Windshield chip filling question

[azerik]

Anyone had small chips filled in the factory windshield? If I keep this car another couple weeks I'll end up getting the windscreen tinted with 70%. In the past I got a tiny chip at the top edge of another cars windshield the day after I had it done. Needless to say that window is cracked in half to this day (Focus EV). I'm curious if anyone has experience with chip repair and if the chip continues to spider. The ones I have are like a hole, a couple have small cracks but none are bigger than a pea. (really I can't think of something smaller than a pea that makes any sense lol)

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[Teslaeata]

A proper windscreen repair should involve drilling the end of cracks to stop them running any further and filling does the rest.

Another thing to consider is whether a repair is good enough to be legal where it is situated on the screen.

Otherwise, only risk is that the heated screen filament/s in that area may be damaged in which case there may be a line of condensation there while the other heating elements fill in for a failed one or two.

 

[DevSecOps]

I had a number of small chips and spidering cracks smaller than a quarter that I used a kit on amazon to repair. Super easy and prevents them from spreading.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07XCFRNX1/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I've also had 1 on my Rivian in the 11k miles I've driven it. I repaired that one also.

 

[azerik]

You UK guys got the heated screens. Mine is only the sound thing. The chips are all down low and really hard to notice, but there's probably 8 of them that could be filled. I hadn't thought about if they drilled the cracks. I have 2 pulsar star cracks, otherwise a bunch of little dots.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07XCFRNX1/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Encrypted auger! Sign me up! This looks better than the last kit I used back in the early 2000's. I'll try it out on my RX (which looks like it's gone to war)

 

[DevSecOps]

Encrypted auger!

Yes everything I buy on amazon must have encrypted somewhere in the description.

 

[Teslaeata]

You UK guys got the heated screens. Mine is only the sound thing. The chips are all down low and really hard to notice, but there's probably 8 of them that could be filled. I hadn't thought about if they drilled the cracks. I have 2 pulsar star cracks, otherwise a bunch of little dots.


Encrypted auger! Sign me up! This looks better than the last kit I used back in the early 2000's. I'll try it out on my RX (which looks like it's gone to war)

US don’t have heated screen? Why’s that??‍

 

[Teslaeata]

Non Ford car makers, I understand, were not allowed to fit heated screens in their cars until very recently for reasons of patent though I happen to know as a fact buses have had them since around 1968 and possibly before in UK.

 

[BMT1071]

Anyone had small chips filled in the factory windshield? If I keep this car another couple weeks I'll end up getting the windscreen tinted with 70%. In the past I got a tiny chip at the top edge of another cars windshield the day after I had it done. Needless to say that window is cracked in half to this day (Focus EV). I'm curious if anyone has experience with chip repair and if the chip continues to spider. The ones I have are like a hole, a couple have small cracks but none are bigger than a pea. (really I can't think of something smaller than a pea that makes any sense lol)

I got a chip/star in my windshield while driving on I-10 downtown a month or two after I took delivery. I had it filled by Safelite and it's still going strong to this day. YMMV.

 

[Mrn]

I got a chip/star in my windshield while driving on I-10 downtown a month or two after I took delivery. I had it filled by Safelite and it's still going strong to this day. YMMV.

How much did Safelite charge?

I used a Permatex kit to fill a small pit with 1/8 inch cracks to either side and I no longer notice it inside the car. We'll see if those cracks spread later?

 

[21st Century Pony]

(for Teslaeata) - The tiny wire heated front windshields are all over European models, and have been for I think decades.

No we in North America (this includes Canada) do not get them. Foolish because they work very well for condensation inside the cabin.

We don't usually get front and rear bumper tow rings either, although there have been exceptions.

And (idiotic if you ask me) we also don't get the rear fog light, not even the choice of optionally getting it, even though a lot of our cars have some or most of the basic wiring grrr... This is a basic safety issue IMHO because fog does indeed happen on occasion all across North America

To come back to the thread topic, I self-sealed my one spider / star chip in the Mach E's windshield we got back in Nevada I think this past Summer. Works well enough and stopped the star from spreading.

Our state Departments of Motor Vehicles are all different, and have different inspection and enforcement standards. In some states, it is legal to have a really long crack as long as it "doesn't directly obscure the driver's road view". Other states are really strict about stuff like this.

Additionally, I know from my past dissolute life that Arizona, because its road crews use a particularly rock-filled aggregate in pouring its asphalt ("macadam" for Teslaeata), has a special car insurance rule that the insurance company has to cover windshield cracks, or at least it used to be so back in the '90s. Most states don't mandate this so the owner pays.

Final windshield crack comment: Once in another car, I got a rock chip from a truck. It was Winter so I waited until warmer temps to self-fill it with PermaTex. Unfortunately, the chip center was deep enough that it penetrated the inner safety layer and chipped its way into the inner (cabin-side) layer of glass, and as I drove through that frigid January night, the inside layer of the windshield glass started to crack vertically... I guess the difference between the heated cabin air and the WAYYY freezing air coming into that hole just proved too much for the glass. There was no way to patch that 4-inch crack on the inside glass.

This was unfortunately in West Virginia and not Arizona, so that crack became an accepted part of that car's character.

 

[BMT1071]

How much did Safelite charge?

I used a Permatex kit to fill a small pit with 1/8 inch cracks to either side and I no longer notice it inside the car. We'll see if those cracks spread later?

I have GEICO insurance and they covered the the cost with no out-of-pocket charge to me.

 

[RickMachE]

Yup. Free.

 

[phidauex]

I've had two chips repaired by Safelite, I believe it was $63 or something. Both are entirely invisible - I don't think I could find them again if you wanted me to. FAR better than a replacement windshield, less chance of damage, and less wasteful.

Do get it fixed right away - if it goes through a few freeze thaw cycles and grows, then it will become unrepairable.

 

[azerik]

It hardly ever freezes here (though prob tonight!) but it's garaged. Doesn't seem to get colder than mid 50's in there. I'm more worried about when I tint it and it heating up in the summer. Though I will have to give State Farm a ring and see if I can get some of the 10's of thousands I've paid in insurance back with a free crack repair. One can hope.

 

[Rj786]

I had a deep pea sized chip caused by a metal object that hit my windshield on the passenger side last weekend. Speedy auto glass repairedthe chip and spider web cracks around it paid by my insurance. I think it was around CDN$125.00. I can still see a very small white spot on the windshield, luckily it is on the passenger side.

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