I was driving home from work tonight, slowly creeping along in traffic when BAM, my back glass shattered, and snap crackle and pop it just kept going. Scared the **** out of me. Then eventually a big section just fell out as I was driving.

Being in DC first thing in thought was someone shot my window out.

I did not see any point of impact nor was there any chips in my rear glass that I ever noticed and i am pretty **** about keeping my truck clean.

Has anyone experienced something like this? I've heard of this happening on occasion with our sunroofs.

 

Never heard of such a thing. My first thought was someone may have shot at you may it be real or pellet. Did you retrieve the glass?

 

I was sitting in rush hour traffic in the city. After the impact there was n hole that I could see, or the tell-tale radiating out cracking. It's like it started to just crack all over. Most f the glass is in tact, no signs of a projectile hitting it.

I googled this and it appears I am not alone.

 

It's rare, but it does happen. Sometimes because of thermal stress, sometimes because an edge got nicked. Or even a rock thrown from a lawn mower.

If you're going to put plastic sheeting over it, don't use duct tape. The adhesive messes the paint up.

Chip H.

 

Was your rear defroster on?

Sometimes they can get too hot too quickly and cause localized thermal expansions which are not conducive to keeping your glass intact.

 

It does happen. My wife and I bought a 2012 Tahoe, new, when we were on vacation in Dallas. Drove it home to New Mexico and the next day in the garage the window on the rear hatch exploded.

 

That's crazy!

 

I'll never forget the day when I was grade school age and my dad left for work and I thought I heard a gunshot outside and he came running in with blood coming down the side of his head...... luckily, the noise was his sunroof exploding spontaneously and a superficial cut on the side of his head. Definitely a memorable event as a child in the boring suburbs.

 

No.

Car was parked in a garage in the city all day, just like every day. Temps are def warmer in the garage but it's not conditioned space, so it's not like the glass was all that warm to begin with.

Hopped in the car just like I always do, heat set to 'auto' car eventually warms up on the drive home. Funny thing is, this occurred about 35 minutes into my drive, so the car was well warmed up at that point. Exterior temps were in the mid 30's.

Very strange...

 

Anywho, have my local glass guy coming by tomorrow to replace the glass. $397.

Only the bottom half of my defroster worked, so at least that's going to get fixed now.

 

I found this article interesting. I guess it doesn't take much of an imperfection to make this happen.

What could cause a sunroof to explode or shatter?

CarComplaints.com contacted four of the top university mechanical engineering professors and asked that very question. All agreed the problem could be found in the glass itself, not necessarily how it was installed in the vehicle. In fact, all types of glass products can explode, including ovenware, patio tables, even glass balconies. It’s occurred for years and the problem has grown in vehicles because more cars come standard with a sunroof/moonroof, something that was once considered a luxury option.

A sunroof is made with tempered glass that is designed to break into small pieces for safety. Any imperfection in the glass--whether caused by a bad batch of glass or a scratch from a rock--can cause the glass to shatter when under pressure. The pressure might come from the vehicle itself because every vehicle is more airtight than ever.

Because a glass sunroof is under a lot of compression, air pressure or temperature changes can all contribute to pressure on the glass. All it takes is one microscopic imperfection and time to allow the problem to reach a level where the glass explodes.

http://www.carcomplaints.com/news/20...-explode.shtml

 

And here's someone with a relatively new GX460 where this happened, but they caught it on tape.

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/gx-...ce-please.html

 

damn that's scary!

 

Here's a video of that GX460 owner's glass exploding. Mine didn't explode out like that because we have fixed rear glass, hence no gas shocks pushing against it. Had I had gas shocks pushing against my glass after the glass at the latch failed, I am sure something similar would have happened. Pretty creepy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbZo...ature=youtu.be

 

It happens more often than you might think. Recently I had a Jeep side window shatter for no apparent reason. That replacement was easy enough to do myself for $30.
If you have comprehensive insurance the glass replacement cost might be covered, depends on your your policy.
It might also be covered by Lexus if your vehicle was still within the standard or extended warranty period. Probably not likely if its a 2005 model.