We went through three windshields on our first Mini.

The Mini is the only car we have ever owned where the windshield is considered a "consumable" item.

 

So, if the crack is caused by something other than an impact and the car is still under warranty is Mini supposed to cover it and the problem is Mini keeps telling everyone they won't?

 

Covered mine every time.

 

Kinda. Your dealer will bend over backwards to find any sign of impact damage that they can use to deny the claim. With the tendancy of the MINI windshield to pit makes it somewhat easy to claim that the crack is impact related and not stress related...

Impact damage is not covered by your warranty, stress cracks are.

 

Our mini is 2 weeks old and we already got a huge crack in it. Unfortunately we have a minor, little rock chip in it so no warranty for us. However, I have never had glass crack sooooooo easily. Multiple past cars have had huge rock chips, stars, etc and never cracked like this. Oh well, we're going to try the PPG glass, it can't be any worse.

 

Had the exact same situation as Elmer. Dealer (who's in Germany BTW) replaced it under warranty.

However, I'm noticing quite a few people who have routinely been getting the shaft from their dealers in the US. Has anyone considered getting together and discussing a class action suit with an attorney that specializes in this kind of litigation?? While it can take a while, sometimes that is what sparks a recall and compensation to those who had to pay out of pocket for windshields.

Just a thought.

Paul
Ansbach, Germany

 

It's been discussed a few times here on NAM nothing's ever come of it...

 

We picked up our 2005 Mini in April, and the windshield made it, oh, four and a half months.
On Labor Day, we were driving over the Cuesta grade out of San Luis Obispo, with the temperature climbing 10 degrees in 5 miles as we left the cool coast for the inland heat, suddenly a crack appeared in the windhield.
Warranty was denied, as the service advisor was able to trace it to a subatomic sized pinprick in the black area at the lower edge of the windshield. I'm still recovering from the near-heart attack I suffered when he said it would cost $1200 to replace. (I didn't take him up on the offer.)

 

$1200 ?!?!?! what was he smoking...? no really..lol

 

$1200??? Go to another dealer.

If 2nd dealer says $1200, call a glass specialist and get a nonstandard windshield. I guess this should cost arounf 500 bucks, right?

 

It'll cost less than $300 actually....

 

I recently inquired as to the cost of replacing a MINI windshield (04 Cooper) and was quoted $1,100 for a standard MINI windshield, and $1,150 for a car with rain-sensing wipers.

Amazingly, the List cost of the windshield is only $189.00 according to a dealer who advertises on NAM and $151.20 if purchased through them. Part number 51 31 7 146 544. Geting to windshied to CA is another story.

 

Costs a lot less than that to get full glass coverage from your insurer.

 

Go to Total Eclipse in San Rafael. They use the PPG glass, which is superior to the OEM in my opinion, and are familiar with installs on Minis (know about the a-pillar covers and clips which often need to be replaced and even keep them in stock). Thay also assured me that they take out and replaced all the urathane which many of the others who use mobile glass companies do not. The total cost was around $320.

Let Tony know "val" sent ya :smile:

http://www.totaleclipse.biz/auto_spa/glass.htm

They really do know their stuff, good window tinter's too

 

Maybe I don't count, but I my 05 took a rock to the windshield on the way up to CLT and it left a bullseye. It did not sound like a hard hit, but the rock did its thing and left a pit/star shaped divet.

I had a repair shop fill in the damage and it looks 80% better. Time will tell if this develops into a complete replacement down the road.

 

I've been ok and crack free (feel the jinx decending), but the pitting is horrendous. I'm 10 months in and it looks like I've been hurdling through the Gobi desert with my wipers on to get to work everyday.
I've got full glass coverage, so at this point I'm nearly hoping it cracks. I'm rain sensor free so I should be good to go.

 

I didn't have time to read all the posts here so forgive me if this is a repeat. But has anyone considered the angle of the MINI windshield as a possible reason for it cracking (on impact) so easily? All the cars I have owned before have had much more of a slant to the windshield. With the mini windshield being so vertical I would think that most debris would tend to have a direct impact instead of a glancing blow causing more damage.

 

I got a crack in mine, but it was clearly due to an impact. I was at a track day and got debris sprayed onto the front. I didn't even consider asking the dealer to warranty it. Instead I went with PPG and paid under $300...

 

No doubt that is one of the reasons the windshields breaks upon impact so frequently, and gets pitted up quickly - however, one of the big problems with the windshields is stress fractures resulting, apparently, from the way they are mounted to the car (at least in part - the other part is probably due to the glass not being the greatest) and the ways MINI goes about doing their best to deny warranty coverage and instead attempt to overcharge outrageously. If you do care to take the time to read back some you'll get a better idea I think.

 

Picked up a good size rock @ 80 MPH - scared the out of me! Result was a smallish chip in the middle of the windshield - disappointing but not worth falling on my sword over. About 6 weeks later a crack formed overnight, starting just to the right of the rear view mirror at the top of the windshield. Within a few days this stretched into a large "L" - as in Looser ... The chip and the crack were not connected nor touching in any way. Fortunately the dealer didn't whip out the $.39 bic pen and was actually quite good about the replacement - no questions. It seems from my read of this that the cracks are often preceeded by some impacts. Anyway - for what its worth ...

 

OH NO!
31K on the odom and got my 1st crack last night on our '03
Car was ideling with the heat on in a snow storm, I came back to the car (3 min) and I have a crack running from the dash right through the wiperblade on the drivers side...

 

Stopped at the dealer at lunch. He pulled out a pen right away and ran it in and around the crack. He said he did not see or feel a chip. I laughed and said "don't you think it is odd that you knew right away to pull out the pen? Clearly you have seen quite a few of these". No response back...

 

Seriously

You are lucky they didn't dig in with the pen repeatedly and create the divot as did our SA. They then took it away to 'have a manager' look at it away from us somewhere and then bring it back denied for warranty, pathetic

 

I just noticed a tiny stone chip. Barely noticable. So far no stress cracks.

I was watching a show on Speed TV called "A Birth of a Sportscar". The show was about all the testing involved for the new BMW 6 series. From the show, BMW was pretty comprehensive in their tests. When the engineers noticed the side defrosters weren't going a good job in de-misting the side windows, they went back to the drawingboard. The engineers wanted to make the ducts bigger but they were occupying all available space. So they thinned out the ducts by 1mm and that did the trick.

The engineers even put the prototype on the transport trucks in Japan to see if the car fit without any problems.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, with all the R&D involved, you'd think the engineers would exprience the same cracking and pitting of the windshield during development. Or the developement process is slightly different for a $100,000 and a $20,000 car

 

12K + and less than 1 yr. old and I've got thousands of pits and chips!
I talked to the dealer and they basically said, "too bad, this is what happens".

I love my Mini in every way except for this fact. No cracks yet(knock on wood) but I preparing for the day. And I've got rain sensors.