Noticed this weekend the demise of the "new" widshield.I would definately say that I would fail the dreaded "pin/pen" test at the dealer,as the crack comes from a fairly solid rock hit .The crack is in the drivers side upper corner and forms a perfect 45 degree diagonally from top to side, so it is almost totally inside the black portion of the windscreen,and so tight,I almost missed it.Guess I'll be following up with my complaint to the nat'l trans.safety adv. board,and be looking into ppg replacement.I think I'll post this on NAM for all to see.I've had close to 40 cars in my life ,and in all that time didn't replace, TOTAL, the number of windshields I have replaced in this otherwise delightfull car.This will be my final update on this subject to all who have given me their email addresses and asked to be kept updated,and to the members of the Northamericanmotoring community who have so patiently put up with my rants on this subject. Peace, Jock

 

I think the only solution is to go aftermarket with windshields. I have had great luck with my PPG brand windshield and it seems to be much stronger and does not pit even after huge rocks have hit it.

 

Do PPG make a replacement windscreen for the rain-sensing wipers?

Theo

 

Did I miss something here, holdenontoit said that this "crack comes from a fairly solid rock hit." Plus it isn't even in the normal location for a stress crack which tends to start at the base of the windshield towards the center. This crack is in the "drivers side upper corner."

Unlike most complaints about the windshields this doesn't appear to be something that is MINI's fault or responsiblity, nor does it qualify as an issue for NTSB/NHTSA.

This is a rock strike, not a stress crack... File a claim with your insurance company, not with MINI or the Feds on this one...

 

>>Did I miss something here, holdenontoit said that this "crack comes from a fairly solid rock hit." Plus it isn't even in the normal location for a stress crack which tends to start at the base of the windshield towards the center. This crack is in the "drivers side upper corner."
>>
>>Unlike most complaints about the windshields this doesn't appear to be something that is MINI's fault or responsiblity, nor does it qualify as an issue for NTSB/NHTSA.
>>
>>This is a rock strike, not a stress crack... File a claim with your insurance company, not with MINI or the Feds on this one...
what you have "missed here" is that
despite miniUSA's attempt to produce a better windshield, an impact with ANY road debris results in a pit and most of the time these result in a crack. :evil: I had four honda civics with a combined mileage of over half a million miles.they all got hammered with the same road debris on the same roads I currently drive,and from time to time ,I got a small star burst,BUT NEVER CRACKS!!!!!!!! This coupled with the fact that OEM windshields seem to be costing people between $750 and $900 installed by the dealer leads me to think that we are all being taken for a rather large ride.As if that wasn't enough,the dealers(mine anyway) don't want to play with insurance companies at all, and want me to pay out of pocket and do all the leg work myself.Phillips,Giant and all the rest of the "glass" companies will do all that stuff for you??????And Lastly ,3 out my 6 winshields(Stress cracked!) cracked from the top on down.
I am out close $250 in rental costs alone ,and if you think for one minute I want to consider that a windshield every 3.6 months of ownership is satisfactory,you are gravely mistaken .

 

holdenontoit... If I'm not mistaken, you're a Massachusetts driver, right? So (this coming from a fellow Baystater), why don't you just get your windshields replaced by insurance for free. $0 glass deduction on comprehensive, right?

Pardon if you're one of the folks with the rain-sensing glass (and there's no aftermarket part for that yet)...but otherwise, forget the OEM stuff and/or getting Peabody to install OEM and then waiting for insurance reimbursments. Just go get a PPG and your windshield saga will be over.

BTW, when I had my first windshield replaced by JN Phillips (they have shops statewide) a month or two ago, they at first WANTED to get the OEM glass to install! And would have done so with a direct bill to the insurance company; but I talked them out of it and demanded PPG instead. So, if you're dead set on OEM, you might still try Phillips.

 

Number one, I deaply resent your tone... It's pretty damn close to a personal attack. I understand you are frustrated, but there is no reason to attack me becuase I questioned you.

Number two, I know full well the situation with the stress cracks. But you don't have a stress crack.

I've been nailed by rocks A LOT, in the MINI, in my Subaru, and in my GMC Jimmy's. Sometimes I'm lucky, and have no damage other than a minor pit. I went through two windshields on one of my Jimmy's in 3 months, both cracked, and both did so from rock hits.

If you throw a rock at a piece of glass it will break. Granted the likelyhood of this is significantly less with temepered glass but it will still break. Manufacturer's warrantees are for "defects related to manufacturer processes" i.e. something that the manufacturer could and should control. A rock striking a windshield isn't something that a manufacturer can control. It is considered "an act of god" by your insurance company and should be covered under your comprehensive policy. The two windshields I had replaced were done by my insurance company. They called Safelite, and they handled the glass replacement. My cost $0. Windshield number two mysteriously developed a crack in the center of the window, four months after it was replaced. I called my insurance company and they took car of it.

