Last night when I came home I turned into my driveway and heard this God awful grinding and crunching sound coming from underneath Bu. I got out and visually inspected Bu from bonnet to boot. I decided to go for a short test drive and the noise wasn't as bad but it was still there. I got out again and checked around some more and noticed an inside wheel weight was missing. I believe Bu slung a weight and it got lodged between one of his dust shrouds and rotors, made a bunch of noise then eventually worked itself loose. I'm hoping that is what happened because the noise has gone away and all seemed normal again. Then, today when we were driving home, Bu sustained a slight injury. He was assaulted by either a Nissan Altima or a Chevy P/U. One of them threw a rock and hit him in his windscreen leaving a nasty little dime sized chip :( I just filed a claim with State Farm and they have scheduled Safelite Autoglass to come in tomorrow and perform reconstructive surgery. Hopefully by tomorrow Bu will be back to normal wagging his tailpipes.
BTW, has anybody had chip repair done on a vehicle? Is the work satisfactory? It's $50.00 for repair vs. 250.00 deductible for a replacement.

 

Thought I needed a chip repair a couple of weeks ago, however it was too small in size to require fixing... I have Progressive and they do not charge for the repair you describe.

 

Yea State Farm is a bit disappointing with their glass coverage. I might be doing some shopping since the last 2 claims (the only 2 claims) I've had in 16 years have left me disappointed. They let me down on my homeowners policy and now the auto policy. I've heard that most ins companies do glass repairs for free.

 

You can get a chip repair for $10 most places around here, I wouldnt pay 50!

 

[begin rant]

You've touched my latest hot button! Don't get me wrong, I love SJ and the MINI experience but I'm getting really tired of all the windshield chips! I've had more windshield chips in the 5 months with SJ than all of the other vehicles I've owned combined. I'm beginning to think they installed the StoneAttraction package when I wasn't looking. I had the windscreen replace a couple of weeks after I purchase SJ (factory defect no rocks), the day after I got her back, I got a chip from a stupid pickup towing a trailer within the first 8 minutes of my morning commute and now I've picked up TWO more chips this week from somewhere .

[/end rant]

I had the first chip replaced by SafeLite and payed for it out of pocket. They did a great job, took about 30 minutes and it cost me ~ $ 110.00. I haven't decided if I'm going to get the latest two fixed or wait for a couple more and hit GEICO for a windscreen replacement.

Opinions from the wild are welcome. Does anyone know of a seperate or add-on plan just to cover windshield repair/replacements (I don't want to open a corporate account with Safelite!)?

 

Check out this link for a DIY on fixing chips

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...neguy-diy.html

 

Wow, I didn't even know that such things existed! I'll give it a try, thanks again

 

With the money we saved by switching over to a Mini Cooper, we dropped our comp. coverage down to a $0 deductible.

We have an 03 MCS and looking at the warranty work from the dealer, we noticed there have been 3 windshield replacements (from Mini) on our 03. 1 at 16,000 miles, the next at 26,000 miles, then the last one that was done at the Mini dealership was at 48,000 miles. It now has 94K on it. I bet it was replaced a few times after that 48K mark, maybe not at the dealership though.

Does any other company make glass for the Minis? Maybe we shouldn't buy OEM if it is that cheaply made and breaks all the time.

And, yes...Most places don't charge for a windshield chip. We have State Farm and didn't realize they do. Good thing we have a $0 deductible.

 

Its not really cheap glass, its that the class is very flat, and very vertical. Providing little angle for deflection compared to most other cars.

 

I repaired a crack and a chip with Autozone stuff and all is well. The crack is visible from the inside but has not spread in 2 years. The chip was in the corner and is nearly invisible now. I have no plans on replacing the windshield.

I have heard that PPG glass is much harder than OEM glass.

 

Yes, I too have a $0 deductible on my comprehensive, for which windshield repairs fall under. The last chip repair I had, the insurance company paid $75 to Safelite. The nice thing about them is they offer a lifetime warranty on their parts You pay once for a new windshield; that's it. And Safelite is national, so you should be able to find a location in every state.

OctaneGuy, thanks for the recommendation on the DIY.

 

Just changed my comp deductible to $50.00. It only cost me an extra $8.00 every 6 months. Safelite just did the repair. If I wouldn't have filed a claim it woulda cost $150.00 for the repair. However, they said satisfaction guaranteed and they are a long way off from satisfaction. The chip turned into a crack while he was doing the repair. It is more visible now that he has finished. Safelite did NOT get paid this morning. Told them to come back with a new windscreen and I'll bite the bullet and pay the $250 deductible. The commercials that show a before and after are very misleading.