OEM vs aftermarket front windshield

I recently was driving on the freeway and a small rock hit my front windshield. I plan on replacing the windshield. What is the difference in quality of OEM vs an aftermarket window? It seems Toyota quality is very cheap nowadays. I had rocks hit my old Toyotas with no cracks or dents. Is an aftermarket window okay? Or should I go OEM?

 

Toyota glass is made by Pilkington, one of the best in the business. They’re the OEM for the glass on many German luxury cars to give a quality comparison.

I’ve put safelite glass into a car back when I didn’t have the money for good insurance or proper repairs. I regretted that decision within 6 months. After that time, I started to notice a ton of pitting when driving into sunrise/sunset on my commute. It got worse over the next year until driving at that times became an active safety issue for me.

I later found out that aftermarket glass is significantly softer than what the OEs use, so dirt and sand that gets kicked up does more damage more quickly than it otherwise would. Now think about how that cheapness affects the functionality of the safety systems that get replaced when you buy a new windshield.

Replace with OEM glass only. And get a 0 or $50 glass deductible if you don’t have one. It’s worth the couple bucks a month on your insurance.

 

Good question.

1) There is no difference in the quality of the windshield. None. Zero. Reputable businesses like Safe Auto Glass will not sell you windshield that does not meet OEM specs.

2) The differences between OEM and aftermarket are literally nothing more than the tinted visor at top. And usually the OEM windows have black dotted stippling around the rear view mirror that helps glare at night.

>>> see also above - HOWEVER - "pitting resistance" may not be as good as OEM. A consideration of you live in places like west Texas where the grit never stops blowing across the freeway.

Kindly stop with the nonsense that "windshields aren't what they used to be". Hogwash. They are better than ever before made with respect to cracking, fracture toughness, anti-shattering resistance, composite strength, and a whole lot more.

If you caught a rock, it's not the windshield. It is sheer dumb luck. Re-evalaute your following distance on the freeway.

That is all.

 

I had Safelight do mine a couple of years ago. The glass they installed was a perfect match to OEM. Including the tinting at the top and the stupid camera mount. No wavy, no pitting, etc.

 

I'll have to double check on the brand when I get home but I got my glass replaced with an aftermarket one and it's fine. No defects or oddities. A reputable high volume glazier will use a decent quality glass. Having to warranty a windshield due to defects or oddities costs them time which is money for them.

Albertan's go through alot of windshields. Dry dusty environment plus we don't really salt our roads. We use rocks instead... minimal rust for us comes at the cost of near yearly windshield replacements

 

how can you be so confidently wrong? have you ever heard of the Mohs hardness scale? Cheap aftermarket glass is wavy and soft. No one is commenting on the safety factor.

Not all glass is made the same. Unless you're in the glass repair business, i'll be trusting my glass guy and not some hogwash

Edit - OP, go with Pilkington.

 

Check the cost difference, sometimes it is significant
And depending on your insurance policy specifics, they may/may not cover OEM glass

Most of the time OEE works out but there are occasions where it does not
Sometimes the advanced safety systems camera's can't be calibrated, that is the most common issue
Occasionally there is a gasket issue around the windshield but that is rare


I file these claims all day and I get maybe 1 OEM request every other day b/c of a preference or issue
Rarely are they approved and when they are it is usually b/c the vehicle is so new [eg gorilla glass on Jeeps where there is no OEE]
Those cost differences can be insane - so heads up

 

From what I was told by my reliable glass guy, there are 2 grades or qualities of glass he can source and the price was I wanna say, about a $150-200 more for the better glass. What @Cetacean Sensation is saying is correct. This is what my glass told me about the qualities of glass.
Having the tech we have in our trucks, the biggest issue is getting the camera or whatever it is recalibrated. I was told that alone is about $200 at the dealer, and sometimes it can be avoided, but sometimes it has to be done. So not only do you have to pay for the glass replacement, there's that issue.

The last time I looked at Sparks Toyota parts, the OEM glass was like $325-350 I wanna say which I thought was pretty cheap for dealership supplied OEM glass.

I think the reason the Tacoma is so prone to the chips is, the windshield's angle is almost perperndicular to the ground, most cars have a very slanted low angle glass so rocks tend to skip off the glass, whereas with the Tacoma, it's much more steep in angle so you get direct shots from the rocks which tend to chip or break the glass more easily. Just my theory.

 

I agree with this. Based on what my glass guy told me, there are def diff grades of glass.

Yes it can be "OEM" rated, but it can still be cheap crap Just because it's sold as "OEM spec" doesn't mean it will be as good, it could be, but it's like anything else in the automotive world, knockoffs or cheaper parts can be OEM spec, it doesn't make them as good.

This decision for you OP will come down to your own personal wallet, preferences in general. You're going to get a million opinions on this and be just as confused after the fact.

If it were me, I'd get the OEM glass even if it's a little more expensive, which it will be.

 

The difference you are noticing between old and new is likely the angle of the windshield, material and size of the rock and the speed it was hit at.