You are 100% right, the stress cracks are MINI's problem, they need to be doing something and going to them and if need be to the Federal Government at this point over a stress crack is more than justified. The problem is that this particular crack isn't a stress crack, it's a rock strike. Nobody's warrantee cover's rock stricks, not BMW, not Honda, not Ford, not GMC and they never have. It's for that reason that MINI developed the assinine "pen test." Rocks are considered road debris, if a chunk of retread gets kicked up on the road and damages your front bumper and hood, you don't go to MINI for warrantee work... You file a claim with your insurance company. You come up here and tell your tale of woe(because we all do ) and then you call your insurance company but not NHTSA and MINI, why? Because MINI isn't responsible for all the crap on the road and what it can or may do to your car if it hits it...

 

But this is his sixth windshield...its just the last straw for him. The rock breaking his windshield definatly isnt MINIs fault...but Im gonna have the say that the first FIVE were probably pretty crappy windscreens. Im glad that someone is finally going above MINIs head on this. God forbid someone DOES get hit with a good sized rock, and instead of just cracking the windscreen (like what would happen on a regular car) it comes flying thru and hurts someone? I dont EVER want to hear about that, and I hope this problem gets fixed.

Good job Holdenontoit

 

I've got a crack on my windshield. It looks like it has a small dent at the start of the crack, so I assume it was a rock that caused it. I've just call a Mainline Mini and they said that it will cost $425 to replace.

I would like to get a aftermarket replacement and does anyone know if rain-sensor could be re-used? Also, if I decided to get the after market unit, what would happen if rain-sensor is not used (i.e. does intermitten still works?).

Thanks

 

From what I was told (some months ago) there is no aftermarket part with the rain sensor module fitted. I also do not believe it is not possible to remove the module and transfer it. My guess is there is some sort of factory calibration of the sensor to the glass.

If you scrapped the sensor, you would need your car re-programmed so it knew that it did not have the sensor, then it should behave like a non-sensor-from-factory MINI.

 

>>Number one, I deaply resent your tone... It's pretty damn close to a personal attack. I understand you are frustrated, but there is no reason to attack me becuase I questioned you.
>>
>>
I'm sorry if what I wrote sounded like a personal attack.That was not my intention,and as someone pointed out I am raw and bleeding when it comes to this subject.I only wish you could have been in my wifes Saab the other day when her windshield was hit by a BOULDER! You guessed it , a starburst aout the size of a frozen pea,but no crack.The mini's glass would have been in my lap .I can live with the fact of pits ,but when ,days later they result in cracks,that I cannot live with.I work with optics of all kinds, and live, daily, with stress induced failure of glass of all types( http://www.ssginc.com).Once again my sincerest apology. Jock

 

Sorry to here about another crack in your windshield. I read your original posts, and I want you to know that because of those posts I knew what to do when I got my crack the other day, so. I feel you pain with never ending trips to the shop, my rep is getting tired of hearing my voice I know. After one big thing after another it really can wear at your soul. I had the stumble twice, then got hit real hard, then while it was getting fixed my rental car was hit, then someone dented my hood, my Fiancée opened the door in 50mph gusts and it broke the door backwards, and then, the windows were squeaking and then the passenger side handle was install improperly, a stress crack on the windshield now, so who knows what going to happen next
I understand your frustration and good luck with the windshield.

BTW.. DOES ANYBODY know if a strut brace would significantly help with the stress crack problem, thought I might install one, just to be on the safe side when my new windshield gets installed..

 

Honestly I question the logic that these stress cracks are caused by the flexing of the vehicle combined with how much thinner the glass on the MINI is. Same with the pits.

I've got 8,000 (rough estimate there) pits on my windshield, but no cracks. I've taken hits by some sizeable rocks in the MINI and I've only gotten 1 chip as a result. I know people who have dealt with the stress crack and taken rock hits and not had any damage to the windshield.

My theory is that the car itself isn't the issue, there's some flaw in the actual manufacturing process of the windshield. I think either MINI can't figure out where the flaw in the manufacturing of the windshield is, or they can't figure out how to correct it.

 

Hey all (my first post):

I too had a cracked windshield after only one month of taking delivery of a Cooper S here in the Detroit area. That was replaced with a second, but SCRATCHED windshield. The dealer indicated they'd replace it as well...

Going on a MONTH of no returned calls and no replacement. And now with recent pits from driving (amazing how prone the MINI glass is to defect), I'm convinced I'll get a PPG replacement.

My question: anyone have a Detroit-area glass replacement recommendation?

Thanks.

