SERIOUSLY... THIS WINDSHEILD IS HORRIBLE!!!

[Blue highway]

They get the acoustic windshields from a third party. The specs are for acoustic glass windshields that meet NHTSA standards and have a specific shape.

If you browse any recent model car owner’s forum, you’ll see a lot of complaints about chips, cracks, and the car being a magnet for rocks. This happens to all manufacturers.

Acoustic windshields can reduce exterior noise by about 25 decibels, which is a big deal. You can try replacing your windshield with a non-OEM, non-acoustic glass and see if you get a reduction in rock pitting, but I’m not holding my breath.

I think a lot of the rock issues might be because of where you drive and the road conditions. I’ve been driving my Mach-E for almost 4 years now and I haven’t had a single chip, crack, or pitting on the original windshield (knock on wood). The difference might be that I don’t drive on freeways (there aren’t any here), and our roads are in great shape.

Just stop it with facts and reason! This is an internet forum... where is the outrage! sheesh.

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[silverelan]

I’m on my third windshield. Last one took a good hit 2.5 weeks ago. We had glass shards all inside the dash, seats, and cabin. I don’t know if it’s bad luck or there’s something about this car that attracts objects on the highway. No bueno!

 

[azerik]

I also have a ceramic coating on my glass (Adam's Graphene Ceramic Glass Coating), and zero noticeable pits or chips at 16 months in. (It's about time for me to do another coating). But I don't know that the ceramic is going to help much with chips, as I think its real function is its hydrophobic properties. Although I did take a rock to the windshield the other day. I heard it, but I couldn't find where it hit upon closer inspection, so I guess it's possible that the ceramic helped mitigate damage...

I think a lot of the rock issues might be because of where you drive and the road conditions. I’ve been driving my Mach-E for almost 4 years now and I haven’t had a single chip, crack, or pitting on the original windshield (knock on wood). The difference might be that I don’t drive on freeways (there aren’t any here), and our roads are in great shape.
[/QUOTE]
Here we have 7 lane freeways. With landscaping trucks making rounds like Nascar drivers and we supply tons upon tons of 3/4 rock on the side of the freeway. I'm kind of amazed we can even get glass coverage here. Though I'm 'scared' to use it because they'll jack my rates up. I have a chipped roof (on the front edge) and repaired no less than a dozen chips and stars on my windshield. Scraping the glass in hind sight is going to make me repair about 6 chips.

Just stop it with facts and reason! This is an internet forum... where is the outrage! sheesh.

I bet my crappy windshield is the reason I'm not getting OTAs. Must be blocked by all the chips, sending internet waves away from the car. /s

 

[snowdoggie]

40,000 miles on this one.
I think it's softer for more sound deadening. My RX450H also has a sound screen windshield and it's just as soft.
'Funny' thing is it's not pitting, it's faint scratches all over.

wow, I got about half that miles and have almost no dings... there was a truck and a flying rock but was able to buff it out with my finger.

 

[snowdoggie]

I’m on my third windshield. Last one took a good hit 2.5 weeks ago. We had glass shards all inside the dash, seats, and cabin. I don’t know if it’s bad luck or there’s something about this car that attracts objects on the highway. No bueno!

Someone tag safelite

 

[phil]

Ford's glass engineers should all be fired!

All 3,752 of them???

Come on, at least let them keep a few hundred "glass engineers"!

 

[Deleted member 19354]

interesting, I didn't experience any pitting on my 21 or my current 23. Most of my driving is around town so that may be a factor for me.

I have a 23 GT and no issues

 

[Snakebitten]

I had about a 2 year stint of having to traverse the city of Houston from the coastal/rural south, to the northwest area of suburbia.

I experienced 3 major windshield impacts and multiple less serious impacts.

Once that era ended and I no longer drove those freeways, the windshield trauma ended.

So I do personally give credibility to the theory of the roads being as much a determining factor as the engineering of the glass itself.

I also believe the height and angle of the windshield is a factor.