New Glass is WAAAAY better than old glass. Surprisingly, glass is one of the areas in the auto industry that has seen a lot of improvement and advancement in technology. Even aftermarket glass is better than old glass because it has to meet certain safety standards.

But is aftermarket as good as OEM? Well that depends on the aftermarket vendor. Some are better, most are as good, and some are worse.

 

The windshield in my car has been replaced 22 times. I've had everything from OE to PPG to chinese. Granted it's not the Tacoma, but I can tell you without a doubt there is optical differences between manufacturers. This last time I opted for Pilkington, the OEM for my vehicle. I would have gone with OE, but it's NLA now.

Learn to read the glass bug. I've had windshields that were not DOT compliant and were missing an AS number. Windshields should be AS1 - laminated, minimum 70% light transmission, optically transparent and meets ANSI safety standards. DOT code is assigned to a glass manufacturer for traceability. Some of the chinese glass didn't have it. E-codes are for european countries that certified the glass (e.g., E1 is Germany). There can also be roman numerals for glass thickness, but I don't recall that being a thing for my vehicle. Ours would probably be a II - regular multi-layered glass.

The black masking around the windshield is called the frit. It's ceramic and there to protect the urethane adhesive and gives it a surface the urethane to bond to. The dots of the frit are usually called dot matrix or gradient dots. They supposedly help with heat dissipation along with the frit.

There's a bunch of other icons that can be included in the bug (thermometer icon, hammer icon, circled iR, etc), but I think the only thing that pertains to our trucks is acoustic. It's 2 layers of PVB vinyl sandwiched in 2 layers of glass. It's to quiet noise.

 

I've had four windshields in my Taco unfortunately.

The first time, I went with a Pilkington replacement. It cracked out within a year.

Since and because prices went up significantly with the COVID fun, I went with a Chinese brand. They both lasted longer than the OEM and aftermarket Pilkingtons. The last one has two fixed chips that have thankfully not cracked out. It is the longest lasting by far.

Honestly, we have never had windshield issues until the Taco and my issues with them might just be luck of the draw. For sure though, next time around, I will still likely buy the cheapest.

 

I just went out and checked - the windshield in my 2022 OR is not original. It's PGW DOT 1121, made in Malaysia by Xinyi Energy Smart. You can look up the DOT number here: https://www.glassbytes.com/dot/

 

Hey look some actual accurate glass info on here and knows the difference between OE and OEM.

After being a glass tech for 6 years there is no difference between OE and OEM. We had a run of rogue shields where you could see that the Nissan logo was removed. The one you want to watch out for is OEE manufactueres the true barely meets spec and has awful quality control.

Pilkington/ppg/FY are all good OEM manufacturers XYG was the main OEE manufacturer i ran into out here and the company i was working for refused to install OEE spec glass noting quality and safety concerns.

The other huge thing to note here is quality workmanship that top tier glass isn't worth anything if the guy putting it in isn't doing the correct surface prep or tucking the glass potentially wiping out the bottom bead or smearing the vin plate. Or scratching the hell out of everything and not coming back around to touch everything up to limit future rust.

 

OEm is probably better but usually 3x more expensive than aftermarket glass. So for me, aftermarket class it is..

 

Came to say the same thing. I've made the OE vs OEM vs OEE arguments before, but most aren't able to comprehend that "aftermarket" can be just as good (if not better) than OE glass. It can also be worse, which is where people like to respectfully hang their hats.

I don't intend to contribute to the OEM vs aftermarket conversation (as it typically goes nowhere), but a great point made here about the quality and workmanship of the installer. Doesn't matter how good your glass is or isn't; a bad tech can turn good into bad, and a good tech can turn bad into good enough. Don't just assume that going to your dealer and getting charged a hefty premium for that "OEM glass" is gonna be your ticket. More often than not, they're contracting their auto glass jobs out to other companies (like Safelite). So before you make expensive decisions, ask the right questions. Don't be scared of Safelite; they've got some bad apples and young kids, but so does everywhere else. Choose a company that backs their work and will make things right if things aren't perfect.

 

I could be mistaken on this but pretty sure safelite is owned by the same company as speedy glass up here which is where I was for most of my time in glass before going to a Toyota dealership and building out their glass department.
If safelite is belron owned they have a very thorough training that has to be done and things are standardized and held to higher standard (typically) and better warranties are seen. North of the border here if you want quality work that is where you go compared to alot of these others that are just about pumping out volume and do not care about part quality or install quality.

 

I used Safelite who installed an off brand on the 4Runner when I hit a bird on a road trip; the quality and seals were garbage. I regret going with an off brand but will use the company to install an OEM if I need to change the Tacoma or 4Runner again.
Just my opinion

 

I got several quotes a few months back. Most places I called claimed they only used oe spec. Whatever that means. I assume it's the same as factory without the Toyota logo. I personally wouldn't want non oem glass. Some sketchy feedback from some of the big name Chinese glass manufacturers.

That said, my oem windshield was wavy from the factory on the passenger side so .