Window Blew Out

[Chris1973]

This ever happen to anyone?
Yesterday i was going down the Hwy and there was a loud bang like a gunshot. Looked over and my passenger window had blown out.. Scared the Sh*T outa me.

Got home and the whole side of my car is wrecked from the glass, there's also chips in the rear wheel.

The cars back at the dealer now, they're trying to decide if its covered under warranty. The one guy tried telling me it was a rock that hit the window. It looks like the glass blew outward though and i wasn't around any other vehicles.

BTW: i just picked up the car on Wednesday last week. She has 460km's on her.

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[tosha]

Windows/glass should be covered against manufacturing defects, which happen. The windshield on my wife's CRV developed a massive crack while car was sitting on the driveway, car was under 1 year old. Was replaced under warranty, but with windshield it's easier because it was obvious that there was no stone damage. Also witnessed something very similar to what you describe - rear glass on some junkbox exploded and was blown out as the car went over a hump at speed.

 

[Skye]

Glass which is tempered and designed to shatter into many small pieces has a lot of surface tension. The tension helps do just that, crackle it into countless bits when it breaks. Tension is created by cooling the hot glass at the factory very quickly.

I've witnessed small pebble-like rocks, small like a BB, break glass this way. I'm guessing from another vehicle, it hit just right. Intensity of the sound was aided by the sudden change in air coming into the closed space of the interior.

Could have also been a defect, described by @tosha . The glass had finally had enough, and with yet another stressor, failed.

 

[dbtgt]

This ever happen to anyone?
Yesterday i was going down the Hwy and there was a loud bang like a gunshot. Looked over and my passenger window had blown out.. Scared the Sh*T outa me.

Got home and the whole side of my car is wrecked from the glass, there's also chips in the rear wheel.

The cars back at the dealer now, they're trying to decide if its covered under warranty. The one guy tried telling me it was a rock that hit the window. It looks like the glass blew outward though and i wasn't around any other vehicles.

BTW: i just picked up the car on Wednesday last week. She has 460km's on her.

I had the glass on a sunroof do that at 75 mph on the interstate highway. Blew out with a very loud bang (scared the shit out of me too!) and landed on the trunk lid on its way out to the highway. It scratched the trunk and the top of one rear fender. BMW would not cover it under warranty (claimed it was due to a road hazard). I had to claim it on my insurance.

 

[Strokerswild]

I've had two rear windows blow out in the past.

One was in one of my former Jeeps, literally exploded on a hot day upon hitting a bump. I thought I was getting shot at initially.

 

[wynand32]

Let me just add that regardless of the reason, so sorry to hear that happened. That really sucks, especially with such a new car. Mine has about the same mileage (550), and I'd feel terrible if that happened to it.

 

[Cobra Jet]

I've not heard of anyone losing an S550 rear 1/4 window as mentioned by the OP.

However, there's older threads on here of a few M6G members losing the main rear window while driving (exploding outward). Usually a main rear glass failure like that is more common because if the body flexes the window channel a certain way, it can tweak the glass just enough creating enough tension to "pop" it.

I'd imagine a rear 1/4 glass failure - aside from a rock or other projectile hitting it just right, that there had to have been major body flex. This type of body flex would had to have been at the roof line, B or C pillars to flex the sheet metal enough to compress the glass, creating an exorbitant amount of stress tension across the glass causing the subsequent "pop".

 

[sirben711]

I've had two rear windows blow out in the past.

One was in one of my former Jeeps, literally exploded on a hot day upon hitting a bump. I thought I was getting shot at initially.

Oh man, that does not give me confidence in my rear window. Whenever it gets very hot or very old, it starts to make creaking noises

 

[Vlad Soare]

Rear windows and sunroofs exploding out of the blue are by no means unheard of. Sometimes it's an intrinsic design fault (e.g. the second generation Renault Megane), but usually just a manufacturing defect.
However, this is the first time I hear about a side window doing this. Those pieces of glass that are part of the structure of the car (i.e. windscreen, rear window, panoramic glass roof) can shatter due to the twisting forces induced in the body. But side windows aren't attached so firmly to the body. There's no reason for them to shatter so spectacularly. Very strange, indeed.

 

[AvalancheSVT]

when a tahoe hit me from the rear in my f150 nothing to touched the glass behind me, it just pushed the body enough to make that sucker explode... and explode it did.

it was like a shotgun blast right by my head. i couldn't hear anything on the right for a while.

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