Pirana

Uhm, Sir Nuke who did you use, maybe there are some franchises here in DFW. With only 10,000 miles in mine and sporatic use, my windshield looks like a cheese grate and when I cut a sticker on the windshield banner it left a nasty cut. I guess I was using diamond blades.

lost_concept

Dammit !!!!!

Christmas Eve 2002 !

I was driving from a friends house and didnt notice anything wrong. The light from passing cars shined off my windshield to which i seen a large shiny line going across the middle and splitting to the left a little and right a lot.
Me being a idiot, I thought it was just a hair or something stuck on the windshield because it was so dark outside.
I stopped to the side and noticed a tiny little mark where a pebble must of impacted the windshield and caused it to crack big time !


I will go to my insurance to pay for this but it better not bring up my insurance !

My older 1989 Mitsubishi Galant took rocks and didnt crack.....
But HEY i guess as time progresses and companys follow the concept *Cheaper is better* Materials will save them money to make more money.

In 10 years you never know ! ........
All cars will completely be made out of some space age fiberglass bullshyt ! And the entire frame of the car will be made out of Recycled Plastic .........

Cheap A$$ Shyt mannnnnn
This is insane Dammit .......

Sir Nuke

the shop I used is called BIG G Auto Glass....its a local glass shop, not a chain....I doubt that they have an out let in DFW......

HOWEVER....ANY glass place can get the same windshield that I got....its nothing special....just a PPG replacement glass for our cars.

hihoslva

Surely. What I'd really like to see as far as windshields is:

No more glass - make the windshield out of tough acrylic, and then some sort of diamond or diamond-like coating on the exterior surface for durability. I'd think the cost savings of the acrylic (are there any?) might make up for the excess cost of the coating. And it'd be lighter, too.

Yeah - it'd put the glass replacement/repair companies out of business eventually, but we need to see something tougher than glass. It just pitts, cracks, and chips too easily - no matter what car you have.

But - I'm still waiting on the "flying cars of the year 2000" we were promised 20 years ago.

~HH

Sir Nuke

Waiting? how come? have you put your deposite down yet? NO???? how come? its only $5K for a deposite?

you don't know what I am talking about? check it out......

the ONLY currently tested flying car

make sure you you are sitting down when you see the TOTAL cost of this sucker

Tom Slick

that would be easy to do. Lexan is almost bulletproof (in certain applications it is) and is fairly cheap. the problem is rescue. when you crash your car the rescue personnel can break your windsheild, cut pillers, etc to pull your burning butt out. with acrylic, you cant break it. there are some companies that make lexan windows for certain cars for competition, but they cannot be DOT legal for the "rescue" reason.

hihoslva

Good point. But - don't they make lexan windows for buses and such, particularly school buses? And they are "kick-out" windows. I know this is all speculation, but maybe a windshield that was able to be removed easily by rescue personell - like by cutting one pillar or something like that. Or maybe one that would come out on it's own in a collision, either from the force of the accident or through a charge like that which inflates our airbags? Might even cut down on head injuries!

~HH

Redfyre

Sorry to hear all the problems guys. I have a 2002 P5 and do a lot of highway driving with it so rock and debris are common to my windshield. But I can't say I've had the problems you all have had. In fact, I must say that I am pretty impressed with the windshield on my P5. I've had som pretty big rocks hit me many times and so far, so good.

Now, to stray a little...

I remember reading about some replacement glass for the rear windows of the Civics made from Acrylic or something. It was supposed to be a huge weight saver. Does anyone know if there is anything like this for the P5 and if so, how much it is?

Thanks!

pro00

I have a friend that drives a P5
and 2 weeks after she bought her car
She had a 8 inch crack in her windshield
needless to say, she was upset
cost $500 to fix...

Is the P5 windshield different that the normal
protege windshield...should it?
I mean, isn't the width of the cars similar/excat
just, a different design at the back?

Sir Nuke

the windshields of the 2000-2003 are all the same SHAPE

I am not 100% positive about the 1999 (first year 3rd gen)

purewhitemp5

The windsheid on my P5 sucks. Just after buying it a extremely small rock about the size of a small grain of sand came into contact with the screen. and guess what happened on the next pothole .....ccccccccccccccccrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaccccccccccccccccckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk. From the top to the bottom from left to right. If you look at the contact point you can barely see it. I took it to the dealer and they told me yes there have been quite a few P5 and Protege owners complaining about the fragile state of the windsheilds, but they only replace the windshields with stress fractures and not stone damage. Well that got me really steamed. So I called the Ins. co. and they replaced it after I paid my $100 deductible. I did some checking around and it seems that the dealers around here are getting at least 3 P5's a month for windshield damage.Hmmmmmmmmmmm could be a problem huh???? Maybe we need a recall to address the problem, but it will never happen.

Rogue Pro5

I understand everyone's complaint about the windshield. I was travelling down the HWY and a rock or pebble hit the window. Just by the sound, I knew it wasn't good. Later that afternoon I noticed a 2" crack. The next day it was about 6". Within the next 3 days it had grown all the way down to the bottom, and at the top had taken a sharp left (from inside looking out) turn. It stopped for a couple days, but within a week of the intial hit it grew a total of @ 18"

Cost of replacement: $305.30 US

Wish I lived in FL for the free insurance replacement.

pickupjason

Sounds like the windshield of our p5s is not THAT good...Hope my windshield will last as long as I have the car..

As to the glass manufacturers, PPG is one of the biggest glass manufacturers in US, maybe top2? There are many other manufacturers in Europe like Pilkington and Asahi in Japan.

Here in US, if you have a Saturn, the glass is made by APT..which stands for Asahi PPG Technology. Some joint ventures things. I do believe PPG also OEM Mopar products for Chrysler, Carlite products for Ford/Nissan as well as its own brand names for either Domestic and import cars.

In the country where I came from, some people ONLY believes the brand name they know. For example, a Mercedes owner may not know PPG, so when he/she needs a new windshield, most owners will pay extra money for the one with Mecedes logo on it instead of a cheaper PPG one... Even though both of them are manufactured by PPG...

I also believe there are many small windshield makers in the states, becasue the market is HUGE....

Jason

UCSBgeek

Hey Jason, welcome to the club! Just curious, what country are you from (if you don't mind me asking )?

Human behavior is mostly universal, we have the same kind of people who demand that, and then again there are a lot who will just go for the cheapest replacement to save some money!

As for those with windshield problems, it does sound a little fishy, I have rocks and birds (unfortunately :'() hit my windshield, but they've all come out okay. On the other hand my brother's 99 subaru got a nice crack from a stone. So maybe it's just that newer cars have just had their costs cut by using cheaper parts.

And, for those of you who doubt that PPG is an American company... you ought to take a look at the PPG building in Pittsburgh sometime.

Finprof

You are right, Carlos. This is an area where the German manufacturers were way ahead of the US and Japan. As early as 1990, a BMW or Porsche windshield would crack from looking through it incorrectly. They also get sandblasted easily so that they have to be replaced even if they aren't cracked.
It might also have something to do with the greater rake angle of windshields in more recent years, whereas earlier cars had more upright windshields. Perhaps more curvature leads to more cracking.