How many windscreens have you had?
- Thread starter Dev
- Start date
A2-BC
Member
Be careful! I would recommend to anyone with chips in their windscreens to get them repaired. If your insurance is fully comp you can usually have this done free at Autoglass. (insurance companies would rather pay for this than pay out for a full screen replacement later). I have had four repairs done over the last few years (motorway stone chips) to two previous cars. It takes less than an hour.
On all modern cars the windscreen is bonded in and adds stiffness to the structure so it's a stressed component. As anyone with a bit of engineering knowledge will tell you chips and cracks are stress concentrators. Even if they seem stable they can go at any time and once started the crack will run. With suspension as unforgiving as an A2 the next pothole could be enough to do the damage.
Better to be safe than sorry.
Brian.
If you are replacing a windscreen under your insurance you can specifiy who you want to replace it i.e. you do not have to use Autoglass for example. Last time I had one done I told my insurance company that I did not want Autoglass doing the job and her direct reply was 'I don't blame you!'
All it may mean is that you have to pay for the replacement and then get reimbursed minus your excess by your insurance company.
I will not bore you all with my experience but will summarise by saying that Autoglass will NEVER be going near a windscreen or car of mine in the foreseeable future and I will always where possible use my local fitter.
All it may mean is that you have to pay for the replacement and then get reimbursed minus your excess by your insurance company.
I will not bore you all with my experience but will summarise by saying that Autoglass will NEVER be going near a windscreen or car of mine in the foreseeable future and I will always where possible use my local fitter.
bretti_kivi
Member
.. I'm still on my first at the moment; i have several serious chips and a large crack of around 10" length. Been through 4 roadworthiness tests like it without any problems....
Bret
yeah, well.. if the crack starts and runs, fair enough. If it's not in the driver's field of vision, it's not an MoT fail. 'nuff said. We crack them all the time here, it's a hazard of flying spikes and lots of gravel. Change it when it needs it, and not before.
Bret
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A2-BC
Member
Don't get me wrong. I wasn't advocating Autoglass. My insurance has always named them for the chip repair service and since it costs me nothing to get screen chips mended I've used them when necessary. Maybe it is just me but I wouldn't want to drive my pride & joy with cracks in the glass. Sure you can drive it till it warrants an MOT failure but would you want to?
As an aside an old work colleague once showed me a Rover 400 he was having the screen replaced on. It had taken an unexpected hump back bridge a bit quickly and did a slight Duke's of Hazzard landing. The body wasn't damaged at all but had flexed enough to crack the laminated screen about 3 inches from the base from pillar to pillar.
As an aside an old work colleague once showed me a Rover 400 he was having the screen replaced on. It had taken an unexpected hump back bridge a bit quickly and did a slight Duke's of Hazzard landing. The body wasn't damaged at all but had flexed enough to crack the laminated screen about 3 inches from the base from pillar to pillar.
bretti_kivi
Member
for me, it's actually really simple: It's not covered by insurance here, unless you take that out specifically. So the €500 costs would be on me. Since it's not a "fail" condition, and it hasn't grown in three and a half years.... 
Bret
Bret
Autoglass did mine both times. To be fair the first one was OK, and the second has been pretty good.
Must be hard for insurers to break even when they replace them for £50 excess. I imagine each screen costs a fair chunk of that €500 brett_kivi mentions - there's a lot of glass there.
ULP - sorry to hear about your experience. Hope you get it sorted soon.
Dev
Must be hard for insurers to break even when they replace them for £50 excess. I imagine each screen costs a fair chunk of that €500 brett_kivi mentions - there's a lot of glass there.
ULP - sorry to hear about your experience. Hope you get it sorted soon.
Dev
Alan_uk
A2OC Donor
I'm with Churchhill and they specify that one must use Autoglass or another (can't remember who) if just the excess applies (£75 for me). Othewise they only pay up to a max of (I recall) about £150 or so. When I had mine done recently on the A2 I recall the chap said the full price was £350. So quite a shortfall for choosing one's own dealer.
Actually, it was Autoglass that did the replacement and I thought it was an excellent job. Mind you I set the tone by covering all the surrounding paintwork with thin card and masking tape. And I was watching him most of the time.
In 40 years of motoring (with the A2 for the last 4 of those) at typically 10k miles per year I've never had a broken windscreen cause by a chip. But I've had a couple of chips repaired. The recent cracked windscreen on the A2 was when I let the windscreen wiper flip back onto the screen! Ouch! it hurt the pocket.
Actually, it was Autoglass that did the replacement and I thought it was an excellent job. Mind you I set the tone by covering all the surrounding paintwork with thin card and masking tape. And I was watching him most of the time.
In 40 years of motoring (with the A2 for the last 4 of those) at typically 10k miles per year I've never had a broken windscreen cause by a chip. But I've had a couple of chips repaired. The recent cracked windscreen on the A2 was when I let the windscreen wiper flip back onto the screen! Ouch! it hurt the pocket.
trex
Member
Count me in
Well, after a 50km drive on what you can call "stair type" paving of the road, and several hard bumps not dampened by the "marvelous" front shocks, i managed to become the proud owner of a cracked windshield. A 10 cm long "upside-down L" crack, begining from the lower side, right beneath the center of the wiper...
I'll have to take it to a garage and check if it's fixable, because i haven't got full insurance on the car yet.
Does anyone know if after fixing, are there any chances of the crack extending? And how much is a new windshield?
Well, after a 50km drive on what you can call "stair type" paving of the road, and several hard bumps not dampened by the "marvelous" front shocks, i managed to become the proud owner of a cracked windshield. A 10 cm long "upside-down L" crack, begining from the lower side, right beneath the center of the wiper...
