Crack in windshield

[PE#454]

Yesterday morning I was preparing my car for a road trip, as I had a friend in from out of town. I was sitting in the driver's seat cleaning the inside windshield with a Windex wipe when I noticed a crack in the windshield. It was difficult to see because it begins in the black where the rear-view mirror is attached. Due to its location it would have possibly gone unnoticed until it began growing into a broader line of vision. At one moment I even began to wonder if it was part of the antenna (?) as it was very hard to make out. When I arrived to pick up my friend I had her place her hand over it so I could take a picture. You can't see the crack in sitting position behind the wheel because the rear-view mirror hides it. I only discovered it because I was twisted around and bent over to clean the windshield.


Is it possible that this is a stress fracture? My MINI had a stress fracture about halfway into ownership (about a week before warranty expired) and it was replaced at no charge. But I was under the impression that stress fractures occurred on the edge and this has just appeared at a random spot (although maybe not so random because of the mirror) in the windshield. There is no indication with my naked eye that anything has struck the windshield and I know if something had hit it while driving I would have been very aware. We did some hail in a storm a few weeks ago but it passed quickly. The hail was very light in volume (amount that fell) in my area and ranged from pea-sized to quarter-sized.  I did receive a small dent on my roof from a piece about this size but I am just going to live with it. I read in a search this morning that hail will make some kind of (outer) impression on the windshield but not like a rock, and that a ballpoint-pen test is used to run the tip across the crack to see if it catches on anything. Like I said, with my naked eye I cannot detect the crack from the outside, but i would literally have to crawl up on the hood (and I'm not gonna do that ) to look up close because it is in the middle and up high.

What do you guys think? I haven't contacted anyone yet.

[Fiat500USA]

PE#454 wrote

Yesterday morning I was preparing my car for a road trip, as I had a friend in from out of town. I was sitting in the driver's seat cleaning the inside windshield with a Windex wipe when I noticed a crack in the windshield. It was difficult to see because it begins in the black where the rear-view mirror is attached. Due to its location it would have possibly gone unnoticed until it began growing into a broader line of vision. At one moment I even began to wonder if it was part of the antenna (?) as it was very hard to make out. When I arrived to pick up my friend I had her place her hand over it so I could take a picture. You can't see the crack in sitting position behind the wheel because the rear-view mirror hides it. I only discovered it because I was twisted around and bent over to clean the windshield.


Is it possible that this is a stress fracture? My MINI had a stress fracture about halfway into ownership (about a week before warranty expired) and it was replaced at no charge. But I was under the impression that stress fractures occurred on the edge and this has just appeared at a random spot (although maybe not so random because of the mirror) in the windshield. There is no indication with my naked eye that anything has struck the windshield and I know if something had hit it while driving I would have been very aware. We did some hail in a storm a few weeks ago but it passed quickly. The hail was very light in volume (amount that fell) in my area and ranged from pea-sized to quarter-sized.  I did receive a small dent on my roof from a piece about this size but I am just going to live with it. I read in a search this morning that hail will make some kind of (outer) impression on the windshield but not like a rock, and that a ballpoint-pen test is used to run the tip across the crack to see if it catches on anything. Like I said, with my naked eye I cannot detect the crack from the outside, but i would literally have to crawl up on the hood (and I'm not gonna do that ) to look up close because it is in the middle and up high.

What do you guys think? I haven't contacted anyone yet.

Sorry to hear that.

I think you found your culprit. I was in my car during a hail storm a few weeks back, and expected the windows to blow out any second and the hail was tiny compared to that.

[PE#454]

Well, it turns out it wasn't a crack after all, but a...




grease pencil mark!!!




I first took it to an auto-glass place, and even he thought it was a(n inside) crack. He told me to take it back to the dealer, where the guy just gave it a swipe and it was gone. Once I had spotted it, I didn't apply any pressure with the Windex wipe because I didn't want it to grow longer.

Crisis averted!

[Fiat500USA]

That is awesome news! It's great to see the windshield can take hits from hail that size.  I'd hate to be in a car with that stuff hitting it!

[Bruce in CA]

I was rinsing off a friend's Fiat with a hose just now...and heard a 'snap'...and there's a crack in the windshield from top to bottom!

I'm in L.A....but it's 77º outside..not particularly hot.  I've washed lots of cars on hotter days and never worried about cold water on a hot-ish windshield.

I'm seeing lots of windshield crack reports.  I'm wondering if there IS some kind of issue with it.  Some are spontaneous, some just from routine washing with paper towels and Windex!

Just thought I'd add to the thread for everyones info.