass - even as big in diameter as a nickel or a quarter. Even the ones that eventually cracked, never ran more than six or eight inches. When the glass was sandblasted enough to justify a replacement, I'd use the next rock hit to make the windshield claim.

But as I said, other than what appears to be damage, I never saw or heard the strike... unless it was delayed by two weeks. We heard the crack itself open up, while on the highway, without another car in sight (so unless ravens are crapping stones...).

I don't really have an issue with making the claim (other than the bother), but if the glass breaks this easily I'm not looking forward to the winter.

- - - Updated - - -

Meanwhile, I've been hit by two marble-sized stones at freeway speed that went *bang* so loudly they made me duck. Not so much as a mark on the glass.

So I'll hope that my experience was an isolated one! You would assume 'glass is glass', but it seems there is a significant range in quality based on my experiences.

 

[mspohr]

While washing my Land Rover on a sunny day, all of a sudden a crack appeared all across the top part of the windshield. I took it to the dealer (under warranty) and the guy found a minuscule chip in the center of the crack and said "not our problem".
I've had lots of small chips which grow into big cracks over time... that just the way it goes. I seems to have to replace the LR windshield every year or two.

 

[mobe]

I have a friend with a Land Rover. The windshield glass that they use is very easy to crack. She goes through one about every year and they are hella expensive.

 

[mspohr]

I have a friend with a Land Rover. The windshield glass that they use is very easy to crack. She goes through one about every year and they are hella expensive.

The front windshield has hundreds of very thin wires embedded in it which are used as a front windshield defroster. This works great, clearing the window of ice, snow, frost, etc within a few minutes. This may may the windshield more fragile.
The last time I had it replaced, the windshield cost was $646 and labor of $101.

 

[lagann]

Before my Model S I had never gotten any damage on my windshield. Within the first 4 months of owning my S I had already gotten 3 chips in the windshield. It seems to just collect damage, and you're almost guaranteed to have a new one every time you go on a long trip.

 

[beeeerock]

Before my Model S I had never gotten any damage on my windshield. Within the first 4 months of owning my S I had already gotten 3 chips in the windshield. It seems to just collect damage, and you're almost guaranteed to have a new one every time you go on a long trip.

Well, as they say, excrement happens, so I'll just have to get it replaced. But I take it as a personal insult that this windshield has been written off, within the first 4,000 km, in the summer no less. I've always taken pride in avoiding this sort of damage by thinking ahead, keeping distances and avoiding the avoidable circumstances. I replaced the windshield on my Benz with several chips and a minor crack - had to do so to sell it. All that after 120,000 km of Canadian driving, winter and summer. It took a real beating and it was the sandblasting marks in the sun that were the only real safety issue.

I guess I'll learn this winter whether I was simply unlucky or the Tesla glass is more susceptible than typical.

Thanks for all the comments!

 

[trils0n]

I've heard cars with highly sloped windshields, like the Model S, are more susceptible to this type of damage.

 

[mspohr]

I've heard cars with highly sloped windshields, like the Model S, are more susceptible to this type of damage.

... as well as cars with highly vertical windshields like my Land Rover.

 

[waltoninn]

The front windshield has hundreds of very thin wires embedded in it which are used as a front windshield defroster. This works great, clearing the window of ice, snow, frost, etc within a few minutes. This may may the windshield more fragile.
The last time I had it replaced, the windshield cost was $646 and labor of $101.

I believe this is the problem. I have almost the same condition as the original poster. And when I asked Tesla to cover the windshield under warranty, they would not. I believe that when the glass expands and contracts when exposed to extreme temperatures, as I experienced with my car where the temperatures were in the single digits and my car was parked in a detached garage, and I drove early in the morning on a local road where I saw nothing hit the windshield, then parked in an indoor garage that is heated, parked it for the day, and when I came back late afternoon, the crack was there.

It is highly probable that a fragment of glass can be "pushed" out, as the glass is stressed from change in temperatures, and cracks, with the so called 'divot' that results, and not due to a physical impact. Plus, yours, like mine, is too low to have likely been from a rock or stone or other air borne object.

I had a Mercedes Benz E350 wagon with sbout 75,000 miles on it, where there was a rock chip from the highway, and that didn't result in a subsequent vertical and then horizontal crack, as has happened with the Tesla.

I am very disappointed with Tesla, and as I related to the Ranger Service Representative that came to look at it, I will not be buying another Tesla (I would have eventually bought a Model X).

 

[mspohr]

I believe this is the problem. I have almost the same condition as the original poster. And when I asked Tesla to cover the windshield under warranty, they would not. I believe that when the glass expands and contracts when exposed to extreme temperatures, as I experienced with my car where the temperatures were in the single digits and my car was parked in a detached garage, and I drove early in the morning on a local road where I saw nothing hit the windshield, then parked in an indoor garage that is heated, parked it for the day, and when I came back late afternoon, the crack was there.

It is highly probable that a fragment of glass can be "pushed" out, as the glass is stressed from change in temperatures, and cracks, with the so called 'divot' that results, and not due to a physical impact. Plus, yours, like mine, is too low to have likely been from a rock or stone or other air borne object.

I had a Mercedes Benz E350 wagon with sbout 75,000 miles on it, where there was a rock chip from the highway, and that didn't result in a subsequent vertical and then horizontal crack, as has happened with the Tesla.

I am very disappointed with Tesla, and as I related to the Ranger Service Representative that came to look at it, I will not be buying another Tesla (I would have eventually bought a Model X).

Windshields get rock chips and then crack (sometimes much later) all the time. No manufacturer covers glass. Your auto insurance does.

 

[Gizmotoy]

Mine (apparently) got hit in the weak spot where early cars were having stress fracture issues. There was no visible crack source. You could only find the source using a sharpened pencil. Tiny pinpoint thing. I didn't even know anything happened and the next morning had a couple 2 foot long cracks.

So it seems like it doesn't take much if it gets hit just right, and in the right spot.

 

[waltoninn]

Mine (apparently) got hit in the weak spot where early cars were having stress fracture issues. There was no visible crack source. You could only find the source using a sharpened pencil. Tiny pinpoint thing. I didn't even know anything happened and the next morning had a couple 2 foot long cracks.

So it seems like it doesn't take much if it gets hit just right, and in the right spot.

"(apparently)" is exactly right. Like mine, yours probably wasn't subjected to any air borne object, other than cold air molecules. I believe that these windshields are cracking as a result of the thin strands of wire that run through them as part of the heating of the windshield. This should be a warranty item covered by Tesla until a more durable windshield is engineered or manufactured.

 

[mspohr]

"(apparently)" is exactly right. Like mine, yours probably wasn't subjected to any air borne object, other than cold air molecules. I believe that these windshields are cracking as a result of the thin strands of wire that run through them as part of the heating of the windshield. This should be a warranty item covered by Tesla until a more durable windshield is engineered or manufactured.

My post was referring to my Land Rover windshield (see earlier post) which has wires. Tesla windshields don't have wires.

 

[waltoninn]

My post was referring to my Land Rover windshield (see earlier post) which has wires. Tesla windshields don't have wires.

I have the cold weather package with the heated wires for the wipers.