Folks,

Has anyone else here had horrible luck with Lexus windshields? I have had to have 3 replaced in the last 6 months, and 1 on my new '06 GS-300! It's ridiculous, with just a minor rock it cracks - and they are HUGE cracks!

I am wondering if this is a production/quality issue on the windshields with Rain sensors... please let me know your experiences.

Lee

 

I'm on the highway every day and never have a problem Those must be some big rocks hitting your windshields?

 

Well note that he has a 06' which is the 3rd gen. When I took my car to the dealer for my 5k checkup....some lady had the 06 GS3 and i heard her complaining of a crack in the winshield. So, I walked by her car and checked it out. Looked like there was a hairline crack in it about 8inch long in the middle of the windshield.

Toyota may be using too weak of a forumla in their glass in the past year. My friend has the 05' Scion Tc and the windows got scratched from a plastic scraper that the shop used for installing tint! Maybe all this weak-sauce glass is due to some new regulations on manufacturing techniques.

 

mine sucks....I already have two sizeable rock chips on my windshield...the first wasnt too bad, because it was on the passengers side by the wiper blade, so barely noticable. Unfortunately, the second one which I got (mind you I wasnt even close to anyone on the freeway when it hit) is at eye level above the steering wheel. I have to look at the dang thing everytime Im behind the wheel, and its annoying

 

one little crack (not even through the glass) in my over 3 yrs ownership. considering that huge rock and how fast i was going, i think the glass is pretty darn strong

 

I was talking about the newer Lex/Toyotas. The lady I saw had a 3GS300, and my friends car is a '05 Scion Tc.

 

they really dont have much to do with each other. Lexus has several layers of glass while tC's have simple old school windshield.

 

A lot of it has to do with the obsession today with thinner sheet metal and glass. While it is true that Lexus and some other upscale makes use multi-layer glass for noise reduction, those are still some mighty thin layers.

Also, while this may sound evasive and off-topic, some of the blame rests with trucking companies ( especially dump trucks and those used for paving and construction ) for not covering and securing loads properly, and with the highway departments for dumping enormous amounts of sand, gravel, and small stones on the road as '' abrasives " when it snows. That s - - t just gets kicked up by tires all over the place....right into paint, glass, and trim.

In my area some ( not all ) of the jurisdictions have stopped dumping abrasives on the road because of the mess and damage it causes. They just use salt now and that's it.

 

I would be fine if they didnt use the salt and used only the "abrasives", as you call them, the salt eats EVERYTHING! and clouds of whit salt dust follow you on days when the roads dry.

I miss alaska, they didnt use salt, only soft sand.

 

must be the newer glass b/c ive had stone hit my windshield pretty hard and nothing

 

Had my Lexus for 3+ years now, had detected something hitting the windshield a few times(i.e when the ML is not on , which is not often ), still no cracks so far, hope it stays that way.

 

The 2 people complaining about the glass are from California and Texas, the cars bake in the sun and then a pebble hits the hot windsheild of course it's gonna crack

 

Any windshield glass is laminated, typically its ~1/4 thick on the overall, consisting of two layer of 1/8" tempered glass with 0.060" PVB interlayer in between. I guess if Lexus is using more layers than 2, then the actual glass is thinner and more prone to crack, however several interlayers add strenght in the sence that even if the glass cracks on impact, the interlayers will still hold the winshield together. Also, the more layers the better sound isolation you get.

 

Salt can be washed off with a hose and sponge ( if it is warm enough ) before it does any real damage...the damage abrasives does cannot.