I'll have to take it to a garage and check if it's fixable, because i haven't got full insurance on the car yet.
Does anyone know if after fixing, are there any chances of the crack extending? And how much is a new windshield?
G
Gaff
Guest
After reading the earlier stories about sub-standard screens from well-known glass repairers, I just booked my A2 in for a screen replacement at my local Audi garage, its 350 Euros inc fitting (about 300 pounds). The story is same as yours, a 2-week old chip below the wiper developed into a 20 cm crack while defrosting the windscreen one morning.
GA
the grim reeper
A2OC Donor
Well, after a 50km drive on what you can call "stair type" paving of the road, and several hard bumps not dampened by the "marvelous" front shocks, i managed to become the proud owner of a cracked windshield. A 10 cm long "upside-down L" crack, begining from the lower side, right beneath the center of the wiper...
I'll have to take it to a garage and check if it's fixable, because i haven't got full insurance on the car yet.
Does anyone know if after fixing, are there any chances of the crack extending? And how much is a new windshield?
From where you say it is on the screen i would say that its unfixable, and it sounds to big to fill. It may crack somemore or it may stay that size.
I replaced my screen 2 months ago payed cash (not through insurance) as it was scuffed, the previous owner had at some point not fitted genuine wiper and it had come off the arm and scuffed the screen, i had put up with it for 18months as it wasn't in my view area on the screen, but as the nights have started to pull in again i noticed more the light scratches that light up when a car comes towards you getting worse. we have A1 windscreens that fit screens for us at work and i got them to do it,1st screen (cheap) tried ripping me off but it didn't fit in the hole + the seal didn't fit on the screen properly, so they had to fit a proper screen in (more expensive for them) Pilkinton, so for so good and now i've got the floppy wiper its a lot better
Cheers Phil
trex
Member
Save windshields, buy FSD's !!!
Tomorrow morning i'll go and have a look at the glass repair shop. Fingers crossed that it can be solved, at least cosmetically, as i intend to get myself a full insurance and write it off as rock damage in a few months time.
It's quite demoralizing to see your glass crack for no reason (maybe except the harsh road conditions). If i only upgraded to the FSD's earlier, i could have saved me the headache...
Tomorrow morning i'll go and have a look at the glass repair shop. Fingers crossed that it can be solved, at least cosmetically, as i intend to get myself a full insurance and write it off as rock damage in a few months time.
It's quite demoralizing to see your glass crack for no reason (maybe except the harsh road conditions).
If i only upgraded to the FSD's earlier, i could have saved me the headache...
Rich.
A2OC Donor
Just going to have my windscreen replaced by autoglass, for the first time on this car. I never have had any glass replaced by them but thought I would give them a go this time.
Left car for just under 2 hours in a quite place, no houses or dodgy kids in a upper class area. Next to where the ferries come into port and find a nice big crack in my windscreen. It is about 1 and half foot now
No idea how it happened, the car wasn't moving, it was some kind of stone or brick, maybe from someone on a boat or a ferry or could be aliens.
In the mean time It did get me to buy a new wiper which I need now, It was £12 from audi and £10 for 1L of 5w30 oil now ..
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8021242@N03/3403758657/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8021242@N03/3404564414/
Left car for just under 2 hours in a quite place, no houses or dodgy kids in a upper class area. Next to where the ferries come into port and find a nice big crack in my windscreen. It is about 1 and half foot now
No idea how it happened, the car wasn't moving, it was some kind of stone or brick, maybe from someone on a boat or a ferry or could be aliens.
In the mean time It did get me to buy a new wiper which I need now, It was £12 from audi and £10 for 1L of 5w30 oil now ..
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8021242@N03/3403758657/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8021242@N03/3404564414/
Mike1410
Member
The roads here in NZ are quite frankly, appalling.
They may have got a man up Everest in 1953 but they've never learned how to tarmac a road. They spray a thin layer of liquid tar down and then dump a few tons of gravel chippings on top and leave the traffic to do the bedding down! Apparently the chippings are broken up river bed rocks (ie free).
Consequently, got my first ever cracked windscreen in 25 years of motoring a few weeks ago when a flying stone from a passing car on a newly "repaired" road made a star shaped chip directly behind the rear view mirror - which within 2 minutes had become a large L shaped crack (running about 3" vertically down from the mirror and then off about 8" to the nearside).
Fortunately is covered by the insurance, so as I was off to the Audi dealer in Auckland to order a replacement screen about 2 weeks later, b****r me stone chip number two recived! This one however has not spread.
Have decided to wait until the summer road mending season is over (just about now I think) before I get the screen replaced - WOF not due 'til August so have a few weeks to play with. Hope this is not gonna be an annual event, as new screens have to be shipped from Germany.
They may have got a man up Everest in 1953 but they've never learned how to tarmac a road. They spray a thin layer of liquid tar down and then dump a few tons of gravel chippings on top and leave the traffic to do the bedding down! Apparently the chippings are broken up river bed rocks (ie free).
Consequently, got my first ever cracked windscreen in 25 years of motoring a few weeks ago when a flying stone from a passing car on a newly "repaired" road made a star shaped chip directly behind the rear view mirror - which within 2 minutes had become a large L shaped crack (running about 3" vertically down from the mirror and then off about 8" to the nearside).
Fortunately is covered by the insurance, so as I was off to the Audi dealer in Auckland to order a replacement screen about 2 weeks later, b****r me stone chip number two recived! This one however has not spread.
Have decided to wait until the summer road mending season is over (just about now I think) before I get the screen replaced - WOF not due 'til August so have a few weeks to play with. Hope this is not gonna be an annual event, as new screens have to be shipped from Germany.