2001 Subaru Forrester Windshield Cracking

jo46

My sister has a 2001 Subaru Forrester. She has only had it since July of 2000. So far the windshield has gotten three different cracks in it. They start off as little marks in the windshild and than they become a very fine crack. Right from the very start she said, that everything that hit the windshield sounded like it was hitting a thin crystal (like when you ping a crystal wine glass.) the sound was so different that she would ask everyone that rode in her car, if they notice the funny sound. I must say, I have never heard a sound like that before. My sister's last car was a subaru,)that she kept for ten years) and she never had any problems with that windshield. Please let me know if you have had the same problem, and if you have received any information from anyone about this problem. Thanks.

buzztail

I have a 1999 Forester. I have to say that I read a lot of complaints about the windshield in the Subaru newsgroup, and was quite concerned when I bought my car that I would have problems with the windshield. My windshield has been hit twice, once with a pretty big rock. I have a nick in the window, but so far no cracks have appeared. This happened last year sometime. I'm not sure what is causing some Foresters to have this problem.

sues4

I too have had windshield problems with my 1999 Forester. We had only had the car 3 weeks when a rock or something hit the windshield. At first we didn't think anything had happened but within 3 hours we had a vertical crack approximately 4 inches long that started way down at the base of windshield. We were out of town at the time, but by the time we got home a couple of days later, the 4 inch crack and grown to a 6 inch vertical crack and had then taken a sharp left turn toward the drivers side. Total length of the crack at that time was about 12 inches. I contacted several glass shops and got the same answer. This was too new a vehicle. No one had the windshields in stock. Had to contact the dealer. No price break on our deductable. Windshield cost.....over $700.00. We didn't have the money to fork over our deductable at that time and decided to wait a while. Within 1 more month, another rock or something hit the windshield and a totally new crack started on the other side of the windshield. With the old crack growing by the day, I now had a very damaged windshield. I have never owned a vehicle with such a fragile windshield before. So far the new windshield is ok.

bassist

I have a '01 Forester too but the only
windshield damage I've seen so far is bird poop.

I've read somewhere that the Forester is prone to windshield cracking because it is relatively more vertically facing so the angle of incidence for pebbles/debris is smaller, compared to say a corvette.

If this is the case then other boxy cars should
have the same complaint?

grinch3

Going to work recently, sitting behind a car at a stop sign, heard a loud POP!, watched a crack appear at bottom of windsheild in front of driver, horizontally across to passenger seat. Took to dealer, who found miniscule flake, said had probably caught some gravel from a truck sometime earlier, and then crack occured after the fact. I was shocked, wonder if the cold weather and defrost on high, contributed to crack. Dealer wouldn't cover it under warranty due to presence of flake, so my insurance picked up the tab.