Recent (2023) windshield replacement experience

Darn! Sorry to hear that! Guess I got lucky here in Vegas. The only thing I've noticed in mine with the first day of strong sunlight was that there is a bit more reflection of the dash on the windshield than what I was used to notice with the original windshield.

 

I fear myself when I am overly optimistic about something: I was pretty happy with my windshield replacement until today, when rain finally arrived to Vegas. To my surprise, when I activated the windshield wipers, the upper arm of the windshield wipers (the one that sweeps to the right) just jumps out of the windshield and hits the A-pillar. I looked into the manual on the part of wiper replacement and mentioned that turning the car on and then off with the wiper level pushed to the "MIST" position will set the wipers into "maintenance position", parallel to the A pillars. I did it, the wiper jumped outside the windshield and stayed riding on the A-pillar. I tried moving the arm manually back into the windshield area so it would lie on that "maintenance position" it should have been resting. I turned the car on, pressed MIST, the wipers went back to the "resting" position but then the upper arm swung back to the A pillar.Does anybody have an idea of how to fix this? (apart from taking the car to the dealer). Thanks!

 

To add insult to injury... I decided to take the car to the dealer today since with my plain ignorance I didn't dare to try myself. The idi.. I mean, the person who received the car wanted me to show him what was going on. I did it. Then he did something to the arm and then asked me to activate the wipers again. The two arms collided with a horrible noise and then I saw something like a scratch on the windshield. I went into panic mode but the guy said "don't worry, it's not a scratch, just a rubber mark, it will go away". BTW, we also found at that point that the washer reservoir just became empty (that might have been part of the problem), which mean that in the previous "maintenances" they didn't bother to check/refill it (I have not used it too much). I wonder if they actually did the rest of the stuff they were supposed to do. Bottom line, they did the adjustment (probably what you mentioned), the wipers now work fine but... the "rubber mark" is still there, in spite of all the cleaning I did today, which just reduced it a little. I will try tomorrow a windshield scratch remover kit to see if I can get rid of it. And change the dealer... to the previous one who lost my key for three days when I first moved here. No more choices in Vegas. These are the few instances when I really regret leaving California... Imagine, that guy in the dealer was asking another fella if "these hybrids" actually pumped water to the windshield...

 

Did that idiot try to manually reset the arm, thinking it would fix the problem?

Can you offer an explanation of how the washer fluid level might impact the position of the wiper arms?

It’s possible that the dealer didn’t perform any of the work for which you were charged. You’ll never know. Next time, pop the hood and take a minute to do a visual inspection. You’ll know immediately if the washer reservoir is full.

 

Yes that's what I used to do in the S.H. where I used to live years ago, where I didn't trust the dealers doing their job right. Here it is the first time something like this happens to me in 15 years in America. I grew used to good jobs and got overconfident. Not anymore.
Bottom line, Now I need to choose between filing a claim with Safelite for the wrong arm adjustment or with the dealer for making the scratch. In the meantime I will try again to fix it myself and save me all the arguing. I found a site on the internet dealing with how to fix a scratch in a windshield.
https://www.wikihow.com/Remove-Scratches-from-a-Windshield
I tried the toothpaste solution, no dice, except removing all remaining "rubber" and exposing the scratch bare-naked. Fortunately, it didn't catch the fingernail. I ordered the windshield kit. It should arrive today. Let's see if I get lucky on St. Patrick's day...

 

How much extra would an OEM windshield cost you? Will Safelite even offer that option?

 

Interesting. The Jeep windshield took a hit last week. The “bullet hit” became a top to bottom crack overnight. We requested OEM glass from USAA. No problem, same deductible. The work will be done by Safelite in a couple of weeks.

 

It’s a 2022. We’ve had it 6 months. USAA asked if non-OEM glass was acceptable. Since it’s a lease, and we may or may not buy it out, we didn’t want to risk returning it with non-OEM glass. It costs us the same either way. But I wouldn’t put it past the dealer to ding us for $1500 for turning it in with aftermarket glass.

 

On my side, I was able to make the scratch almost disappear. Two nights polishing glass with the cerium oxide kit and my drill. Now the scratch is only visible in certain angles at full sunlight, but from my driver's perspective it's undetectable. You wouldn't be able to see it if you don't know it's there. I was going to go a bit further with the polishing on a third session to try and make it disappear completely but my wife reminded me that the perfect is the enemy of the good and advised me to just leave it alone. After that, the dealer reached to me asking for a review and I expressed my disappointment with the clumsy handling. Three days later I got an e-mail from Sirius XM offering me a 3-month complimentary subscription courtesy of the dealer. Nice try on damage control but I'm not coming back...

 

I had my windshield replaced a couple of years ago with a Honda windshield from the dealer. It took about a month for the windshield to arrive so I used a crack repair kit to stop it from spreading. The total cost from the dealer including the camera calibration was about $2200.