car people!

[fox]

So a few weeks ago -- one of the days of Carmina Burana, which was the end of March, so okay, four or five weeks ago -- I noticed a crack in my windshield that, upon inspection, can only have come from the effort of de-icing the car following the Valentine's Day ice storm. (I mention this by way of orienting the damage in time, in the hope that this will confirm my suspicion that it doesn't really matter all that much.)

The source of the crack is under the passenger-side wiper blade, and may have come from an especially sharp rap with the corner of the scraper, or may have come from allowing a wiper blade with ice on it to smack back down into the windshield. Impossible to say, at this point, but it's definitely a ding in the outside. The crack itself runs just a bit inside the lower right-hand curve of the windshield, up into the edge. Its total length is a little longer than my handspan from the tip of my thumb to the tip of my little finger.

It has not grown any longer. There is no spidering. I can't feel the crack under my fingertips from inside the car (though I can on the outside). The windshield does not leak in the rain.

Does the windshield need replacing? My insurance has a "comprehensive" deductible of $250, and I have a quote here for $296.51+tax, so I'd almost certainly not bother filing a claim (which assumes that glass is included in that comp anyway, which I haven't looked into yet). I'd get other quotes before signing anyone up to do the work, of course, but what I don't know is if it's even necessary. I don't care about cosmetics -- this car will not be worth anything when I eventually need to replace it, so I'm really just interested in the safety angle here.

Thoughts?

Comments

[jgesteve.livejournal.com]

I don't think you need to worry about it personally. I had a ding in the windshield of my old Honda for ages. I certainly wouldn't worry about it in the summer, I might revisit the situation in the Fall as the way that temperatures vacillate in this area in the winter might cause the problem to get exacerbated. But that's just my $.02

[wishwords.livejournal.com]

Is the deductible per year or per incident? If it's per year then you should go ahead and file a claim, IF you get the windshield replaced, so that if you have another incident during the year your records will show that you have already paid the deductible.

[fafou.livejournal.com]

If the crack can be covered by a dollar bill you may be able to get the crack repaired for free (covered by insurance, free) if it's larger than that then replacement may be necessary but I wouldn't do that anytime before fall.

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

Hand-span, dude. :-} So unfortunately the dollar-bill ship has sailed.

[kmg-365.livejournal.com]

I don't think safety would be an issue. If I recall correctly, you live in VA, which (unlike MD) requires annual car inspections. Depending upon the mood the inspector is in, he could fail you for the crack.

I would only worry about replacing it if:

- it is in your line of vision
- you fail inspection because of it

The first item, based upon your description, does not apply. The second...only time will tell. :-)

[jacquez.livejournal.com]

Seconded.

A handspan crack would fail in my state, by the way. Don't know about VA, but if it was me, living where I live, I'd repair/replace.

[rahalia-cat.livejournal.com]

Definitely replace, if you can't get it repaired (some repair companies can inject a special resin into it, and it only takes about half an hour). Here in the UK, Autoglass have been running a windscreen repair radio ad for ages, especially through the colder weather (that's when it's most vulnerable: turn on the car's heating when it's freezing outside and the temperature contrast could shatter the whole windscreen) and this is what their site says:

A windscreen chip could turn into a crack at any time, often when you are least expecting it. If this happens when you are driving, it could have a serious effect on your safety.

Your windscreen provides up to 30% of the vehicle’s structural strength and the passenger airbag relies on the windscreen to provide support if the airbag deploys. Repairing a chip will result in your windscreen being as strong as before the damage happened.

There's a presentation here (http://www.autoglass.co.uk/Repair-or-replace.213.0.html) that will give you an idea whether the chip could be repaired. If you can't find a place to get it repaired, then I would definitely recommend a replacement, for safety reasons alone.

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

But this is why I was careful to orient the thing in time -- it's been literally months, and there have been (repeated!) freezes and thaws in that time, and the crack is pretty well static. [shrug] Anyway, I'm going to stop by and ask a mechanic if it'd fail the safety inspection, in which case it's a no-brainer; but I'll also call my insurance and see if it's covered. Fun times!

[emila-wan.livejournal.com]

Go to a windshield repair place (the service is available at a lot of service stations and car washes) and get it fixed. That will stop it from spreading, and if you have insurance it's usually free.

[glasshouseslive.livejournal.com]

What emila said. Also, the area I drive in is so industrial, if I changed the windshield every time it got a bad crack, I might as well buy a convertible and wear a helmet. The amount of time before I got my first crack in my CRV was counted in days, not years :-(