[K12SRider]

F***! Driving to work this morning, rock flies up of the tires of an F150 in front of me (little lift big wide tires) and hits my windshield. Looks like someone shot it with a BB gun. Running your finger on teh outside you can feel a tiny hole, but hte view from the inside looks worse.

Someone once told me they don't repair the FJ windshield when the chip is th in the middle of the windshield. Is this everyone else experieince too? Should I be expecting to replace rather than repair?

 

[WyoCruiser]

Take it to a glass shop right away. Don't put it off until tomorrow and don't try to fix it yourself. A poor self repair contaminates the damaged area and can be expensive to rectify. Waiting may allow it to worsen to where it can't be cheaply repaired. Moister and/or a change in temp and/or a good bump can cause further damage. We had a 2007 and now have a 2011. Chips are a fact of life. We had ones in the center fixed and it worked, but it depends on the damage.

As an aside, Windshield replacements are also much cheaper than they used to be as the FJ has been around for awhile.

 

[2010armygreen]

That is sucky. Stupid ford.

 

[opie's dad]

I noticed a chip in my windshield while getting gas the other day. It had not started to spread. The very next day, I called the glass shop to fix the chip.
It had already started to spread. It only spread about 3/16", but it was going to take off. He said that I just caught it from spreading! So far it hasn't moved. Got to love the straight up and down windshield. It doesn't miss nothing!!!!!!
Jax':wave:

 

[bg77]

My window is still in good condition, but it leaked. But I went and got a quote and it was $150.00 for the windshield and $300.00 and some change for the painted piece, for a total of $600plus??? Can you say holy crap! So, I went and got my comprehension coverage deductible lowered to $100.00 and bought some windshield sealant and fixed the leak myself.

 

[OK_FJ]

$600 is a lot less than I paid. I had mine replaced and then it cracked again less than a month later. I'm done fixing the windshield. I can live with it.

 

[Antarctican]

I bought my 2010 new, and before my tank was half empty I had 4 dings. :mecry:

 

[hughharden]

I have a 2007 with 120,000 km on it. I'm on my third windshield. About two weeks after this one was installed a crack appeared right down the middle from top to bottom. Luckily I have glass coverage, not an option if you have one of these, is a necessity. Only problem I've ever had with it though.

 

[hughharden]

BTW I had over 15 chips in my first windshield before i got it replaced. I guess i was lucky none of them grew. I finally got hit by a rock from a truck in front of me that shattered the driver side so I had to get it replaced at that point.

Bigger problem is the extremely small chips that you can't see until you are driving into the sun. Then you can't see anything there are so many of them.

 

[K12SRider]

I am taking it in on my lunch today to see if they can fix it. Its about to go from 60 to snow here and I imagine the weather change will cause it to spread. Sounds like I am lucky it hasn't already.

Thanks all

 

[GA Traveller]

Went through the same thing a couple of months ago. In the last year I've had 1 repair and 1 replace.

 

[GA Traveller]

 

[WMDIII22]

I tried killed a mosquito over the summer.... I killed him, but he got me back. I ended up putting a dinner plate size spider in my windshield.:boohoo: But I had mine fixed for $200. You don't have to replace that painted trim if you find a guy that knows what he is doing. I got my new windshield 4 months ago and I already have a few chips.:mecry:

 

[bevbwgc]

I have had my 2008 FJ since September of last year. Had to replace the windshield after 2 months. I went through my insurance the 1st time. I now have approx. 8 chips since the installation of the new windshield. I will wait this time until I get a crack in the line of vision.

All the new chips happened driving on the 101 freeway through Santa Barbara where they are doing road construction. I filed a claim with Caltrans and they sent me a letter that they contracted out the work with someone else and they aren't responsible. I am sure it will be a cold day in hell before I here from the construction company they forwarded my claim to.:flame:

 

[fjcoop]

I had 400 miles on my new 2010 FJ when I caught a rock. It cost me $60 to have it repaired. I just turned 20K and the repair has held.

 

[LOCKINGSANDSTORM]

I think it must be because in the town I live I rarely go above 45 mph on the daily and ODOT only uses smaller than pebble size rock on the road. My 08 has almost 40K on it and I just got my first knick a couple week ends ago. I got it repaired for $45 and it held. To my knowledge the truck is still on its first windshield. Thank you Oregon!

*knock on wood*

 

[WyoCruiser]

Wow, that's a nice one GA Traveler!

In WYO, it blows. So, regular sand for icy roads won't stay on the pavement. WYDOT uses not so 'fine gravel'. It's the 'pits'.

BEVBWGC, Did you really expect Caltrans to pay? Only in California. We have been in similar situations multiple times in construction zones, staying under 30 mph helps, but if someone flies by or the road isn't prepped right, we're sol.

 

[LOCKINGSANDSTORM]

We all just need to jack our trucks way up so that those rocks can't touch us!

 

[Chris Delancy]

Not an engineer but I'm curious, to those who are, if an airfoil added to wipers may provide some protection against, similar to how a bug deflector works. When I test drove mine, chipped windshield. Salesman said they fixed chips in almost all the trade in vehicles, and that replacement was $1,500. Has anyone seen a FJ bug deflector that works?

 

[WyoCruiser]

There are lots of posts on the 'windshield' problem. I have read quite a few and the bug deflectors do just that, usually keeping insects off the hood and sometimes deflecting them over/around the windshield. However, bug shield owners indicate that they don't deflect the stones, etc. that chip/crack the windshield. Also, I do not recall anyone with aero foil style blade arms saying they helped either. The blade arm design does apparently keep the wipers more firmly pressed against the glass as the wiper moves across it.

Chris, I don't know when your salesperson told you that, but it no longer costs over $1,000 to replace the windshield even if they replace the trim at the same time. Again, as the FJ has been out for awhile, the FJ windshields are more common, etc. the replacement costs have gone down. Don't use the dealer, call around to the glass shops and avoid the dealer markup. That's what we did. Same glass as the dealer offered us. Most dealers have their glass replacement done by a local glass shop and then mark up the price even more.