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WTF?? Broken side window!


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So I go out this morning, get in the car, put my bag in the back seat like I always do, put my cell phone in the passenger seat like I always do, and as I do this I notice my passenger side window looks like it has water all over it at a glance. I start looking longer and realize its completley cracked!

 

The window was fine when I put it in the garage last night, and I'm fairly sure I dont have any oompa loompas running around in my house causing mayhem.

what the hell?? Has anyone had this? the window was bowed out a good bit from the car and was actually leaving a gap about 1" towards the top. The door has not been opened in a few days and the window hasn't been rolled down in probably 2 weeks.

 

Pics will follow. I snapped one this morning but at the risk of running late I just took my dads giant black hole of a fuel tank GMC and drove it to work for the day. Thank god they're visiting. I couldn't have driven it like this.

"The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." - Plato
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well, it wasn't really under high stress, I mean the door was closed.. my father guessed it may have been caused by having the a/c on inside and the car being in a hot garage all night, but that seems ridiculous to me.

 

If it happens again you may find this damn thing for sale on the forums. I depend on this car i cant have the glass randomly exploding.

"The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." - Plato
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Yeah I suspect foul play. Kids, pissed chick or something like that.

 

Also yes tinted windows I thought had the opposite effect. Never heard of cracked windows due to tint. I heard the tint actually keeps the windows intact and theives don't like to bother with it, cause it's so hard to shatter.

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well, it wasn't really under high stress, I mean the door was closed.. my father guessed it may have been caused by having the a/c on inside and the car being in a hot garage all night, but that seems ridiculous to me.

 

If it happens again you may find this damn thing for sale on the forums. I depend on this car i cant have the glass randomly exploding.

 

i was referring to the high internal stress due to the tempering process.

 

oh i was also referring to this: http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/chem00/chem00506.htm

 

i too have never heard of cracking tempered glass, usually once a crack starts a cascading effect (due to internal stresses) causes the thing to explode (unless you have tint).... interesting

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no kids, it was INSIDE my garage. There was no possibility of that.

 

I studied the window again when I got home, theres no signs of an impact or a break point. Its just... well.. see pic.

 

Window tint has held it together.

 

Notice in the pic that the glass is bulging out from the door a good bit. The angle doesnt do that justice but its almost 1"

100_3311.thumb.jpg.7765c5518feae1467682993e0f294163.jpg

"The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." - Plato
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Sounds to me like there was some pressure on the glass just by virtue of having the window up and door closed if it is bulging out like that, it probably just finally couldn't take the stress anymore and via something like rapid heating/cooling as a catalyst it just went.
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well, if that is the case, other people with our cars should be aware of this. I would THINK that since our glass is rather springy in that it can expand to vent the cabin naturally since the windows have no sills right?
"The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." - Plato
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I've heard of windows shattering like that due to extreme heat. If you have all of your windows up and there is extreme heat the pressure will cause a window to shatter. Haven't seen it personally ... maybe a bit more of an urban legend.

 

Seems strange that the heat of a garage would be hot enough to cause that however.

 

Do you leave your window open a crack when parking in the garage??

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I never roll down my windows. I live in GA and this car has been in GA since before I bought it. It has survived my garage/window rolling habits in this house since last May. I dont crack the windows when I park, I dont want insects getting into my car. The garage is uninsulated (for now) but it wasnt even 95 yesterday so that just doesn't make any sense to me.
"The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." - Plato
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this is most likely the reason if no one else was in the garage/foul play:

 

http://www.glass-resource.com/sub/tough/nickel.htm

 

When glass is heat-treated, the nickel sulfide inclusions are modified into a form that grows or transforms with time and temperature. Once glass is installed and the nickel sulfide inclusions are solar heated, small cracks may develop from the inclusion. If these cracks penetrate the tension layer of fully tempered glass, the resulting release of energy will cause the glass to spontaneously break.

 

its probably not your car, or anyone else's fault, you're just a victim of random probability. that, and heat cycles.

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I've heard of this before....but with people with tempered glass shelving on their home theater stuff. Stuff like a nick or scratch in the wrong place can cause it to spontaneously shatter out of nowhere.

 

Here, you're not alone with freaky stuff like that:

 

http://www.doityourself.com/stry/temperedsafetyglass

 

And this I found on the web:

 

Car windshields are not tempered glass, they are safety glass.

Two layers of glass with a plastic layer between them (originally developed and patented by Ford and sold under the ‘Autolite’ brand). It is designed to both resist breakage and contain occupants in a crash.

Side and rear windows are tempered glass, designed to break into 'crumbs' and not be a danger.

 

Tempered glass shatters when a scratch is deep enough to penetrate into the un-tempered core of the pane. It cannot be cut after tempering, and must be handled carefully. The edges are a very vulnerable spot. Even a small scratch there can shatter the pane.

Small scratches can propagate with thermal cycling through the temper layer to the core. Tempered glass is both harder and more flexible than straight glass, but once the limits are exceeded the entire panel is destroyed almost instantly as the residual stresses from the tempering process are relieved.

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