Re: Spontaneous Windshield Breakage?!?

[Aleksander Mierzwa <alex@matrix.com.pl>]

At 23:14 25.05.98 -0400, Bryan Kamerer wrote:

>	Today I returned to my car after leaving it parked for 4 hours to find the
>windshield had broken in front of the passenger, vertically in a fairly
>straight line about 6 inches, then the break turned towards the center 90
>deg. for another 8 inches.  Absolutely not there when we left the car -
>both the passenger and I confirm this.
>	Anybody ever heard of anything like this?

I recall reading an article in one of the car magazines where the editors
complained that they had the windshield broke on the BMW 540i they tested
when they set the A/C to defrost mode on a sunny day. I think you could get
an opposite effect: if you drove your car for a while with the A/C set to
low temperature and then left the car in a sunny spot, the windshield could
get rapidly heated and break from the stress.


Aleksander Mierzwa
Warsaw, Poland
mailto:alex@matrix.com.pl
87 Audi 5000CS turbo (mine)
88 Renault Medallion wagon (mom's)
91 mountain bike (just in case both cars broke at the same time :-)