Driver's side window SHATTERED
 

Although I don't want to alarm anyone, for safety's sake I wanted to be sure to post a reply about a jarring experience I had today with my 3-week old 350Z involving the driver's side window. I still really have no idea what caused it to happen, and I hope it is a freak occurence, but I want to put the information out there just in case.

I was out driving on the freeway today, on my way home after stopping at my Nissan dealer to pick up my new license plates which had just arrived. I was probably going about 65-70 mph -- it was sunny and good weather for Houston (about 71-73 degrees). I was in the far right lane of the freeway when, out of nowhere, my driver's side window completely SHATTERED. It sounded like a gunshot in my ear. Fortunately, it did not cause me to get into an accident, and I was able to safely pull over. By the time I stopped, most of the glass was still hanging in the window, although it was cracked into hundreds of pieces. From the looks of it, it appears that whatever caused the stress began at the top center of the window, because there was a length-wise uneven hole there (maybe about 3-4 inches across, 1/2 inch deep), as well as long cracks which radiated out from the hole (every part of the window was shattered, but the longer cracks were visible where the glass was buckling).

I still don't know whether a rock hit the window, or if something else caused this. I don't remember hearing anything strike the window, and I certainly didn't see anything. A man who was following behind me and who pulled over to see if I was okay said that he didn't see anything strike the window -- he just saw it shatter out of the blue. I can't help but think that one possibility is a defect in the window, perhaps related to the automatic "window seal" feature which raises the door's windows a 1/4" when closed.

In any event, just putting the information out there, and hoping it was a fluke...

That's the first time I've ever heard a window shatter out of the blue. Look inside your car closely to see if you can find something other than glass.

Glad you're ok. You said that the original point of crack was at the top with a hole? Not from a pellet projectile right?

I have actually seen it happen a few times on other cars and once in my very hands. I was moving my stereo rack and I had removed the glass door. I was just holding the door off the ground, not at an angle, no torque being put through the glass. Then it just shattered!! It was freakin weird. The glass was popping and jumping around on the ground like mexican jumping beans for like 10-15 seconds. It must have something to do with either a manufacturing defect, and or uneven temperature change.

Yeah -- my first thought was that something hit it -- did a thorough check of the car and nothing found. The police officer that looked at it was puzzled, and could only say that he didn't think it was a bullet because it would have had to land somewhere. Could have been a pellet gun, but who knows...

That's pretty scary, if that happened to me I would prolly crap my pants or something. Lucky you didn't wipe out though. Hope this doesn't happen to anyone else.

Did you have your driver window down? If it was a bullet it would have gone through it.

Sounds like a defective stress point finally gave on the glass. I am a service manager @ a Dodge dealer and I see 3-4 cases a year in hot or cold weather. I bet it scared the crap out of you though..heehee.

Eddie

I vaguely remember a post a long time ago pointing to some other messageboard where someone talked about their back window shattering like this.

Sounds like a defect, don't think a pellet gun can shatter a window even going down the highway.

I was thinking the same thing. Did they ever determine what ever caused that? That's (2) in just a few short months. The Dodge dealer says he sees 3-4 cases a year... hummm. I hope this isn't reason for concern. -m

One time when I was getting something out of my trunk, all of a sudden my back window shattered into thousands of peices out of nowhere. It startled me and I looked around but no one was around to have caused it. Well it turns out my defrostor had warmed up the window and cold water dripped from my trunk onto the window and the heat change cause it to shatter. This was the craziest thing and it scared the crap out of me. Needless to say...that kind of thing can happen.

Anyone else read the subject line and think, "Oh my God..the keyers have moved on to smashing windows!!"
Glad to hear it wasn't vandalism and you're OK. But wierded out by the thought that strange stuff like this can happen.
Someone get that old Unsolved Mysteries guy over here pronto!!

I had no idea this was a fairly common occurance (3-4 times a year at just one dealer). I once saw the back window explode out of an antique car on a really hot day 102F+, but never new anything like that happened on modern cars. Glad your ok.

OMG! That's exactly what I was thinking! Glad to hear that's not the case, but I've never heard of such a freak occurance before. That's so crazy, escecially since it wasn't a drastic temperature change.

Hope everything gets taken care of and it doesn't happen again! :eek:

yeah i remember that too. when the first Z's started rollin into the states, i remember someones back glass shattered for no reason.
maybe VQracer can look this up somewhere. callin VQ????

When I see someone vandalizin my car at 70mph I'll let him do it...j/k:D

In Houston...it was probably a gun shot ;)

Austin, TX

Says the guy from Austin, "Official Motto: Interstate 35 Under Construction Since 35 B.C."
It's like driving through a shotgun blast with all those little rocks and debris flying all over the place. And the Romulan Cloaking Police Bike Warbirds don't help much either.:D