Another Windshield Replacement Question Thread

Just went through this two different glass companies. First one they used PGM but over did the sealant and left a gap where you could hear wind noise in the cabin, went to safelite, they replaced it nice install but glass had defect and wavy lines, third time replaced by them under warranty no issues yet and looks fine. State of the world these days, dont get me started on my visit to service the other day (missing skid plate bolts, oil everywhere, charged me for diagnosis on my BSM saying it needed replaced (it didnt)).

 

Oh man what’d I get myself into making this thread. I’m all kinds of worried now haha

I’ll get to replies soon I’m tired from OT but I appreciate everyone’s comments.

Here are pics of the top driver side corner and looking down at the mounding. The side gaps appear even with the passenger side.

Anything look off?

 

I too just got my windshield replaced and immediately noticed the gap on the cowl right below the passenger wiper. Luckily , I took some before photos and the gap was there on my OEM windshield. I bought the truck brand new in 2018 and this is my first windshield replacement so it must be normal. I’m posting the before picture for reference.

 

That must have been some bug. Lol

 

6th windshield today installed 2017

 

Sorry for hopping into this a while after everything has been said. With your cowl, its hard to describe it, but picture that your cowl has a bunch of tiny fingers underneath it that slide onto the bottom side of the glass and "seal" to the glass(the cowl is only held on by pins and whatnot, no glue on the cowl anywhere) so you shouldn't have any leakage. the urethane bead that seals the windshield to the car runs around the outside of the windshield, with a little bit of glass overhang on the bottom, giving the cowl fingers enough space to raise up and under the glass and grip properly while also being flush with the glass. the Toyota cowls are insanely finicky, and sometimes nomatter how hard you try, you cant get every finger under the glass; sometimes, one or two just refuse to go under without popping up the rest of them. this can happen a lot if a car is in a high heat/UV index area, the sun can bake the cowl and warp the plastic a little bit, causing just enough of a misfit that the cowl doesn't sit properly again. the sun is bad enough where I am that almost any car or truck that I do the windshield on, the cowl has been sun warped, sometimes bad enough to where I can't even get it back on to the point where It looks any good.

I'll take some pictures on the next car I do, and ill upload photos on this thread so you guys can see the 'behind-the-scenes on what stuff looks like underneath the glass and everything, with where the cowls line up, the beads line up, and all that fun stuff.

(my sources for this information - doing Autoglass(at my own company. FUCK Safelite) for too many years to want to remember at this point)

 

alright im back with pics, and it just so happens that I had a 22 tacoma come in for a windshield replacement, so I did some documentation of that one. Certain steps I couldn't take pictures of, just because I don't have the time to do it, and I have to get the next step done within a certain time, or the urethane will start to cure and then that fucks up everything for the rest of the window. Fair warning, this is going to be picture-heavy and documentation-heavy. if anyone has any questions, feel free to ask, but ill show a picture or two and then explain that picture.

first off. this truck was a 2022 tacoma, TRD OR with a 6MT, with 8600 miles on it.
to stay on the original topic of this thread, these are the cowl 'fingers' I was talking about in my last post on here. its hard to tell, but you can see the little outjuts on the cowl, and you can see how they slide under the window and 'grip' on, holding the cowl down

with these photos, there is no actual 'seal' on the cowl. the cowl isn't watertight, or have anything to do with how your windshield sits, or how it seals to the body of the car/truck. the main purpose of the cowl is actually just as a dust shield and aerodynamics, making it so that a ton of dust/wind turbulence doesn't build up in the engine bay/above the firewall. you can see with the fingers on the cowl, there's a lot of them, and the tolerances for them are pretty tight, so if the cowl is heatwarped/bent at all, it will end up making it so that one or two of them cant seat properly without having a lot of torsion on the rest of the plastic, risking breaking it, so there's no 'harm' that can come from having one or two of the fingers not lined up under the windshield(don't get me wrong, the OCD part sucks, and I'm the same way, but sometimes there's only so much that you can do about it without just getting a new cowl entirely, and the tacoma ones are stupid expensive for some reason).

for the next photo, I wasn't able to get a picture of the tacoma, but I got one of the RAV4 I did right before the tacoma, and the principle is the exact same.

you can see a faint black ring around the perimeter of the viewing area, and that is where the urethane bead lays, which is what actually seals the windshield. the main cause of windshield failure/leakage/wind noise is air pockets in the bead. its next to impossible(but doable) to run a continuous bead all the way around the windshield with only one stop/start point, but typically there are 3-5 start/stop points, and those are where the issue spots are. if the bead isn't joined properly, air bubbles can be trapped, and the as the urethane cures, the air bubble creates a weak point/passage point, where water or wind noise can come through into the cabin.

up next is one of the main reasons why I absolutely despise safelite and try to steer everyone away from them if at all possible.

its difficult to see, but this truck has had the windshield replaced before, and I later found out that it was replaced at safelite. when they were removing the windshield, they ran one of the tools along the entire passenger side A pillar, scratching the SHIT out of it, from the top of the windshield to the bottom(estimate for repairs on this runs somewhere around $4-7k(if done the proper way) because the windshield would have the be pulled, the entire cab primed and repainted to have a proper color match, and then putting the windshield back in). keep in mind. this truck has 8600 miles on it. its a 2022. nice new truck, and safelite fucked it up BADDDDD.

and then finally, the recalibration process. the longest part is just getting the stand setup properly, and making sure everything is in the right place which takes about 20-40 minutes depending on the car/truck, and then the actual recalibration part takes no joke 30 seconds tops.

 

I just read your post in the "What have you done to your 3rd gen today..." thread. Thank you for this info and the write up. Helped put my mind at ease knowing there shouldn't be any leaks from that area in my last picture. Wish you were in SoCal to do my windshield lol. I noticed that I can see some urethane on my passenger pillar from the inside

 

Shit!! whoever did it last laid an absolute honker of a bead if you can see it from the inside! I'm happy to do what I can to put peoples mind at ease with glass. its definitely not cheap, and water damage can be next level expensive to fix, so I definitely can understand where you're coming from with being worried by it. (also sorry for the late reply. work has been slamming lately to the point of insanity)

 

Welp, this last windshield did not last even one month Lol

 

Back in December 2023 I has safelite replace the windshield on my 2023 TRD off-road. They used non Oem glass the first time and it leaked the next day after a rain. So had to back and ask for Oem glass and they replaced the wind shield. The next day I started looking at the truck and noticed scratches on the pillar. I had to make another appointment with the shop to show them the damage. Only then did they admit to it. So then I dealt directly with safelite client services who provided a case manager. She then handed me off to Fleet Response a third party affiliate. I had 6 different case managers during the process. I kept getting handed off to the next person. The total damage was $6700. The first estimate was $1900 and then once they removed the glass they found scratches all over down to the primer. So the entire cab had to be repainted. I would never recommend safelite. This process was a nightmare to deal with. Just glad they are paying for it.