Shattered Rear Window

[John McLellan]

Out for a walk. Returned to find the rear window shattered. No evidence of forced entry. About half of the glass was on the ground indicating to me at least that the rear window shattered on its own. Anyone else experience this?

 

[OzKona]

Not in a car, but I did have a glass outside table on my patio that spontaneously shattered, depositing all the trappings of a BBQ meal onto the ground. Had it replaced under warranty and same again (minus BBQ trappings). Upon investigation, the cause was the glass was stressed by ham-fisted assemblers using power screwdrivers which over-tightened the perimeter frame. The glass was then unable to cope with overnight temperature changes from hot days to cold nights.

Something similar might have occurred with your car, perhaps. Maybe not ham-fisted assemblers, but somehow the glass was stressed and just gave up after something triggered it.

At least your steak didn't get gritty!

 

[KiwiME]

It happened to some early Nissan Xterras long ago, a manufacturing defect. But imagine the difficulty of trying to make a warranty claim.

... the glass was stressed by ham-fisted assemblers using power screwdrivers which over-tightened the perimeter frame. The glass was then unable to cope with overnight temperature changes from hot days to cold nights.

I bought that type of table from Mitre10 a few weeks back and recognised that flaw in the design. When the legs are tightened in place the small plastic pads on the top of the legs push the tempered glass into a dome shape. The glass is quite strong but I expected it wouldn't tolerate thermal cycling. I padded out the legs with some washers and will hope for the best.