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Driving up the M1 today and a 12 inch crack appeared on my windscreen, called Admiral who then put me through to AutoGlass who have given me a 1 week lead time.
Locally i can get it fixed tomorrow but as i cannot get through to anyone at Admiral i cannot get this approved.
What would the STW massive do?
I'm in the same situation. Insurance company recommend National Windscreens. After a cancelled appointment 2 weeks ago still waiting for them to confirm the new date. Have now paid for a screen myself which is hopefully being fitted tomorrow.
In lots of places people would just drive along as normal till the end of the cars life. I wouldn't personally be fussed about a 1 week wait
I think last time I had this I called up a mobile windscreen company...
If I recall I just showed them my insurance details /windscreen cover and they did the work on that basis and presumably just back billed the insurance company. I don't think I even spoke to the insurance company myself.
Depends on the location of the crack and if it's growing. If it's not in the way I'd be happy with the 1 week
I'd not be bothered about a one week wait (depending on usual caveats as already mentioned).
Also depends on the car - an windscreen isn't just a windscreen anymore - they are complex pieces of tech with other tech attached to them!
Paying out of your own pocket and then expecting insurance to pay up could prove very expensive.
Had mine replaced 3 weeks ago after a 2 month wait for a replacement to become available at the insurer's preferred company (Auto glass). Did try ringing around but no-one could get one any quicker and if they could I'd have had a £200 excess not a £100 one.
The original crack was only an inch long but had grown to well over a foot by the end! Thankfully on the passenger side and low so didn't affect vision in the slightest.
Good advice here: my crack is about a foot long.
Cracked screens are constant pain in my work van, with the mileage I do.
Had 4 screens last year. Sometimes two week wait. Then if it rains the job gets cancelled.
I repair any stone chips or small cracks to stop them growing with a kit from Halfords.
One new screen cracked the following day, which was inconvenient as the screen was swapped for the imminent MOT.
I’d just “crack on” until it can be swapped.
Also worth mentioning that not all replacement screens are of a similar quality. Had mine replaced by National Windscreens last month and the fitter mentioned he was pleased it was a decent brand that he had been given to fit rather than a cheaper (Chinese) replacement. He also pointed out how badly the previous screen had been fitted (before I got the car).
New windscreens are not cheap, certainly those that have all the sensors in, our last one was about £700 apparently.
Yes you can drive round with a broken windscreen, but it isnt half as strong as it was before, depends how risk adverse you are really. It will be illegal too, and just googling some insurance may not be valid.
However if you have a booked appointment I am not sure what else you can do?
Cracked screens are constant pain in my work van, with the mileage I do.
IME, vans do seem to be more prone to broken windscreens. But 4 a year! Blimey, do you do a lot of contracting in Mariupol?
years ago I bought a cheap car of one of my lecturers. One of the problems was it needed a new screen. I rang a few places and they were all quoting around about £150 (lot of cash for a student in early 90s). Eventually after moaning a bit too loudly to one chap on the phone he told me not to worry as the insurance would be paying. I told him not so as it was a car I was doing up and not even on the road. Oh, in that case we can do it for £50 he says!!!
You can buy a special kind of glue that might help as a stop gap, but I think it's more designed to fill in stone chips and prevent themprogressing into cracks, so might not be a sensible idea if you already have a crack.
. It will be illegal too, and just googling some insurance may not be valid.
its not illegal (although it would fail an MOT), and your insurance would be fully valid. I'm also not convinced it'd have lost significant strength, the strength is in the plastic layerof a windscreen, not in the glass itself.
its not illegal (although it would fail an MOT)
Which means it's illegal for the other 364 days of the year. If police decide to pull you on it you don't have a leg to stand on.
I’m also not convinced it’d have lost significant strength, the strength is in the plastic layerof a windscreen, not in the glass itself.
It's a laminate which by its nature depends on all layers to achieve its strength.
Is it safe enough to continue driving?
My missus has a chip and a 20 inch crack that is slowly increasing in size. Been trying to talk her into getting it fixed/replaced.
Also, whats a ball park fifure for a new windscreen replacement for a ford focus??
thanks in advance
Someone through a rock out of a car that hit my windscreen whilst on holiday recently, fortunately it mostly hit the A pillar and didn't kill me or leave the screen completely shattered. I had to wait nearly 4 weeks for that to be fixed, fortunately I didn't have to drive much once I got home.
I was told both by the insurance company and AutoGlass that its legal as long as it does not obstruct my view.
I had this - Autoglass were telling me a two month wait, and despite the multiple warnings on their own website, suggested that a 15cm crack on the windscreen was perfectly safe even though it started spreading until it was 50cm long on one drive... They claimed that there was no windscreen for a V70 anywhere in the UK and that the sensors needed a special fitter and van etc.
I too had a local company offering to fit next day with one in stock - who were the company Volvo dealers used...
