03 MC 20,ooo+,all highway,in9 months
noticed today pitting in the wind screen
soft I guess,so far only early morning
low sun
but it's pitted!!!!!!
anyone?

 

the glass is soft, happens to us all. There is supposidly a harder windshield out now. Here is the link.

 

If you do replace your windshield, I suggest getting the PPG brand of aftermarket glass. It's a lot cheaper than the MINI glass and it is thicker and stronger too!

 

>>If you do replace your windshield, I suggest getting the PPG brand of aftermarket glass. It's a lot cheaper than the MINI glass and it is thicker and stronger too!
>>

Does anyone know if the aftermarkets carry the rainsensor windscreens, or are we still stuck with the MINI windscreen when we need to replace these types? I only have one chip in mine so far- it was caused by a heftly whack that would have cracked any type of glass, so I'm not complaining, yet.
I have been lucky so far.

 

the issue here is that the windsreen is pitted
In one year should a wind screen be pitted
all over when facing the sun!

 

I can offer some first hand experience with this one. Yesterday my wife and I were motoring along on the 215 beltway about 80mph in my 04 MCS when a large rock flew up and hit the windscreen about 4" below the top molding and about the same distance to the drivers right of the rearview mirror. The impact was very hard and loud; scared the wee out of both of us. Needless to say the windscreen was damaged but only with a perfectly symetrical bullseye of about 1-1/2 inches in diameter! I have to take issue with the idea that somehow these are "soft" pieces of glass. Of course there is probably some difference in quality from piece to piece but that is one tough windsceen in my car! A check with a friend that owns a glass shop for a replacement results in the news that the rain sensing windscreen is a "dealer only" part; PPG or other suppliers don't make a replacement part at present. I was quoted $375 installed. While I was there I asked him about the theory that these windscreens are soft, of poor quality or otherwise problematic. He told me that his experience with "German" glass is that it is generally of high quality. He also told me that the MINI winscreens are bonded to the body with a very hard and tough adhesive, in fact harder and tougher than other materials he sees and uses. His theory is that because of this they may be more prone to crack when a torsional (twisting) load that is placed on the car. He seems to think that especially MINI's with the sunroofs might be more prone to this kind of damage because they are less stiff than cars without a sunroof due in part to the large size of the sunroof opening. As an engineer this sounds like a pretty good theory to me. My purpose here is not to start another battle over the windscreen quality issue. However it would be interesting to see what the ratio of sunroof to non-sunroof cars with windscreen problems is, and ask BMW for their response to this idea. Also I'm told that all windscreens are "bonded" to car unibodies these days. The windscreen helps to keep the air bag in front of the driver and passengers where it can do the most good if/when it is deployed. It is actually a part of the car's structure.

As far as pitting of windscreens, here in the desert pitted windshields are pretty common and my friend makes a good living replacing windshields with road damage from blowing sand and gravel. My other cars include a 02 Honda van and an ACURA TL. THe Honda needs a windsheild after 30K miles due to pitting and a small bit of rock damage. The TL is new (04) but my last one, a 2002, got a new windshield about 35K miles because of similiar pitting and damage. It will be interesting to see how my MINI's new windscreen survives in this enviorment.

 

I have had my '03 MCS with sunroof for about six months or so. A couple of months ago I was on the highway going about 60-70 when I got behind a dump truck that was spewing gravel all over the place. Several chunks of gravel that were large enough to see impacted the windshield. My windshield did not crack or even pit.

I guess this is just a note to let people know that not every windshield cracks or pits.

 

I'm in the '04 Windshield club with the dread "stress crack". I went with a PPG replacement the first time. The glass shop asked if I had the rain sensor as there were two part numbers.

Worth asking about, seems PPG may have a sensor flavor.

The glass has good optical quality and is holding up well. :smile:

 

The Sekurit/St. Gobain glass isn't the best quality out there, mainly because it's thin (ie. weight savings). Regarding it being German, not sure if it's made in Germany or France... However, my dad had a 2001 Corvette Z06 which has thinner
windshield glass for 21,000mi and no problems (on the cratered roads of
Detroit). Now granted it was never driven in winter, and only a few times in the
rain...

The steep vertical angle of the glass makes it suceptible to rock impacts,
vs. the more aerodynamic shapes of other glass. Also being close to the
ground doesn't help :-

 

I gathered from past threads that the cracks from the margin were due to torsional stress... yes, I too would like to know if this increases in moonroof equipped models.
In high altitude areas, e.g., Boulder, Colorado, the pitting and cracking increased due to (1) more sand/gravel on roadways due to snow control trucks and especially (2) increased intensity of the sun breaking down the laminate in the safety glass sooner. When I moved from Indiana to Boulder in '93 my friends said to expect to replace the windshield about every 3 years or 30,000 miles.

Sure enough, after that perod the windshield was so micro-pitted that driving into the sun was more than hazardous, and when you look at windshields around the western slope it was interesting to me how many cars have long cracks in the windshield.

 

>>He seems to think that especially MINI's with the sunroofs might be more prone >>to this kind of damage because they are less stiff than cars without a sunroof >>due in part to the large size of the sunroof opening. As an engineer this sounds >>like a pretty good theory to me.

I read somewhere that the Sunroof does not decrease rigidity at all. I will try and find where I read this. I think it was on the MINIUSA site.

 

I for one have the sunroof on my 2002 MCS and never had a stress crack in my (apparently properly installed) windshield. On the other hand, in about 25,000 miles I picked up 5 bullseyes and the glass looked like it was sand blasted. I chalk this up to especially soft OEM glass and heavily sanded New England roads.

I replaced the glass with a PPG aftermarket windshield a couple of weeks ago and so far I'm very happy. No chips, cracks, and it's a clear as the day it was installed. This compaired to my OEM windshield which got a bullseye on the trip home from the dealer.

 

OH BOY, MY FAVORITE TOPIC!
29,000 miles .20 months ,six windshields.I have personally started at least 3 separate threads on this topic,and answered in as many more .For all of you optomists who don't think there's a problem ,do a search on this and other sites for "windshields " and be prepared to do some heavy reading .When I posted "broken windshields,stress cracked and otherwise" I got 189 hits in 24 hours all from people with similar stories .Dugmar and I have the most(actually his sixth is broken ) .This all having been said, I have the first of the "new" windshields,thanks to PK at BMWNA , and after 6 weeks(and several good solid hits from rocks) No Cracks,and that gives me a warm fuzzy feeling all over .I'm glad for all you people who have not had to experience this problem first hand as I and so many others have, but make no mistake,the original glass was crap and maybe now we finally have a solution(Please God).I'll continue to post my experience with this new piece of glass(Geez you people must be as sick of hearing about it from me as I am of posting ) There is another thread "Part # for new windshield " for any interested ( by the way ,how do you make links clickable the way some others have done?) Peace Jock