What's up with the windshield!!

I was driving down a 4 lane and a car passed me, slung a tiny rock up and "BAM" crack in the windshield. This same thing happened twice on my 06 Tacoma. Two of my buddy's have cracks in theirs as well. As a matter of fact now that I'm looking, I have seen several other Taco owners with cracks in there windshield. How many of you out there have this issue? If you had yours replaced, is there a stronger tempered glass that we can get other than OEM?

 

You guys must live near a gravel bank, no issues here, lol.
110k on the one in my 08’, so far so good with the 17’......

 

bad luck, timing. Ski

 

I have a 2018. In less than two years I've had two broken windshields. I've gone decades without ever having a cracked windshield. In both cases my windshield cracked from very minor hits. My latest happened with something that hit it that was so minor that I did not even notice it at the time.

 

just luck man

it could be that your local pebbles and grit are harder than others...no lie... hardness can determine bounce or crack

but in general almost all road pebbles is friggin granite

fwiw 22 years on OEM 4runner windshield in NE, tons of driving....lots of tiny pits but if you don't
stare at them you see through it all and don't notice.

2 years on a dodge (never again) windshield cracked on highway

just luck

 

Every time I take a long road trip. *BAM*
I don't know how many I have replaced in various vehicles.
I don't stay behind construction vehicles and I don't ever tailgate. I'm actually conscious of it, watch for factors that might lead to it.....and yet I'm a magnet for it.

My record with windshields is terrible.
Only 3k on my Tacoma......but I already know what's coming.

 

Luck o the draw

Coal trucks used to be like fly's on shit around here, not so much anymore. You learned not to tailgate 'em pretty quick.

 

I have 2 chips and the whole front windshield looks like it's dirty, but it's just thousands of little pits.

 

Replaced the windshield twice in 3 years on my 2014. After getting a good sized pit on my 2017's windshield just months after getting it I threw a weather tech raised stone and bug protector thingy on and knock on wood I haven't had any more damaging impacts to date.

https://www.weathertech.com/toyota/2017/tacoma/stone-and-bug-deflector/

 

I put 3 windshields on a Jeep Grand Cherokee....Tacomas arent the only rock magnets.
In all fairness to the jeep...one windshield was because my son decided to clean the glass with a snow shovel.

 

I try to stay far away from bigger vehicles. However, In North Alabama we have a Toyota-Mazda plant going up and they are doing all kinds of road construction around it. Thing is, this war a car that pass me, changed over into my lane and got me. The rock was so small that I never saw it coming.

 

Humm. Never thought about trying that.

 

104k on my truck and spend a significant amount of time on gravel roads. I have a could paint chips in the hood by the headlights but have never broken or chipped the windshield

 

Not just Tacomas, some just seem to have more issues with broken windshields than others. Probably has a lot to do with bad luck, but more to do with individual driving habits.

Personally, I'd much rather a rock hit my windshield than my paint as much easier to replace a windshield than a big paint chip and/or dent where a body shop has to be involved.

 

say no to crack!

 

Just this week, at 1200 miles and a little change, I got hit by a stone and got a chip. Took it the next day to SafeLite. They fixed the spot in less than 1/2 hour and insurance paid 100%. The charge would have been $125 plus tax.

The replacement cost for a new windshield would have been over $800! They charge $300 just to recalibrate the cameras!

So, having glass coverage can be a good thing as long as they don't raise your rates...

Never had a single damaged spot on my 2014 Tacoma that I traded for this one.

Ted

 

Yep, same thing over here. 2 broken windshields, only 25k km. Never had issue like that on any of my vehicles.

When i replace my second broken windshield, i will put some kind of protective film.

 

The worse windshield I had for stone chips were my to Wranglers... probably because the windshields were flat and very vertical.

Ted

 

My 13 got a nickel size chip from a semi. Insurance paid the Safelite guy on that one. Also had more than a couple chips in the paint from chunks falling off passing construction trucks. I've never had a windshield crack on any vehicle I've owned. I've also learned not to tailgate dirty semi trucks...

 

Forgot to add when the stone hit my windshield it was no tiny little wack... It startled the crap out of both my wife and I (it was on her side) and sounded like someone had shot the stone (or whatever it was) out of a cannon! No visible cracks, just a chip (spot).

Ted