 

[Trick.Mach-E]

I think a lot of the rock issues might be because of where you drive and the road conditions. I’ve been driving my Mach-E for almost 4 years now and I haven’t had a single chip, crack, or pitting on the original windshield (knock on wood). The difference might be that I don’t drive on freeways (there aren’t any here), and our roads are in great shape.

Here we have 7 lane freeways. With landscaping trucks making rounds like Nascar drivers and we supply tons upon tons of 3/4 rock on the side of the freeway. I'm kind of amazed we can even get glass coverage here. Though I'm 'scared' to use it because they'll jack my rates up. I have a chipped roof (on the front edge) and repaired no less than a dozen chips and stars on my windshield. Scraping the glass in hind sight is going to make me repair about 6 chips.


I bet my crappy windshield is the reason I'm not getting OTAs. Must be blocked by all the chips, sending internet waves away from the car. /s

We went 3.5 years and 45k before our first rock put a dime-sized chip in the windshield. Heck I watched the rock flying from a big rig right into the windshield... Safelite was able to repair it and now it's just a small chip. And up until this past weekend I hadn't notice much pitting and rash but there is a little bit that can be seen when driving in to direct sunlight.

What I don't like about the windshield I learned almost immediately within the first month or so when washing it... the windshield is easy to scratch. I put a 2" light scratch cleaning it. Its only noticeable from certain angles but of course I see it all time because I know about it! I really haven't had this type of problem with other cars so it did surprise me... I'm much easier on the windshield now when cleaning it.

 

[azerik]

I was actually thinking about taking a polisher and a light polishing cream to it, but worry about the IRR being the foremost layer. It wouldn't make any sense that it'd be behind a thin layer (the one that's scratching and pitting so easy) but I do not hold a degree in glass engineering.

 

[Ravensfan1996]

3 years 27k miles, had one chip big enough that safelite repaired. Have a few pits as well that safelite said the can’t repair its too small.

 

[steve.panse]

Increase your following distance and when you hear the first piece hit, move!

 

[Dear_OP]

Rock chips complains are like tire puncture complains. It's just the timing, road condition and plain bad luck.

For personal reasons im not selling mine just yet. I dont want to complain but, @Ford Motor Company turned me into that person.....

The only way to get @Ford Motor Company attention is if you post something positive. Then Ford-bot will get activated and respond with a canned message. Does not like negative sentiments. This logic enables Ford marketing to write up stats to Jim Farley on how great the MME is by counting the nbr of Ford-bot activations in this forum.

 

[Mach1E]

Rock chips complains are like tire puncture complains. It's just the timing, road condition and plain bad luck.

And the durability of the glass and design of the car.

Not all glass is created equal. It’s also not all at the same angle.

I’ve owned a lot of cars and been on a forum for almost all of them. Never seen so many chipped windshields on a forum.

Apparently there are films and coatings out there that claim to help though.

I’ve never tried any so no clue if they help-
https://www.getexoshield.com/blog/top-3-myths-windshield-protection-film

https://www.shatterx.com/

Just from a google search

 

[Ford_orr]

I don't know, there might be something to these windshields - and I don't mean just Ford in particular, but all newer cars. I had a 2001 VW Golf GLS that I ran into the ground and ditched within a week of taking delivery of my 2023 MME in January of 2023. In the 22 years I owned the Golf, I never ONCE had so much as a molecule of damage on that windshield. 120,000 miles, driven in all sorts of conditions including a dozen or so surf trips down to Baja California (Mexico) on less than reputable roads. The day I let her go, that windshield was as pristine as the day it rolled off the lot so many moons ago. But in less than two years of my MME ownership, two separate pits already.

I don't know if it's the material of the modern windshield that provides clearer viewing or better thermal cabin control or something, but makes them "softer" and more prone to debris causing damage. Or maybe it's the pitch or angle of the windshield or maybe the aerodynamics of newer hoods funnel debris faster and more flush to the windshield causing damage, but something might be happening. Oh and every vehicle I've ever owned since the '80s has also had zero windshield damage.

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