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Rear Glass Explode
babushka3052
Member Posts: 1
I have mi Honda Pilot for almost 7 years, and love it! I gave it 5 stars, and I really mean it! However today something very odd happened: the rear glass has exploded while the car was in the garage! No hitting, touching, or any contact with anything! We just heard a crazy loud explosion. When we went to the garage, there was a ton of shattered glass. Did anyone have similar experience? Honda people, please help!
0
Comments
Your rear hatch glass is made with tempered glass that is designed to break into small pieces for safety. Any imperfection in the glass--whether caused by a bad batch of glass or a scratch from a rock--can cause the glass to shatter when under pressure. The pressure might come from the vehicle itself because every vehicle is more airtight than ever.
Because automotive glass is under a lot of compression, air pressure or temperature changes can all contribute to pressure on the glass. All it takes is one microscopic imperfection and time to allow the problem to reach a level where the glass explodes.
Previous unrelated investigations found nickel sulfide crystals in shattered glass. These crystals can grow and if their growth is in the correct direction, the glass will shatter from the pressure.
While it's possible that faulty installation or a manufacturing defect can cause glass to shatter, since yours took 7 years to do so, it's probably more related to the explanation above.
I had the exact same thing happen to my sunroof @ 8 years.