Sunroof exploded today

[Eight8Victor]

Ok, so it's not really a Mooney topic, except that most of us drive a car to get to our Mooney’s. So I was driving my ‘04 Toyota Sequoia on a smooth paved highway, no rain and no vehicle in front of me when “POW”, my sunroof exploded into thousands of pieces. From what I can tell, nothing hit it, no potholes just exploded for no apparent reason. Has anyone else experienced anything like this?

[McMooney]

 

10 minutes ago, Eight8Victor said:

Ok, so it's not really a Mooney topic, except that most of us drive a car to get to our Mooney’s. So I was driving my ‘04 Toyota Sequoia on a smooth paved highway, no rain and no vehicle in front of me when “POW”, my sunroof exploded into thousands of pieces. From what I can tell, nothing hit it, no potholes just exploded for no apparent reason. Has anyone else experienced anything like this?

Exploding things on Toyota is expected right?

Probably  something hard tapped it

[whiskytango]

I have experienced the same thing on windows at my home in Georgia.  The glass replacement guy says it is a combination of thermal expansion and a stress concentration manufacturing defect in the glass.  

[tigers2007]

This happened to me two weeks ago while I was driving down a divided highway. Body shop thinks it had an existing chip in the glass that gave way due to the temps.



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[Eight8Victor]

1 hour ago, tigers2007 said:

This happened to me two weeks ago while I was driving down a divided highway. Body shop thinks it had an existing chip in the glass that gave way due to the temps.



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I can understand the chip giving way theory for laminated glass but the sunroof is tempered glass. I don't think it would chip without completely shattering.  Also, the temperature was a mild 80 degrees. 
That looks like a pricey fix. Did your insurance cover it?

[Eight8Victor]

2 hours ago, whiskytango said:

I have experienced the same thing on windows at my home in Georgia.  The glass replacement guy says it is a combination of thermal expansion and a stress concentration manufacturing defect in the glass.  

That makes sense. My SUV is 14 years old, I would have expected a defect to show up before now.  Thanks for the info.

[Nick Pilotte]

I’ve been a career car guy (though now trucks) and have seen/heard about this before.  In fact, there are numerous complaints, investigations, and even court cases regarding this.  However, these usually happened shortly after production and there was likely a stress point in the glass when it was made.  Since your SUV is as old as it is, yours was likely a tiny bit of debris hitting it in just the right place to cause the fracture.  
 

Tigers, yours may have been a chip that ruptured when the rear defroster was activated (thermal changes as you mentioned).

https://jalopnik.com/here-are-all-the-cars-reported-to-have-exploding-sunroo-1819815183

Edited January 1, 2020 by Nick Pilotte

[Marauder]

I wouldn’t discount something hitting it. A stone/rock thrown up by a vehicle could have bounced on it. Which reminds me of a funny story.

When I worked in the field, I was driving on average 50k a year. So, almost on an annual basis I had a stone chip/ cracked windshield or two to deal with. And they were always a pain to deal with since I had to go through corporate fleet to schedule the repair. There I was, driving down 283 in Jersey and saw a dump truck in front of me. The truck had a huge rock stuck between it’s rear tires and I could see the rock rotating around and around. I knew it was going to come out and hit me on the windshield. Being the sharp guy I was, I pulled into the passing lane. Just as I did, the rock came out and completely missed my windshield. Instead it took out my right side mirror. That turned out to be a bigger paying to deal with than another cracked windshield.



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[tigers2007]

I can understand the chip giving way theory for laminated glass but the sunroof is tempered glass. I don't think it would chip without completely shattering.  Also, the temperature was a mild 80 degrees. 
That looks like a pricey fix. Did your insurance cover it?

The rear and side windows are tempered glass. While driving back home it completely caved into my truck and caused a horrible mess. The glass company cleaned it up, “crash wrapped” the window with this fancy sticky tint film, and scheduled me in for a new window after the weekend. Progressive covered the $700 bill and I paid a $250 deductible. My “$50 glass deductible” apparently only applies to the windshield.


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