Windscreen crack

D

dr_john

Veteran
 Barrow Upon Soar
Discovered a nasty crack, about 12in long, today on my G29. It runs from the top centre down about 3 inches and then across.

It reminds me of the test drive I had in a G29, that had a similar crack. Gets me wondering if there is an inherent fault. Any other windscreen cracks with you guys? Just coincidence I hope!

The manual says I should be careful with the replacement, especially with the HUD which I have.
 
Windscreen shouldn’t and don’t just crack. There are so few g29s around, two sounds more than a coincidence.

Maybe go to bmw first and question them as to why it’s cracked. I certainly would (unless you can see an impact mark anywhere of course).
 
dr_john said:
Discovered a nasty crack, about 12in long, today on my G29. It runs from the top centre down about 3 inches and then across.

It reminds me of the test drive I had in a G29, that had a similar crack. Gets me wondering if there is an inherent fault. Any other windscreen cracks with you guys? Just coincidence I hope!

The manual says I should be careful with the replacement, especially with the HUD which I have.
Click to expand...

The crack without impact damage which you would have heard, definitely sounds like a stress induced crack and especially given that the test car had the same crack exhibited.

The Windscreen in our 335 was replaced by Autowindscreens (£75 excess) and the chap told me that if it has the HUD / Sign Reading kit it has to be calibrated by a BMW dealer - as they won't touch non BMW parts, Autowindscreens fitted a BMW screen.
 
Definitely no impact damage.

Weather’s been hot and we have been away from home touring in Norfolk the last few days, so the car has been through some high temperature cycles. Still, shouldn’t happen. I recall that the weather was hot at the time that I took the test car drive,

Will pay particular attention to the HUD issue.
 
Definitely sounds like stress fracture I would be banging on dealers door this happened to a new Mercedes sprinter I had a few years ago on further investigation found out it was a build problem Mercedes replaced screen no charge sounds like possibly the same problem :thumbsdown: not good
 
Just got back from the dealer, on initial examination they are saying it does look like a stress fracture and that should be covered by the warranty. I have to take it back for a more detailed examination next week followed by a report of the findings to BMW, then hopefully a new windscreen under warranty.

I'm hoping that it's not an insurance job, my insurers (Direct Line) state that the work must be done through Autoglass with a £75 payment from me. I'm more concerned about non OEM parts and calibration of the HUD and lane departure camera, although at the dealers today they said that there was nothing to get concerned about if Autoglass do the job.
 
Shouldn't be any costs if it's a stress fracture, it would be done under warranty.

However there should be a cost associated with my time and inconvenience, but I don't think that's gonna happen :rofl:
 
I think I have read somewhere that main dealers don't do their own windscreen work and sub it out to the likes of Auto windscreens and autoglass
 
Jollyjoiner said:
I think I have read somewhere that main dealers don't do their own windscreen work and sub it out to the likes of Auto windscreens and autoglass
Click to expand...

Yes I believe that is right, except that OEM glass etc gets used.

I had a new Honda Accord many years back that had a stress fractured screen, the main dealer in that case certainly used one of the glass fitting companies.
 
As I said in my earlier post - Autowindscreens will only fit OEM to,BMW’s with camera screens as they require calibration by the dealer — and the dealer won’t look at pattern parts. My insurers would only deal with Auto windscreens so i didn’t have any choice.

That was my experience when screen was bust in the 335 - it’s got HUD and thus the camera etc.

I’ve got to say the fitter was excellent and detailed. He was quite happy to explain what he was doing and why.

I would be happy to use them again should it be necessary ( Hopefully not)


Re the stress - I would suspect mechanical stress rather than thermal - Just a hunch!
 
Dealers looked at the crack and declared it was caused by a stone chip, buggered if I could see it. I couldn't be bothered arguing, I knew it was a lost cause but I guess I did show my annoyance!

Anyway it was fixed today by Autoglass, the technician took a long time to do it due to lack of info on the camera, it was the first G29 that Autoglass had done. It all went back together and all seems OK, they are sending a specialist round to calibrate the camera.

One good point is that they used an OEM BMW HUD screen, the tech said that since the model is so new there probably aren't any competitors as yet.
 
It’s quite remarkable that a stone caused an identical crack in the demo car!

I hope you have a photo’ of the previous damage ‘screen just in case it occurs again (hopefully not of course )
 
Happens to us all I suppose, I had to replace the screen on Steve a few months ago, a stone chip had sit on my screen and I had forgotten about till I did an oil change and dropped the car back down off the Jack (gently I add) I heard a crack and Lo... A 12 inch crack across the screen appeared.. Bugger..
I only have a rain sensor but all was sorted neatly
 
BMW don’t seem to put themselves out to look after their customers. With an expensive car like yours you would think they wouldn’t hesitate to replace the screen free of charge. If they had you would feel that the dealer cared and you are much more likely to give them repeat business. A few years ago I bought a little Skoda vRs as a runaround. Reaching for a box on a shelf in my garage a tin fell off and chipped the screen. The dealer replaced free of charge at his cost not Skodas. It’s service like this that enables Skoda to finish near the top in the annual AutoExpress survey while BMW languishes at the other end of the list. :thumbsdown:
 
Just for information, I had what sounds like very similar damage to my E86 windscreen about 7 weeks ago. Also no impact damage and happened while my car was sitting on the driveway on a very hot day. I’ve never seen a crack developing like that before and while the heat may have been a factor I’m not sure, the car has been in considerably hotter climates in Europe without event. Perhaps not an issue exclusive to the G29.

27373F54-C2E6-4C4A-A4D4-A8B9690B719C.jpeg
 
dr_john said:
Dealers looked at the crack and declared it was caused by a stone chip, buggered if I could see it. I couldn't be bothered arguing, I knew it was a lost cause but I guess I did show my annoyance!

Anyway it was fixed today by Autoglass, the technician took a long time to do it due to lack of info on the camera, it was the first G29 that Autoglass had done. It all went back together and all seems OK, they are sending a specialist round to calibrate the camera.

One good point is that they used an OEM BMW HUD screen, the tech said that since the model is so new there probably aren't any competitors as yet.
Click to expand...

Oh now why doesn’t that surprise me....

You’re too soft Doc, BMW are getting ridiculous, normally I can’t be bothered either but this brand is taking the piss at every level, I’d have got into one properly with them on this, down to parking in front of the service bay and blocking it until they showed me where the chip was..... :evil:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom