Realistically when does a windscreen need repairing?

[Leicesterdave]

or replacing? I literally have picked up my first tiny stone chip on the MINI- in the middle of the windscreen. It's tiny, but every autoglass replacement company on the net goes on about the possibility of it cracking if not attended to.
Now surely the regular motorway drivers on PH must pick up a chip every few days or weeks- I can't see one pissing about going to autoglass every time a new chip appears?
Opinion?

[Crafty_]

If its tiny it probably can't even be filled.
Why not just pop by an autoglass type place and ask them - they will only be too glad to fill it if they can and it wont normally cost you anything.

I'd say you are a long way off replacing the screen

[retrorider]

Put a piece of selotape over it as soon as you can to stop any crud getting in it.If they can repair it,it will be a far better repair.

Edited by retrorider on Sunday 28th March 19:50

[Leicesterdave]

Crafty_ said:

If its tiny it probably can't even be filled.
Why not just pop by an autoglass type place and ask them - they will only be too glad to fill it if they can and it wont normally cost you anything.

I'd say you are a long way off replacing the screen

It is tiny- no bigger than a drop of sap on the windscreen- 2mm max!

[HellDiver]

I've had craters in windscreens - one was right through so water came in on a wet day. The windscreen never cracked, fell out, or caused me to die a horrible death in a twisted heap of metal. It was just above the right hand edge of the passenger side wiper.

I wouldn't worry about it.

[bazking69]

Marketing hype by the people at Autoglass et al.

Most chips will never cause a problem or crack.

[GKP]

I've got two fairly hefty chips on my 'screen. One is within the swept area and has been noted on the past two or three MOT tests. The 'screen has survived both summer and winter temperatures and some fairly testing off road work.

Even if it did develop a crack, I doubt if it would cause me to crash or prevent my airbags from functioning or mean my car was completely undriveable - typically on a rainy Friday rush hour. So I guess the adverts might not be completely true...

[Snoop Bagg]

I had a tiny chip on the bottom of my Mini's screen, I went to the car wash and the heat from the pressure washer cracked 90% of the screen.

The problem is that the Mini's screen is laminated, if I were you I'd get it done now by Gavin at Autoglass. I hear Gavin can fill your crack up with his injection of "Special Resin" which will probably be far cheaper in the long run.

I think it was around £120 to replace the whole windscreen on the insurance, but to be quite frank I didn't want my crack touching!

[Leicesterdave]

Snoop Bagg said:

I had a tiny chip on the bottom of my Mini's screen, I went to the car wash and the heat from the pressure washer cracked 90% of the screen.

The problem is that the Mini's screen is laminated, if I were you I'd get it done now by Gavin at Autoglass. I hear Gavin can fill your crack up with his injection of "Special Resin" which will probably be far cheaper in the long run.

I think it was around £120 to replace the whole windscreen on the insurance, but to be quite frank I didn't want my crack touching!

I think I'll leave it- it's so tiny that if it can't take it- i'll just walk on the motorway.

[Spleeble]

I have had loads of chips in my windscreens and many of them don’t cause any problems and are so small they are not worth bothering with. I have had problems on 2 occasions with chips close to the edge if my screen which has then caused a large crack, I’m lead to believe that Gavin’s “Special Resin” would not prevent a crack if the chip was in this location. I would only get a chip seen to if it was going to lead to an MOT failure.

[Leicesterdave]

Spleeble said:

I have had loads of chips in my windscreens and many of them don’t cause any problems and are so small they are not worth bothering with. I have had problems on 2 occasions with chips close to the edge if my screen which has then caused a large crack, I’m lead to believe that Gavin’s “Special Resin” would not prevent a crack if the chip was in this location. I would only get a chip seen to if it was going to lead to an MOT failure.

I have left it- it seems ok **touch wood**

[boomboompow]

It isn't the stone chips that are annoying mean at the moment; after a harsh winter of my blades scraping a lot of dirt and crud off the screen the glass has thousands of tiny scratches which you don't notice during the day, but is very annoying at night, especially when driving under streetlights

[The Wookie]

Snoop Bagg said:

I had a tiny chip on the bottom of my Mini's screen, I went to the car wash and the heat from the pressure washer cracked 90% of the screen.

The problem is that the Mini's screen is laminated, if I were you I'd get it done now by Gavin at Autoglass. I hear Gavin can fill your crack up with his injection of "Special Resin" which will probably be far cheaper in the long run.

I think it was around £120 to replace the whole windscreen on the insurance, but to be quite frank I didn't want my crack touching!

Strangely enough, my girlfriend's Cooper Cabrio has gone through a ridiculous number of screens. It's been changed twice within the last 18 months, and now, a few months after the last replacement, it's split again from top to bottom.

All instructions for leaving it for several hours to set were followed each time, and each time a miniscule chip has been identified on the line of the crack. Make of that what you will.

[Leicesterdave]

The Wookie said:

Snoop Bagg said:

I had a tiny chip on the bottom of my Mini's screen, I went to the car wash and the heat from the pressure washer cracked 90% of the screen.

The problem is that the Mini's screen is laminated, if I were you I'd get it done now by Gavin at Autoglass. I hear Gavin can fill your crack up with his injection of "Special Resin" which will probably be far cheaper in the long run.

I think it was around £120 to replace the whole windscreen on the insurance, but to be quite frank I didn't want my crack touching!

Strangely enough, my girlfriend's Cooper Cabrio has gone through a ridiculous number of screens. It's been changed twice within the last 18 months, and now, a few months after the last replacement, it's split again from top to bottom.

All instructions for leaving it for several hours to set were followed each time, and each time a miniscule chip has been identified on the line of the crack. Make of that what you will.

MINI windscreen seem bad- does worry me a tad but I can't spend my life worrying over every little chip can I?!

[Size Nine Elm]

Depends on your MOT tester.

Windscreen had a scrape (not cracked, and not through the glass) in the drivers view area. About 1cm long, but almost invisible, and had been through a couple of MOTs already. Failed the last one, and was told standards on chips/scratches had been really tightened. So a perfectly good windscreen got replaced for £250.

Could have gone to a different garage, but was really short of time.

If it's a very small chip, can be stabilised with a superglue-like insert, and should still be OK.

[The Wookie]

Leicesterdave said:

MINI windscreen seem bad- does worry me a tad but I can't spend my life worrying over every little chip can I?!

I'm not sure the screen itself is bad, It's probably because the screen is quite low and upright!

Personally, if it's just a chip then I'd get it sorted if it costs nothing and it's convenient.

If it's a crack we've now taken the view that unless the crack is right in the line of sight then leave it until the MOT is due, and then only change it if it needs it! The car's clearly vulnerable to them if you regularly travel on fast/busy roads, so why bother changing it unless you have to, because you could quite easily end up with another one straight after you've changed it!

[Munter]

boomboompow said:

It isn't the stone chips that are annoying mean at the moment; after a harsh winter of my blades scraping a lot of dirt and crud off the screen the glass has thousands of tiny scratches which you don't notice during the day, but is very annoying at night, especially when driving under streetlights

You can get the screen polished* to solve that. My dad had it done years ago.

.* no not with car polish but proper made for the job of polishing glass stuff.

[Snoop Bagg]

The Wookie said:

Leicesterdave said:

MINI windscreen seem bad- does worry me a tad but I can't spend my life worrying over every little chip can I?!

I'm not sure the screen itself is bad, It's probably because the screen is quite low and upright!

Personally, if it's just a chip then I'd get it sorted if it costs nothing and it's convenient.

If it's a crack we've now taken the view that unless the crack is right in the line of sight then leave it until the MOT is due, and then only change it if it needs it! The car's clearly vulnerable to them if you regularly travel on fast/busy roads, so why bother changing it unless you have to, because you could quite easily end up with another one straight after you've changed it!

It's because the screens and laminated and seem to crack very easily. I had a stone or nail flick up and it just chipped the bottom of the screen, the heat from getting the car cleaned just cracked it £120 on the insurance. I've had them done for £50 on Fords previously!

[boomboompow]

Munter said:

boomboompow said:

It isn't the stone chips that are annoying mean at the moment; after a harsh winter of my blades scraping a lot of dirt and crud off the screen the glass has thousands of tiny scratches which you don't notice during the day, but is very annoying at night, especially when driving under streetlights

You can get the screen polished* to solve that. My dad had it done years ago.

.* no not with car polish but proper made for the job of polishing glass stuff.

Its a huge job to do though isn't it? (assuming you mean using something like Jeweller's Rouge on the whole screen ) To be fair the car has done 92k in 5 years and the majority of the glass (and paintwork) is pretty good, it has just taken a battering this winter that's all.

[amir_j]

HellDiver said:

I've had craters in windscreens - one was right through so water came in on a wet day. The windscreen never cracked, fell out, or caused me to die a horrible death in a twisted heap of metal. It was just above the right hand edge of the passenger side wiper.

I wouldn't worry about it.

+1 have a "if it was any bigger would fail mot" sized chip, had it for years and never got around to fixing- its marketing crap when they show the adverts with the crack getting bigger


better to have fixed though as most policies do it free and shouldn't affect your insurance