An improperly installed windshield can kill you. Windshields are an integral party of a vehicle’s “safety cage” in case of a rollover. If a windshield pops out in a rollover, the safety cage is compromised and there is a high risk the vehicle ceiling can crush down into the passenger compartment. A proper installation requires using the correct adhesives for the air temperature during installation, adequate curing times (with no vehicle movement), and gloved technicians to ensure no body oils along the glass bead. And always have new moldings with a new installation.
My E150 is on its 4th windshield (I drive rural western US roads each summer, and there’s usually a rock or two with my name on it). Average cost to replace has been around $180.
Job has always been done well except one time when the top rubber seal started to come out after about 2 weeks. When I showed this to the installer, he fixed it properly in about 5 minutes.
Sounds like they’ve arranged a nice deal for themselves: insurance must pay, and the bill can be substantially higher than in other states.
Yes, except the comprehensive rates reflect it. Everyone here knows that you can have your windshield replaced next day or sometimes same day by the multitudes of mobile glass replacement vans that you just call and they take care of everything from there. The consumer pays for it up front but it is very handy if you go through windshields on a regular basis like I do. Perfect windshields are structural to the vehicle strength but also optional if you want to make due so I think it is good that you don’t see many windshields with assorted spider web fractures driving around here.
Surely this can’t be right, right? The windshield frame might be part of the safety cage, but the glass itself?
I am not an automotive engineer but, from what I have read, it is true. Windshields are important for to the structural strength of automobiles.
Actually it is. Modern windshields are bonded to the body not rubber mounted as in the days of old. This adds to the strength of the body against twisting and collapse. By how much I don’t know and I am sure it varies from one model car to another.
From a quick Googling I saw this claim (along with some handwaving) in some articles and the source was some National Glass Association. Hardly an impartial source IMO.
Yes. I think this is more that the strength of the windshield as part of the body is now known and accounted for by engineers. Windshields are going to add a limited amount of strength, but it is something measurable. How it would help is through the tensile strength of the windshield which enhances the strength of the adjoining members. It will fail under compression, after all it is just glass and a thin layer of plastic. But it could keep the posts that hold up the roof intact. An example of this is seen in a lot of knock together furniture like dressers. A back made of cardboard stiffens the structure, even though the cardboard has little strength independently.
I’m sure a mechanical engineer can provide a better explanation of this.