[RavenTBK]

Okay, something totally random happened to me this afternoon. I was leaving the house, on my way to work down my dirt road. I encountered the set of ripples near the curve as always.. no biggie...quick easy bouncy bouncy and be done with it right? Oh hell no. Second ridge, my back glass explodes. No reason at all, just boom! I stopped, got out and looked and could find no reason as to why this happened. No bullet holes, or anything like that. So, I ripped my now fold up rear glass off the mount and took it back home.

Anybody else ever experienced anything like this? Any ideas why?

There was no body flex, or anything extreme that would do this.. Pretty much, I'm just confused, and searching for answers.



Good news tho... the local SafeLite shop has my window in stock (with the defroster grids!) and can have it installed this afternoon for $180. Pretty cheap compared to the $155 I spent three days ago replacing the stupid skinny rear door glass on an Explorer I repoed.

 

[Oscar]

ups that was bad only seen them break when something hits them make sure you dont have anything sharp in your weather striping that goes around your window :shrug

 

[Ledee416]

a couple years ago I closed the door of my bmw and the glass did the same thing. The way that shatter proof glass works is basically if there is an internal stress point, it will spread, and the entire glass collapses. its for saftey they say...sorry to hear it man.

 

[Juice]

i have heard about that happening to a number of different people. they were all just driving down the road, and the back window exploded. not sure why it happens, but your not alone

 

[Justshootme84]

I've heard of this a few times before, although there was never any recall on the rear glass w/ defrost. If any of the red lines in the glass are broken, it creates hot and cold spots that can stress the glass enough to break. That would explain when it happens in cold weather or if the defrost is turned on, but that doesn't explain the case where it just breaks sitting still! It may hepl to put some tint or window film on, but then you won't have use of the defrost...at least I wouldn't use it on tinted glass.

 

[Moose]

Like Juice said the rear window in my 93 shattered driving down the road.

 

[Dustball]

The torsion bar inside the tailgate probably broke loose and smacked into the glass.

 

[HWY TO HELL]

the glass exploded in the 79 i had..oh wait i through a vise grips through it cause the window motor didnt work:boxing

 

[jermil01]

The torsion bar inside the tailgate probably broke loose and smacked into the glass.

:stupid

 

[Foghorn]

I've heard of the torsion bar getting the glass when it breaks but I thought it only happened when the window was down???? Fog

 

[livetohnt]

the glass exploded in the 79 i had..oh wait i through a vise grips through it cause the window motor didnt work:boxing

:thumbup :lolup :lolup :lolup

 

[Guest]

Tint over the defrost works better as it traps a little more heat. No problemo with mine.

 

[BARTnRED]

Haven't had the rear glass break, but I've had the lefthand quarter glass shatter out of the '89 for no reason at all and a freeway shooter shot clean through both of the quarter glass of the '94 while I was going 75mph.

 

[RavenTBK]

Update

Well, I got the glass replaced by the glass dude after locating a new regulator from the boneyard (stupid plastic slidey things were worn down).

Anywho, the glass dude pointed out the play in the left side tailgate latch (which has always been there) and how close it comes to the sharp corner of the top. So, putting 1+1 together, I came up with this.

Driving down the road, must've flexed ever so slightly while the tailgate slack was being taken up, causing the sharp corner of the top to contact the glass.

Sounds so much like chance, yet chance would explain why its lasted as long as it did with the tailgate play. :shrug

Anywho, my bossman let me use the "company" and get some hefty discounts applied to my bill, and the glass dude installed my "new" old regulator for free "since he was already in there" which was nice.

Now I've glass so frickin clean & clear it looks like its still missing. I'm not sure what to think. I'm leaning towards putting some more 5% limo tint on there like on my old glass.

BTW, I already fixed and took up a lot of the tailgate play, and it hasnt broken again these past couple days driving down my road..so I dunno.