Windshield stone chip repair
 

Picked up a nasty nick on Highway 401 today. Its well within the diameter of a "toonie" but star shaped from the inside. Can this be repaired or do you think its a good idea to get the wind screen checked and replaced? I do live in a city with extreme temps so worried about the screen cracking while driving.

In my experience if you want it gone it's going to need a replacement. Having said that, go to Speedy Autoglass or whatever the other place is and get them to look at it, doesn't cost anything. A new windshield should be around $400 if you don't go for the OEM one but the non-OEM one I got had more distortion around the edges and some minor imperfections. I never got a an OEM replacement one, the glass guy told me they're the same but I never had defects in my original German one.

If you have HUD your replacement windshield will cost more, and then it'll cost you around $600 to get your camera calibrated. Hopefully you have zero-deductible glass coverage.

Your glass repair shop should be able to tell you if its repairable, if the chip is in your line of sight during normal driving, get the windshield replace and ask for an Audi windshield if the insurance company will cover it. The S5 is so new that I guessing there is probably no aftermarket glass yet.

When I bought my car, they had 3 levels of “extended warranty” coverage: the lowest price was just wheels and tires; the next level was W&T and the key fob and the final (most expensive by another $1,500) included W&T, key fob and “genuine Audi windshield” replacement glass. I declined that crazy package as I know how good my insurance company is with genuine replacement parts versus some after-market brand.

The finance manager tried to tell me I was making “the wrong, short-sighted” decision. When she asked who carried my auto insurance and I replied “NJM,” that completely shut her down, the hard sell stopped and we finalized the deal

— John

I had the same thing happen last year and I went to the glass shop and the gave me an 95% chance that it would not grow if they fixed it, but that it would be visible. For cost reasons, and this would be my 3rd windscreen in 12 months (VW CC x2), I had it repaired.
Now 12 months has past and happy that my pocket book did not take a 2k hit.
Mine was not in the line of view and low on the drivers side, so the dash gauge hump hides it while I am inside.

Thanks for the feedback. Got a quote for $130 to fill it up, hopefully wont have to go down with replacement + re-calibration.

Can you post before and after pics and your subjective impression?

with how expensive windshields are becoming due to tech, auto insurance companies are now starting to use windshield/glass claim history to raise your rates, even if it is for just a rock chip repair. I was warned about this when I wanted to schedule a rock chip repair late last year through my insurance since it's free with my glass coverage.

My insurance company allow for original glass in the first year then it is aftermarket oem glass after that. I has issues with both original and aftermarket glass so I canny say one is better than the other.