Dave T

I came out last Saturday morning to my garage (unheated) to find the rear window of my 98 A4 completely shattered. There was absolutely no evidence of an impact or object, and the window appeared to have broken due, I suspect, to thermal stress. It had been cold and snowing the night before and I did have the rear defroster on for the ride from work (15min). The window had previously been replaced once before while I was in Memphis, to repair a water leak into my trunk that was obviously caused by a manufacturing defect in the car. When I took it to the dealer Monday morning, his first response was that it was up to me to get the people in Memphis to pay for the window, or for me to call my insurance company. I felt that since Audi contracted to have the window repaired by an outside vendor as part of a warranty issue, the burden should remain with Audi to get re-imbursed for correcting their poor workmanship. To make matters worse, when the dealer here in Rochester, NY contacted the dealer in Memphis, they replied they had never worked on the rear window. It turns out that when we checked the part numbers on my invoice, sure enough they were parts from the rear window on it, so the dealer in Memphis is lying or mistaken. Audi has replied, so far, that it is my responsibility to chase after the people in Memphis, and that the window could not shatter unless something hit it. I have photographs and video tape of the window taken before I drove it to the dealer with no evidence of an impact. I also believe that car windows can in fact break due to thermal stress. What do you all think?

Colin

heat fluctuations can be very hazardous. a few summers ago, the temperature difference between hot and cold shattered a sliding glass window in my house. we first thought it was an attempted burglary, but the police were pretty sure it was due to the temperature difference.

if you are feeling corrupt enough, you can claim insurance and say someone tried to break into your car. mmmmm... just an idea =) well, hope you get it fixed!

regards,
Colin

Steve W (in MD)

It was a cool autumn morning, and I drove to work early to get one of the prime spots in the lot. I was driving a Renault 18i at the time (NO FlAMES - Alain Prost was the major force in F-1 then, driving a black and yellow rocket with steamroller wheels). My car had about 25K on the odometer at the time. I parked the car and went indoors.

About 2 hours later, Ken, Mike and I decided to get a cup of good coffee across the street. When we got out into the parking lot, I noticed that Mike had driven his old MG-B to work. I commented on how he must really like working on cars to use that thing for commuting. He told me that he had less trouble with his car than I ever had with mine. I told him that my car was absolutely trouble free. AT THAT VERY INSTANT, my rear window exploded into a thousand small pieces. Needless to say, Ken and Mike were on the ground laughing. Nobody was within 30 feet of the car when the window broke.

The take home message is that thermal or physical stress to windows happens all the time. When stresses exceed the limits of the glass....

Steve W (in MD)