Looking for a cracked windshield expert

About a year ago my wife's Prius took a stone hit to the windshield that went from a ding to a 2-3 foot long crack within hours. I called Progressive and they wanted me to go to Safelite, but I said I would rather use my own shop. At first they would not cover OEM glass, but ended up approving it when the shop told the claims rep that the Toyota dealer wouldn't re-calibrate the TSS on aftermarket glass. Whether it was true or not I have no idea, but Progressive covered 100% of the cost of the OEM glass and re-calibration by the dealer. I had to pay for the job up front but they sent me a check back within 2 weeks for the entire cost.

 

I am an expert procrastinator. I'll get back to you shortly!

 

Where is the transparent aluminum Scottie promised us all those years ago?

 

The age and/or quality of your windshield means almost nothing. As it was said before, glass & rocks don't mix well. I bought my Taco brand new in Feb 2021...TWO WEEKS later a very small rock flew up (a truck in front of me kicked it up) and nailed my windshield. It sounded bad "BAM!".

When I got home, I noticed the small chip/crack. It was about the size of a dime, only a bit smaller. Of course I was beyond pissed, it's a new truck. But I went to the local hardware store and got that glass/chip filler stuff. The kind that fills the crack with resin and works the bubbles out. It's been almost a year now and the crack hasn't spread at all.

Moral of the story: Rock chips & cracks will happen. When they do, just get them fixed. Don't over analyze the science behind how your windshield was made or of the installer did a bad job.

 

Luck of the draw, and too many factors to really say whether it was flawed or not.

Take the money you saved on insurance and buy a new windshield.

 

Y'all know that if we all had flying EV cars, then rocks hitting the windshield would be a thing in automotive history. Like wooden wheels and hard rubber.

I thought everyday was Friday on TW........seems there is always a dumpster fire of some sort.

 

Same here, I had my OEM windshield replaced at about 4K miles. Then, it cracked again within a month or so. I don’t bother with it anymore, Ill wait till it gets super bad.

 

My insurance (Liberty Mutual) would not IF aftermarket is available. However, for my '06 TRD OR AC the only thing available was OEM so my insurance had no choice and did cover it - 100%.

 

It only works for whale tanks

 

It matters here because there is a huge difference in the cost between 1st gen windshields and a 2018 windshield with TSS involved. And I’ve learned that sarcasm doesn’t work in the 3rd gen section.

 

Just like anything with a sharp point or edge, the surface area of the contact point (and yield strength) of the impacting material is what causes the problem.

If you take 10lbs and distribute it over 1 sq inch, you get a stress of 10psi. If you take that same 10 lbs and distribute it over a tiny 0.0001 sq inch point, well hey - now you're hitting it w/ 100,000psi of stress.

This is how knives cut shit and also why you can use water to cut steel. It works especially well on brittle materials such as glass & ceramics, but as someone else pointed out, good glass can be quite strong.

TL;DR - buy the good windshield glass lol