Mike

 

With an '04 at 200 mi. Mr. windscreen cracked a 6 inch treat overnight. Thanks to NAM I went with a PPG replacement not even considering a factory replacement. Cost with insurance dedutible was about $100.

Three weeks later a jacked up wheeler fired a nasty rock straight into the windshield producing a lovely half moon star crack, Grrrr. Took it back to the glass shop they drilled the tip of the star and filled it. Can't even see it down by the wiper line. The repair has held for months and the glass is not pitting.

My concern is the method glass shops use to remove windshields must put stress and strain on A-pillars etc. If they do it over and over it might compromise the structural integrity. This is my theory certainly not a fact. I put up a thread about "PPG club" seems most have great luck with these. :smile:

 

For those of you so concerned about road debris or rocks going right through your windshield, take heart in what happened t o me:

I have a Jan '03 build MCS. Last November I was hit by some MAJOR road debris - 3 or 4 pieces of sharp-edged aluminum roughly 6" long x 3" wide x 1/4" thick - probably ladder treads that had been run over a few times and broken up. I was second in a group of 5 MINIs caravaning up to Irvine; when we moved over a lane to take an exit, a large white delivery truck in front of us kicked up the road debris which went flying into the air. It went up over the first car and struck mine. My windshield was totalled. All the other cars got away without a scratch... Up to this point I had never had a crack in my windshield; lots of pitting, but no cracks. I'd had the car for about 9 months and had about 13,000 miles on her.

We pulled off the freeway as quickly as we could and I called my insurance company while my companions checked out my car for other damage. Fortunately no sheet metal was touched (phew!) but there was a piece of mangled aluminum sticking STRAIGHT OUT of my front bumper! We actually had to yank hard on the thing for it to come out!

Fortunately the points of impact (2 or 3) on the windshield all fell on the passenger side, so I could still see out reasonably well. The windshield had cracks running through the entire thing, and 'bullet hole' type spiderwebbing from the points of impact. I was a bit afraid to drive the car for fear that the glass might just start falling out, but then one of my friends had a good look at it and told me that the interior glass was still intact. Apparently modern windshields are made with two pieces of glass which have a thin membrane between them to help hold them together in accidents such as mine.

Well, after calling around to all the dealers in SoCal to see if they had any in stock (I have rain sensing wipers - and I LOVE them!) none did. I was due to drive to AZ for Thanksgiving in a couple of days, so I checked with MINI North Scottsdale. They had two in stock. Long story short, I drove to PHX a couple days later with the cracked windshield and had no problems whatsoever along the way. Safelite of PHX replaced my glass and it's been fine since.

After that I've determined that while these windshiels may be cr@p for pitting and chips, they're really not terrible for safety. And after all that MINI's done to make the car safe, I really don't think they'd allow use of unsafe glass.

PS My original glass had been hit a number of times by large pebbles and stones without getting any chips. The new (OEM) glass has one small chip and I've had it for about as many miles as I had the original glass. If PPG made glass for the sensing wipers, I'd eventually get one just for the visibility of not having all those pits. But until then, I'm okay with OEM.



_________________
My MINI makes me want to do the happy dance!

 

Alright.

Apparently, PPG windshield glass DOES NOT exist for the Mini Cooper S (2004). This comes from 89 Glass, a huge nationwide glass distributor. Please elaborate on where I might get PPG (numbers, codes, etc.).

All I got (when the glass man came to put in the THIRD windshield) was the same SEKURIT MINI OEM piece.

M

 

I'm quite positive that PPG does have a windshield to fit your MCS

Here is what is written on my PPG windshield. I'm not sure how to decipher it, but I suspect that the last set of numbers is the PPG part number:

PPG
Solex Duplate
Laminated Safety Plate
AS1 4 1
3 1 8
DOT 18 M413
FW2304

 

>>Honestly I question the logic that these stress cracks are caused by the flexing of the vehicle combined with how much thinner the glass on the MINI is. Same with the pits.
____________________-
I strongly believe in the above comment that the thin glass and flexure stresses on the car's body is too much for brittle glass.

BTW, just had my windshield replaced yesterday, after 23.5k miles. NO rock chip, just a stress crack starting from the driver's side A-pillar and going 4 5/8" across overnight while the car was in my garage.

If your car is still under warranty, I'd say there's less than zero chance you can get a PPG glass replaced at no cost to you. IMHO, while under warranty, you're supposed to accept an OEM replacement. I know, I know, I don't like this too.

 

Wow, all I got delivered from the windshield companies here in the Detroit area is a SEKURIT-brand glass (with MINI logo) that they SAY is a PPG brand (with a "Made In Belgium" sticker).

UPDATE: Finally found a place that has PPG as it's own brand. Awaiting install...

M