Last April my wife picked up a 2010 S convertible with about 8K on it. The car was flawless except for thousands of tiny ( 1/8 inch) imperfections across the entire windshield. When I first saw them I thought I'd just use some Zaino glass polish, etc. to get rid of them. That had no effect and as near as I can tell, the marks were "inside" of the glass (not on the interior side)
I showed it to MINI and they replaced the glass under warranty. Well, it's back again. Driving into the sun is actually dangerous. Her car, like all of our others, is garage-kept and incredibly detailed all of the time. (it is re-detailed every time it leaves the garage)
I'll show it to MINI again, but I thought I'd first run it by the forum.

 

anyway we can get some pictures of it ?? my girlfriend had a weird case on her windshield with her 335i but it was some random rare thing that happened (claimed by the dealership) ... end result it had to be replaced but dealership took care of it.

 

Do you mean it looks like sandblasting?

 

Never heard of this. All my imperfections are on the outer surface because of the steep angle of the windshield.

 

Thats what Im thinking. The Mini windscreen has a very vertical position which makes it very easy to get little rock ****** in it.

 

Not much you can do about it sadly. You can try to use Silicone spray on the windshield which sort of gives it an "optical illusion" that they are gone but the first rain or wash will make them reappear.

The only other thing I can think of is to replace your windshield and see if there are any (legal) coatings to put on the windshield to make it less "brittle" to those small imperfections that look like sandblasting.

 

The OP stated the flaws appear to be actually inside the glass; that is, not on either surface. If that's truly the case, surface treatments probably won't help.

I agree though, this is a strange one. I've never seen auto glass with this particular issue.

Cheers,

Spridget

 

Never heard of this. Did the new unit have the imperfections from the get go? From your description I'd guess it was/is a manufacturing problem rather than acquired from the environment. Unless you use some weird substance on it I think you have to take it back. The little dings we all get are obvious and rarely distracting while driving. Keep us posted.

 

Question for O/P: when you say that the imperfections are inside the glass but not on the interior surface, you mean the actual surface of the glass is still smooth inside and out, but it looks like it has bubbles?

 

This is weird since the OP stated that the dealership replaced the windshield and NOW it's back doing the same thing. I was going to suggest it may have been a batch of bad window but what would the chances be of a dealer getting ahold of one. ????
Very strange and have never heard of this before. It would be nice to be able to see what the OP is referring to. I doubt a picture will show us much.

 

A pic really doesn't capture the flaws.
It's not at all on the surface. This will sound really ****, but we seldom drive close to other cars. (the Mini has 15K miles and zero chips and the ZO6 has 31K miles with one tiny chip) The massive flawing is BETWEEN the inside and outside surfaces and almost looks like a delamination of sorts.
I do you RainX a lot, but I've never heard about that being an issue.
Oh well, 8AM tomorrow we'll be at the dealer for something else and I'll ask about this.

 

I have the same thing on my 2010 MCSc that I just bought with about 18,000 miles. I assumed it was blasted but the paint isn't chipped, so I was at a loss for an explanation. I'm curious what your dealer says.

 

Today my dealer suggested that I had embedded lint into the glass via RainX. (hard to keep a straight face when he suggested that) It was a rainy day and he didn't get a good look at what we have. In the sun it is unmistakable. I'll bring it back there on a bright, sunny day for him to see again.

 

Kinda curious about this... do you use a liquid de-icer on your windshield?
The reason I ask is because my place of employment has banned the use of the stuff because repeated use seem to cause something very similar to what you are describing to our fleet.

 

I'm also curious about this. My windshield has all kinds of little marks in it but I know it's from driving for 65k miles. I've thought about replacing the windshield when it gets to 100k, but I've never heard of anyone talk about windshield issues. It's one of those components that has been engineered to almost perfection. I'm actually surprised they can get them looking as good as they do. Keep us updated.

 

I think I know what the dealer is talking about. Once, I cleaned my windshield and treated it using the type wrong cloth. What I got was nice looking glass until I drove into the sun. It almost blinded me. I think it was lint.

Try this: clay bar the windshield, then use a glass specific "lint free" cloth and clean the windshield. If this does not solve the problem, at least you can eliminate it as an excuse for the dealer.

Good luck and keep us informed.

 

I've also read that you can use lighter fluid or soft scrub to remove all rain-x. You might try that on a small spot and see if it helps.

 

Claybar is a good idea. It can't hurt. Pretty interesting case. (I know, nobody wants to be an interesting case ) The fact that it happened again to a new piece goes in favor of some chemical used by the owner (again). I assume the used car windshield was OK, but became flawed after using the chemical and cloth.

 

Sorry to resurrect an old thread. My wife just picked up a 2013 MINI S a month or so ago. We have had the same issue since day one. We plan to call the dealer this weekend. Did anyone ever get this diagnosed?

Thanks!