Windshield finally ate it

The aftermarket glass companies will likely replace it with factory glass - it's not a common enough vehicle that any glass company would be remotely interested in creating a custom part for it.

Seems to be the problem with the Element catching a lot of road divots is that, let's face it, it's a big sheet of glass, it's high, and it's damn near vertical. Also trust me, if you get hit, you don't want something much tougher if you bounce your head off of it!

Welcome to the broken windshield club.. On my 3rd and allready had a hit in it.

slimerdogs said:

Welcome to the broken windshield club.. On my 3rd and allready had a hit in it.

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You guys drive on dangerous roads, I'm still on my first

Ha!... six years of no problems, until it turned 100,000 miles. Then it collected its first hit the next day. The next day. Very weird!

Immediate trip to the parts store for a repair kit saved it from growing, tho'! [whew!]

Just had mine replaced Saturday. Broke it last week putting a kayak inside. I've done it before but nudged the Yak against the windshield just right this time.

I am on my 3rd windshield as well.....freeways in So Cal....

Yeah, I should have expected it seeing as I just paid it off Friday.

Oh man that sucks! Hopefully you have full glass coverage.

I recall some people saying Pilkington is better than PPG (the OEM, IIRC). Try search on those names for opinions.

MikeQBF said:

Ha!... six years of no problems, until it turned 100,000 miles. Then it collected its first hit the next day. The next day. Very weird!

Immediate trip to the parts store for a repair kit saved it from growing, tho'! [whew!]

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They have a kit? We also have a star in the glass (souvenir from Wyoming)---which part store did you get it at?

Twilightzero said:

You guys drive on dangerous roads, I'm still on my first

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Instead of salt here they pour cinder stone on the road and it flies around and not only hits the window it has blasted the plastic panel right in front of the rear wheel.
Most auto parts stores will have a windshield repair kit and its around 10 dollars. I found the one from Prestone works really great as it pushes the filler into the glass instead of pulling a vacuum.

Yeah - pretty much any parts store will have at least one or two brands. They're on hang tags with the Permatex and Loctite stuff.

One thing to note - read the instructions before leaving the store. The kit I bought (during a road trip to, uh... Wyoming... how strange) didn't come with a single-edge razor, which was required in a couple of steps. I fudged it with a Leatherman knife. The repair resin cures with UV (sunlight is sufficient), so you'll need to arrange things to do most of it in the shade and then be able to move it into direct sun for the last two steps.

pea said:

Mine cracked sitting still in a parking lot! Guess I should have picked a better spot lol.

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You park in dangerous parking lots... :lol:

I'm waiting on my 3rd windshield. The crack in my 2nd isn't big enough yet. On both my 1st and 2nd I caught a rock right below the wiper blades and didn't see the chip until it spread up past them. I did just find a shop out here that agreed to put a strip of the clear bra stuff on the bottom of my windshield and I'm hoping that will stop the surprise chips the turn to cracks

Mine cracked the week after I had to put in a claim for my vandalized Civic.

Started as a little crack, (which I guess the glass shop was going to fix by squirting in the goo) and by the time I made it to the shop had turned into a 1 foot long crack. Yay for no deductible insurance!

Then a couple of weeks after THAT, I had to file a claim for golf ball sized hail stones doing a number on the E.

My insurance company was probably hating me by then, and I'm sure they didn't get much happier when I jumped ship and went to Geico the week after the hail stone claim went through.