[Nacherboy]

I am getting ready to have the 3rd windshield installed in my forester this Monday. I've owned it for 4 months. I know what happened to the OEM windshield, a pheasant took it out. The 2nd windshield developed a crack at the base of it on the passenger side near the edge of the heating element for the de-icers. The Next windshield (the one being repaced on Monday) cracked all the way across the bottom over the deicer heating elements.

My questions are:
Why do they break there? is the frame around the windshield uneven?
The replacement windshields are from Safelite and Diamond Autoglass, a big company with mobil installers and many shops around the US. Is there a resistor or something that keeps the elements from getting too hot that got broken or not installed when they replaced the factory one.

Has this happened to anyone else with heated windshields. or is it something wrong with the windshield frame/vehicle body.

Many thanks for any help, I'm tired or repalcing these things.

 

[sea-scooby]

I've owned 3 Foresters, and I've replaced a total of 6 windshields. I had my 98 Forester for 4 years, and I replaced it 4 times. In my current 05 Foresters I replaced both windshields over 2 years ago and I went with PPG glass instead of OEM glass. No issues since.

I'd call around and find a place that uses PPG glass. It seems to be more durable. Atleast for me anyway.

 

[SubieOutlaw]

I have replaced too many windshields now to care.

Find a cheap shop and start saving for the next one.

FWIW, if the crack isn't in your field of view...let it go. If I replaced a windshield every time a crack happened I wouldn't drive my cars. Currently, both cars have a crack across the bottom. I am not replacing until it affect my vision.

 

[flstffxe]

Glass coverage is a must. +1 to PPG glass.

 

[Nacherboy]

Thanks for the responses

 

[ObsidianBlack09]

Yeah, I have a $100 glass deductible. On windshield #6 right now on my '09. It's not a heated windshield, just an unlucky one.

 

[Superru]

Our 98S still has its original windshield. I'm on my third and will need a fourth one soon on the 04. #2 was a PPG. Go figure.:shrug:

 

[bjcarter2]

Yeah, I have a $100 glass deductible.

You should check with your insurance company on a "0" deductible. Mine (USAA) was about $6/car/year more from $100 to "0". Well worth it!

 

[Patrikman]

I have a chip in my 2000 L.

 

[tre36]

FWIW, if the crack isn't in your field of view...let it go. If I replaced a windshield every time a crack happened I wouldn't drive my cars. Currently, both cars have a crack across the bottom. I am not replacing until it affect my vision.

I got a crack running from bottom to top on my Foz since 2002. Looks ugly as heck but does not block my field of vision since it is dead smack in the middle. I never bothered to replace it figuring it would happen again.

 

[valvestem]

You guys who elect to leave the windshield with a crack in it are lucky. In the state I live in, we have no choice, it would not pass our wonderful yearly state safety inspection. No stickee, no drivee, or get big expensive tickee.

 

[ObsidianBlack09]

My Collector Car policy has a $0 glass deductible. It was a lot more to get the $0 glass on the Forester, at least when we got it. Would probably have been worth it if we had known it would eat one every 5,000 miles. Go figure.

 

[Nacherboy]

I just got back from the shop where I had the windshield done. One of the managers said he sees a lot of subarus, Dodge mini vans, and Jeep wranglers. I wonder why they are magnets for flying objects? They showed me where 2 tiny rocks chipped it and the cracks just spread rapidly from there, he said the de-icers will make them spread faster, which makes snse.
Being that Safelite, Diamond and Triumph Autoglass are so large, in all 50 states, I wonder if they got some sort of corporate deal going on that their windshields are poorly made and you have to keep going back to get them replaced, thinking it will be a warranty issue and then they say "no" a tiny rock the size of a Nat busted it.
I'm just extremely frustraited with the whold deal.

 

[RayinAlaska]

You guys who elect to leave the windshield with a crack in it are lucky. In the state I live in, we have no choice, it would not pass our wonderful yearly state safety inspection. No stickee, no drivee, or get big expensive tickee.

It's not a problem in Alaska, but there is a reason why: crushed gravel is used on the icy roads for traction, so in one winter alone one could have two or more cracked windshields. In here we just leave it alone, or replace it during the summer to have it cracked again the following winter.

 

[rjsurfer]

I have had a number of Forester windshields changed over the years, I'm thinking it's because they don't slope back too much, catching more rocks head on.

Ron W.

 

[Bluster]

cracked windshield

I hope this is the right place to ask this. Have any of you had multiple cracks in multiple windshields? It seems like a faulty aerodynamic design. Would the plastic shield for the hood make any difference? Should I contact Subaru direct?

 

[Patrikman]

I have a chip in my windshield and I hear about alot of people having bad Subaru windshields.

 

[aussy91]

i've got a cracked windshield too
it was there when i bought the car
but it looks as if it started as a rock chip
and then spread
but it goes all the way across the bottom of the glass

 

[rjsurfer]

Two cracked windshields on my 98 and one on my 03 Forester, plus numerous pits and dings I'm thinking it's the straight up design of the shield that makes it prone to rock hits.

Ron W.

 

[kena48]

Mine just cracked on its own - from passenger side frame running inwards about 8" long. Car is about three weeks old! Cracked on its own just iddling down the road in the snow. Wife actually heard and saw it crack.