Driving to work this morning at 7AM in my Insight which is less than 4 weeks old - no traffic directly in front and bang a crack appears in my windscreen http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3343499/IMG_1030.JPG
I pulled over straight away and rang Honda Assistance who put me through to a window company who told me that it wasnt safe or legal to drive and I should call back Honda Assistance for a tow. Called Honda back and they weren't prepared to do this until I'd spoken to a 2nd glass company they put me through to. They said because its a multi layer laminate it was safe enough but leave it up to me to judge whether its legal? They did say from my description because it seemed to start from the edge of the screen it may be a warranty issue and to check it out at the dealership - it may be down to a manufacturing defect as the car is so new. As I was in the middle of no where, I took the risk to drive back home and ring my dealership for advice. They needed to see the damage and then would forward the case to Honda UK for judgement it wouldn't be their decision. They are a 120 mile round trip away, so went to the local dealer instead to it have it looked at (I didnt buy it there due to past issues) they took a look and dug at the edge of the crack with his pen which began right at the black edge of the screen, there was a tiny (maybe the size of a few grains of sand) chip and that with any surface damage whatsoever Honda won't entertain it and there was no point trying. This leaves me having to go through Insurance and its getting fixed tomorrow (apparently no local companies stock this unusual cars screen!)
It just leave me wondering how fragile/safe the screens are, I've never had any windscreen issues with any of my previous 7 cars and have driven through road works having lose chippings thrown up by lorries and gritting lorries throwing road salt at me when following them during the winter and never had a chip or a crack. My new car has seemingly been defeated by something smaller than a bug and will it ever be as creak free once a non-factory fitted screen is in I wonder?
That looks safe to drive. In the US you would not pass a state inspection, its the baseball spider web cracks you got to be careful of. I am thinking it wasnt seated properly near the bottom. The scion xb had a severe issue as well since the square vehicles flex a lot and were prone to cracking windshields.
I have had chips, bullzeyes and small cracks on all my cars from the crap that is down on I95 and infact keep a windshield chip repair kit in my car for that reason. I have yet to use it for the Inisght and I have paint damage on the hood and roof from rocks.
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Enginer 4 kilowatt PHEV, 3000k 35 watt fogs, Eco bulb highs, 4300k 35 watt low all w/relay kits, DRLs/Rear Wiper removed&rear interior gutted, Sony HU W/front speakers, Tanabe nf springs, 35% tint all around, all LED lamp replacement, 09 fit progress rear sway bar, OEM block heater, full gril block, KN Filter, Honda vent visiors, group 51 battery, home made balancer/grid charger Best/Worse MPG 96/36
On a side note... I drive about 72 miles or more everyday back and forth to work. I have averaged replacing a windshield a year in my cars due to all of the driving.
Perhaps I have just been lucky so far with my other cars - I've seen things hit my windscreens in the past but they've just skimmed off with no damage, guess it was just my turn today. Does seem pretty hard to believe it didn't happen during manufacture but if the dealer isn't prepared to forward my case to Honda based on their experience in the past it seemed futile to push the issue as I needed to get the ball rolling with my insurance. Im only having to pay an insurance excess of £70 so its not the end of the world, it just takes the shine off my new car experience a little - other than that I'm loving the car so far
The mobile windscreen people who the insurance company use have visited work today and replaced the screen, they called me back out the office saying they were finished, to be honest it had a windscreen in the right place so I signed the form saying they had done the work.
It wasn't until this point that one of the fitters noticed that the plastic shroud that runs along the base of the screen had popped up and wasn't fitting flush. After this he spent about 30 minutes keep removing the shroud putting the black sealant stuff along the base of the screen and pushing and banging on the plastic but he couldn't get it to stay down. Where the two wipers meet and there is corner in the plastic you can get your finger between the screen and the plastic. They couldn't do anything else and have gone away to see if they can get some different pegs to the ones which came from Honda in the Honda part incase these will hold it down better and will contact me next week.
Would anyone be good enough to go outside and check whether this plastic piece does usually fit flush against the screen or whether there was always a 1/2 cm gap between it and the screen - its not something I'd ever noticed before and I would assume its not right as surely any rain water would run down the screen and into the engine bay. I've driven the car and am sure the whole thing is creaking but maybe I'm being paranoid now. I'm sorry I can't post a photo of exactly what I mean as I'm not at home so can't sync my phone
Graeme, I just had a look at my car, and there is NO gap between the glass and the black plastic piece just below the wiper blades. If there is a gap there, something does not fit.
Graeme, I just had a look at my car, and there is NO gap between the glass and the black plastic piece just below the wiper blades. If there is a gap there, something does not fit.
Thanks for checking for me. Not the answer I wanted to hear really as I now have to go down the route of complaining if they're not able to get it right. Im still not convinced their solution of putting longer plugs on the plastic part will help it fit, if I had to guess I'd say the base of the windscreen is too low - he did mention you have to bend the bottom mounting brackets to get the old screen out. Its not the end of the world I guess (as long as water ingress doesn't get into somewhere it shouldn't now) and hopefully it will get sorted as the piece of paper I signed in good faith has on it that if for any reason the insurance doesn't pay up I guarantee to cover the costs of all works personally so I don't want to complain to my insurance company. Again thanks for checking
Wow thanks for that - talk about a personal service, that was good of you to go to that effort. Well I already had the windscreen changed via insurance so I can't check whether there was any unusual stress at that point though the guy who swapped it out did say that the tiny mark on it was enough to crack it due to the general stress up the edge of any screen regardless of stress from poor fitting - I get what you're saying about the usual places of stress where its bent for fitting seem just to be in the corner - an excellent visual demonstration with the image changing - just wish I could go back and try it with my broken screen.
Anyway as you might have read I've got a finger size gap all along the base of the screen which one of the guys returned to try and rectify by ordering longer securing pegs to try and squeeze the plastic panel against the screen. Well it didn't work and they have now said the base of the screen is too low (which is kinda what I thought all along) They are saying that this is because the metal brackets which the base of the screen rests on are quite thin and the weight must have dropped the whole lot down. So, the whole screen is coming out again (presumably to bend these brackets up a bit) and because the screen is "likely to shatter" when they do this, it has to go back to the local depot for the work so that if it does shatter the boss will take the responsibility and he can only blame himself. So when he rang me to say they'd come and collect my car from work this Wednesday and deliver it back to work by the end of the day, I had to say I wasn't happy. Although he said they're fully insured, I'm sure you'll all appreciate I don't really want anyone apart from me or my GF driving my relatively new car across the city, especially when I can virtually guarantee they've never driven a hybrid before - I just have visions of them driving WOT all the way there So I'm dropping it off for them to do the work - I'd rather lose the time off work. I'm glad they're doing there best to sort it - this will be their 3rd attempt, its just annoying how one tiny little crack ends up taking so long to sort out. Having said that I'm glad they are sorting, it out I'm a little disappointed with the workmanship - not only did they leave big lumps of the black tarry stuff they stick the screen in on my wings, bonnet and the grille (and I didn't notice till days later with it being a black car so its a nightmare to remove) but there are now deep scratches on the wipers all the way down to the metal where they've obviously slipped off with their adjustable wrench when removing the nut and then when he's put the big wiper back on its too far up the screen so when I've used them its come right over the frame at the top. I think it'll be quite simple to remove them and reposition it properly I just worry taking bits off my car myself! Again as this sounds like a moany post I again want to say the car is excellent, 1800 miles in 5 weeks 56 UK MPG actual, and a very relaxing commute to work now
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How Fragile Are The Windscreens(shields)
