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05 LGT- 1600 miles and side window blows out?


Shag-e

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LOL ... I had this happen in my '95 Neon at LSPR a couple years ago ... While sitting in the driver's seat and closing the door. That sucked. It actually happened because the door was damaged. When we tried to close it, the window exploded ... into my lap and outside the car. I can still find some of the glass at the top of Brockway.

 

Anyway, the true adventure didn't begin until after completing fabrication of a duct tape rope to tie my door shut for the 40 mile drive back to Houghton! Then I got to drive 400 miles home with my door tied shut and no window (this was with a higher quality nylon rope ;) )

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could it be the structure of the glass and the seal that holds it? some kind of pressure? Remember that most glass are installed from the outside in, not the reverse.. so it would suspectable to the glass already bowing out (hence the blow out).. talk about TOO tight of a fit?

 

Keefe

Keefe
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Xenonk

 

Bending tempered glass will not cause it to break. One can take a 34” X 76” lite of 1/8” tempered glass, place each 34” end on two 8” to 12” elevated blocks, and stand in the middle point of the lite. The middle point of the lite will bow and touch the ground with out it breaking. There is a bending point that will break the lite, but only if it fractures the outside compression layer. In fact you could take a child and have him jump up and down on the lite detailed above without it breaking. This gives you an idea of how tough it is to break a lite of tempered glass. You have to penetrate the outside (compression) layer to break the lite. The perimeter edges are easier to penetrate due to the lack of surface area available to absorb any shock. This is why a pressure point could cause a lite to fail. This is what happened to Brady, but spontaneous breakage is almost certain to be caused by nickel sulfide inclusions.

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Robin: "Holy SH%7 Balls Batman!!! We're being shot at!" Batman: "No Robin, it’s just nickel sulfide inclusions!" HAHAHA :D

 

 

 

I never heard of such a thing. This is very interesting. I would have taken cover as well. That is nuckin futs! :eek:

 

Dave

Dave
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Back in my 12V audio days, we were doing an install on a brand new C5 Vette. My installer was working up front on the speakers and the rear hatch glass exploded. The car was inside a work bay...protected from BB guns and the sun. Needless to say, the call to the customer was nerve-racking. Turns out, the glass was defective and was replaced under manufacturer's warranty. My installer was happy, because he would have been responsible for paying a portion of the damage that our own insurance didnt cover.
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  • 3 years later...

I was just driving on a very smooth freeway two days ago when the moon roof in my Mazda CX-9 suddenly blew out. No cars were near us. It's inconceivable a BB gun or any other gun made that shot. The wind was non-existent. Speed was 70 mph. Air temperature 67 F. Moon roof closed and a/c on low with outside air (no possibility of pressure build-up). I've driven this car 50,000 miles in 18 months in 80 mph gusts, through the Colorado mountains (from sea-level to 12,000 feet), up Mt. Washington - temperature changes from 70 F to 20 F in minutes and back again, and in Arizona summer desert weather - 110 F and beating sun, and along rough wilderness dirt roads. My moon roof didn't have any noticeable pits or cracks, but it's seen 40,000 miles of highways, so there have been a few dinks from gravel, etc.

 

There is simply no way a Nickel Sulfide inclusion suddenly got hot in the sun and caused this moon roof to blow-out, even if that is an explanation for other early-on blow-outs.

 

Because the road was so smooth (I just re-drove it to confirm), (sudden) body flex stressing is ruled out. Temperature is ruled out, too.

 

More and more I think the problem here is tiny imperfections that form on the surface due to minor impacts (pits) that make imperceptible leads in the glass over time. Finally, suddenly, "catastrophic" failure happens suddenly due to any one kind of stressor that would otherwise not be a problem.

 

However, when this happens, I believe it happens in part because the glass chosen is simply too thin to statistically survive 100% of reasonable driving conditions. I've noticed that this glass was relatively thin from what I've seen in other cars. I think the automakers just shoot for 99% or even 95% and see if they can get MOST of them to last through the warranty period...

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Actually - a thicker glass may be causing more problems since it's not as flexible.

 

But I suspect that a laminated glass would be better than a hardened glass. The hardened glass is filled with built-in stress that makes it all shatter when the limits are exceeded. It may even be temperature stress that's the trigger. Cold outside/warm inside.

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  • 6 months later...

I was sitting in my car at a street light...just sitting there waiting for the light to change when BOOM!:eek::eek: The entire driver side window EXPLODED! The same Exact thing as happened to you. I too thought someone shot at me. I looked around and there was no one anywhere and the location I was in it was quite a long distance to any cover where someone could hide. So I figure no one shot anything at me.

 

I figure there is a fault in the Subaru vehicles because they have no frame at the top of the windows.

 

My car is a Subaru Outback bought in Sept 2006 and is in mint condition...well it was in mint condition up until about 2 hours ago. Now it has plastic taped on the driver side door.

 

This is THE freakiest experience I've ever had. I seriously nearly had a heart attack when it happened. A huge and very loud explosion right at my left ear. The car is full of glass, I was covered in glass, the road has glass everywhere. There are even tiny shards of glass embedded in the dashboard and on the door panel on the driver side. That's how powerful the explosion was.

 

Of course now I'm very nervous that this will happen to the other three door windows and when I get the driver side window replaced tomorrow - how long will it be till that happens again. Thank God I wasn't actually driving when it happened. I'm sure I'd have had some sort of accident - very shocking - very startling.

 

I'd like to find out what happened when you went to get the window fixed. What did Subaru say? I've tried phoning various people (Subaru, insurance, etc.) but it's too late at night here and no one answers. Have you heard of this happening before or since?

 

Thanks for any info you can give.

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It's a defect in the GLASS and has nothing to do with Subaru. Subaru does not make their own glass.

 

You're more likely to get hit by lightening than to have another piece of glass with a similar defect.

 

 

Replace the glass, forget it ever happened.

(Updated 8/22/17)

2005 Outback FMT

Running on Electrons

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^ +1

 

Also, frameless windows are common these days. My previous car had them, as well. The only issue I have with frameless windows is that they tend to get "sucked out" at high speeds... and they're a pain in the butt to align, if you ever need to.

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  • 5 months later...

Chock up another blown out driver side window - this time driver's side front on my 2005 Subaru baja turbo.

 

Walked out this AM and there was safety glass all over the place - several feet away! No break-in - as the glass was definately blown out - several feet. There was even glass on top of the car and on the bed cover. :confused::confused::confused:

 

I suspect a defect in the glass - as this window is the most used on the vehicle.

 

-MacZapIt

maczapit@stygius.net

http://www.themadgerman.com

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  • 1 year later...
Just a follow up....Looked closer - seems somebody (dumb@$$) was breaking into cars around my neighborhood that night - by prying out the window/door frame with a screw driver....then popping the door lock and getting inside. seems they tried to do the same with mine - but subaru bajas DO NOT have a frame around the window....and they pried....and popped the window. You could see where there was no glass on the ground (almost a shadow) of where this @$$ was standing when the window blew. There was glass up to 10 feet away....and on top of the vehicle. I only hope this @$$ took some shards to the face and eyes......
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