Anyone ever heard of a windshield cracking after 3 days of driving? I picked up my 530xi with 4 miles on it at the dealership last week and the windshield developed a crack about 6 inches up on the drivers side. The 4" initial crack went horizontally from the under the left moulding and then grew day by day vertically to 10". I should add that the night it cracked the temp was @ 10 degrees F.

The dealership replaced the windshield today but I'm wondering if it was just a bad piece of glass or couls something be structurally wrong with my car. Any insite?

 

Not heard of this before!

The front window is a carbody carring part in modern cars, so if I where you, I would be really
interested in what have happended to the car whilest shipping.

This could be a mark of that the aluminum bolt-in-front-frame is not assembled correctly,
but if this would be the fact, it would be a major problem for the E60 x-cars.

It could also be a mishap of some kind, the windows have a lot of tension built within them.

What ever happens, make the retailer do a written certificate of what have happened.

Do you have a leased car or did you buy it?

 

Leased

 

There have been many many posts about the quality of BMW glass. First off, there have been reports on this forum concerning stress fractures. This is when the windshield cracks without having anything hit it. Lot's of reports about this. Next, many cases of rocks hitting the windshield causing pin holes which later develop into cracks.

I had a small pebble hit my windshiled not long after I got it causing a pinhole, I was able to get the dealer to change it although they are very clear in that if they see the damage was caused by something hitting it , you are on your own for replacement. Do a search and lots of posts will come up

 

That sounds like it might be a stres sfarcture. This happened to me after about 2 week sof ownership. Crack started under moulding on left side. it was about 6" long. Dealer looked at it and agreed to repalce it.

Good luck

 

Have you had any problems with the replacement?

 

This feels like there is a bad windscreen sub-contractor within the BMW factory.

The windshield should not break nor crack that easily.

That rocks hit the window and that they later develop into cracks is a quite
common known feature in these days.

The problem is that the front window should be as light as possible, it should also be
as safe as possible and it should also be a part of the chassis stiffness.

That's a complex equation.

 

I had my car one day, was on the parkway, something hit the windshield and BAM, a little chip appeared. It hasn't got any bigger, so I haven't done anything with it.

 

Have you had any problems with the replacement?
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No problems with the replacement (knock on wood). I have had it now for almost 10 months.

 

sounds structural to me