Spontaneous side window breakage...?
 

My near side front window outer skin (of double glazing) spontaneously cracked yesterday. No noise, no sudden jolt. It's spidered out from the front 'bung' (for want of a better word) at the front corner near the mirror. See photo. I'm sure someone else on here has experience this before? Looks like I'm going to our sponsors for a new window. And some door card clips...:(

Zip

Must be the heat, my front windscreen cracked for no reason as well last week :(

Most likely the heat. The glass is being heated all day long then you jump in and blast the aircon on your face and windows which cools the glass quicker than it ever would naturally. The glass is fighting against two extremes and something has to give eventually under those circumstances.

Same goes for you. There may have already been a small chip which you didn't notice and the heat and cooling has caused the crack.

Wow I've never seen that before :Confused:
I would guess perhaps the heat may have caused differential expansion and its just gone pop at the holding pin there, but very odd indeed!

I'm on my 2nd windscreen in as many months (one on each car!)

About £1k down as a result as don't trust the insurance approved lot :-(

So it's one of these things I have thought about often in the past few months, suppose you live in the Canaries / North Africa. These cars are tested to survive the environment there, as well as waaaay up north, such as Glasgow or Reykjavík. There are regional specific parts to every car, but the basics of the car should survive between the extremes.

So in theory, I agree the extreme heat might be causing problems, but it doesn't sit right....

Only windscreen I ever had spontaneously crack was in a cabriolet while in a back road blast with a motorbike, went round one corner and hit an odd bump in the road, which caused the car to bounce strangely, like during a left turn the car essentially bounced 2ft to the right (at last that's how it felt). Didn't notice the fracture in the bottom corner of the windscreen until I got back out.

You know you can get it replaced by dealer on insurance. They don't like to do it but you can argue your case and eventually you can reach compromise. I had it replaced at Audi dealer about 3 years ago on 15 year old A6 on insurance. They did not want to do it and said they only do genuine replacements for cars less than 3 years old but at the end they gave in and we reached compromise that they will pay for dealer to replace with genuine windscreen but I had to pay £100 excess instead of regular £75. +++

No such luck on S8 as only have 3rd party F&T insurance that does not cover windscreen so will need pay for it out of my own pocket.:(
I did replace windscreen about 8 years ago myself and was very lucky to get new genuine screen on e-bay for £40 + £10 for adhesive. Now the only one on e-bay is £699, dealer price £436. Aftermarket replacement cheapest I have found for now is £268 fitted. 8 years ago cheapest quote for aftermarket was £140 delivered only or £170 fitted.

I am sure they are tested and only small amount fail due to extreme weather. Also if you have large variations regularly car might get 'used to it' and less likely to fail.

There's 2 issues as far as I'm concerned - the dire quality of typical non-OEM glass (Guardian et al) and the person fitting it. Main dealers don't fit windscreens - they just sub it out to Autoglass etc, most of whom can't retain staff long term.

I asked around and got a couple of recommendations and decided I'd rather cough up and know it's been done right, than go through the aggro I had with our C5 A6 years ago. My insurer charges £95 excess for windscreen and if you insist on going your own way they either count it as a fault claim to knock your no claims, or pay a nominal £50 contribution to the cost.

Golf screen took 2.5 hours to fit. S5 nearer 3.5 as it didn't want to come out. For the £100 labour cost I don't think those rates are too bad.

You are right about dealers not replacing windscreens but at least you get OEM glass and hopefully they use a good fitter. Mine was fitted by Corby Windscreens who has decent reputation at dealer premises.

It does not matter what your insurer says or wants, it's your car and your choice who you choose to do the the repair. If the insurer covers that kind of repair they need to pay pay for it regardless of who does he repair as long as costs are reasonable. What is reasonable is open to interpretation but generally it should be OK as long as charges are genuine and not some made up scam. There have been several lawsuits with insurance companies about costs where insurance companies lost. One of the recent big ones was where 3rd party claims management company was used and they charged their share on top of repair costs. Insurers refused to pay management fees only paid for actual repair but court ruled that charges were reasonable and ordered them to pay up.

Even if you paid for windscreens yourself you can still claim it back from insurance. If they refuse to pay there is MIB to complain about your insurer or even small claims court. I have done couple of claims to MIB on behalf of my friends and they always ruled in favour of us instead of insurance company.

But you are right that you could loose your NCB depending on your insurance company and whether you have protected NCB or not, that's why agreed to pay a bit more excess than normal for windscreen replacement.