It took a serious argument with both my insurers and Autoglass before they came out - I ended up suggesting they were in breach of my insurance as they had an alternative that was faster, cheaper and local to me but refused...and so I emailed them a letter before action including cost of a hire car while I waited the two months to drive a road safe vehicle.
Funnily enough they replied the next day, found a screen that week and funnily didn't need a specially trained fitter or van.
Then they bodged the fitting and needed to come back another day....
Charlatans.
my crack is about a foot long.
Show off.
Recently had mine done via the insurance - twenty four hours wait for an old BMW Z4 and its a Pilkington screen as well. Can recall who fitted it but it wasn't Autoglass.
Cracked screens are constant pain in my work van, with the mileage I do ..........Jamesoz
4 a year?
Fascinated by mileage you do, or is the Oz username a clue? Dirt roads following road trains
Had mine replaced by National Windscreens last month and the fitter mentioned he was pleased it was a decent brand that he had been given to fit rather than a cheaper (Chinese) replacement.
I had to go with the Chinese replacement, Fayou. Was meant to have a genuine one but there weren't any around and as I was due to go to Germany the next morning I didn't really have a choice.
4 a year?
Fascinated by mileage you do, or is the Oz username a clue? Dirt roads following road trains
It’s quite random, just put 7500 miles on a brand new Connect. Works out around 1000 per week at present.
Picked up a stone chip in the first week.
Normal uk motorways and cities, at or just below the speed limit.
The culprits are easy to spot, tippers flinging 20mm gravel about the place.
My colleagues get the same. Around 15 years ago, one chap did get stoped for a full length eye line crack (the full plumber) and loads of big chips. He got a rectification ticket or whatever it’s called where you have to get it fixed.
Which means it’s illegal for the other 364 days of the year. If police decide to pull you on it you don’t have a leg to stand on.
Not true, AFAIAA. The Police won’t do anything about it, as it’s an MOT fail, it isn’t a legal issue. Having a duff headlight is illegal as well as an MOT fail, but they don’t a damned thing about those either. You would be stuffed if your MOT test was due and the screen failed, a day before. I used to regularly pick up ex-lease cars and vans with big chips and cracks in their screens, that had been driving around for some time, nobody cared, until the vehicle went in for refurbishment, when fitters would come in and do a few.
Unless, as mentioned above, the screen has a sensor cluster just below the rear view mirror, set into the black plastic bit stuck to the screen. That will require a visit to a fitting centre, where there’s a calibration system. That’ll take around two hours or so for the fitting, and cost appropriately. A Ford screen like mine, with heating elements built in, will be around £800-1000. If there’s no sensors than a man with a van can come to you.
What you really, really don’t want is a crack in a big glass panoramic roof panel - dead easy to do with a roof-rack. £1200-odd, and on an older vehicle, a possibility of an insurance writeoff.
Someone mentioned regular cracked screens, and that was queried - working in motor logistics, I’d noticed just how many screens were getting cracked, so I asked an Autoglass fitter, and he confirmed my suspicions; vehicle glass is significantly thinner than it used to be, in order to lower vehicle weight.
Bugger-all point when a vehicle has several hundred kilos of battery stuffed inside it…
I actually delivered a car to a dealer that they’d bought, on the motorway I saw something coming towards me from the other carriageway, there was an almighty bang, but I couldn’t see anything, then the light caught a crack on the edge of the screen, so I checked at the dealer and there were two chips with a crack on the black edge of the glass; it was a bolt I’d seen spinning towards me that hit just inside the A-Pillar! 😖 The dealership weren’t best pleased, but it could have hit the bodywork, requiring a repaint.
Legality of driving with a cracked windscreen. I depends on where the crack is and the police can and do prosecute for it
The damage windscreen fitters seem to do to vans that cost 30k plus is also an eye opener.
Mostly because they can’t be arsed to get the lifting gear out for the big heavy screen.
Only ever had one own up to breaking the wires to the heated screen too. You usually only find out first frost of the year.
Cheers TJ
Zone A is a vertical area 290mm wide, centred on the steering wheel and contained within the swept area of the windscreen (this area is 350mm wide on vehicles over 3.5 tonnes);
Zone B is the remainder of the swept area of the windscreen
For simplicity, surface damage, cracks or discolouration, are simply referred to as damage.
In Zone A, a single damaged area shall be contained within a 10mm diameter circle. A combination of minor damage areas shall not seriously restrict the drivers view. Windscreen stickers, or other obstructions, shall not encroach more than 10mm.
In Zone B, a single damaged area shall be contained within a 40mm diameter circle. Windscreen stickers, or other obstructions, shall not encroach more than 40mm.
Vehicles that do not comply with the above could be construed to be in contravention of the legislation.
Seems pretty open and shut to me. Whether police have resources or inclination to take action on a random stop is frankly irrelevant, if you were to have an accident and someone decides your vision was obscured then good luck to you (it’s already on record that it’s defective).