Toyota Camry Windshield Defect?

richardren

I am in Austin, TX. I have a 2005 Camry LE 4D Sedan. Last week, we had a severe winter storm down here for around 4 days. My car was covered with ice all around for around 3 days before I cleaned up the ice with a piece of plastic scraper and the built-in heater in back windshield last Wednesday.

Then I used the car for two day's daily commute and weekend shopping without seen any problem.

But this Monday morning, I found out that the back windshiled was totally cracked but still in shape, fully with fine cracks all over the place. It looks just like someone used a small hammer cracked the back windshield carefully and did not break it. Then I wanted to drive to a Toyota dealership in town to have them check it out and fix it. But on the way to the dealership place, the back windshiled started falling down pieces by pieces. Each piece is in size of green pea.

In one Toyota dealership, I was told that this kind of damage is not coverd by Toyota warrantee. And then this was confirmed by North America Toyota Customer Service Center.

I do not believe that this should be the case! It definitely caused by the bad quality of the back windshiled. It should be the defect during the manufacturing of this piece of windshield. I am just out of luck and got this bad quality windshield.

Of course, I will have my insurance company to fix it as a damage case. But I do not believe that Toyota is out of the situation. They are the one that should take the full responsibility and pay for my lost.

I am wondering if anyone else here knows/experienced this problem. And any suggestions on arguing with Toyota on my situation will be appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Best regards,
Richard

kiawah

The glass is safety glass, which breaks into the very small pieces you reference, as opposed to long sharp edges that normal window pane glass would break into.

Unfortunately, you really have no idea why the window broke, and would be probably hard pressed to prove a case w/Toyota. If they saw a number of these break, or folks on the board here started reporting the same thing....they "might" think something was wrong.

Somebody could have thrown a rock, shot it out, hit it with a bat, or it could have been somehow defective or installed incorrectly.

Be glad you have insurance to cover it.

richardren

thanks you for the reply. yes, i really can not prove that is caused by some kind of defect. And I did not take a picture of it before it started falling down.
Too bad.

zuojli

I have a similar case with my 2006 Camry. The back glass shattered into small pieces while it was parked in our backyard. My wife drove it home at 5:35 PM without seeing a prolem, and later she talked with friends in front yard. At around 5:50-6:00 PM we found the back glass shattered. There is no observable external impact such as a stone or other things. The glass pieces fell down straighlty instead of scattering everywhere in the car. It is very likely that the strain caused this problem.

The dealer don't think it is quality related and refuse to cover it with warranty. I have a $500 deductible so basically we need to pay for the repair.

I knew one case that the door glass of my friend's 10 year old camry automatically shattered, but my car is only 1.5 year old.

Please share your information if you have similar experience.

zuojli

I got some new information regarding broken of the back glass of my 2006 Toyota Camry. After long talk with my son, he finally admitted that he was responsible for that. He was playing near the car at that time. He dared not to admit it in the begining because he know it is a big trouble.

I'm Very Sorry for the inaccurate message above.

pat

Uh oh... so how much trouble is he in?

Thanks for letting us know!

gigibeaumont

We had a similar incident with our 2010 Toyota Camry. Back windshield shattered for no apparent reason. Anyone else with same problem?

cobalt4874

This just happened to me! I live in PA and have a 2007 Camry and all of the sudden the back glass shattered. The car was parked in my driveway! Does anyone have any updated information on the problem? Thanks!

imoxie

I have an Avalon that it just happened to. Has anyone got Toyota to pony up? My car was parked out in the cold and I had used the rear defroster earlier.

seamobileman

Found my rear windshield shattered one day with no visible foul play involved. On the left and right side of the glass there was a crack that ran the length up and down of the glass, the window tint was holding the shattered glass together, After taking the car to Safelite to get the rear windshield replaced, the service person told me he had seen this problem before and it was caused from the rear window defroster connections that is located on either side of the glass arcing and sparking and eventually burns a hole in the glass and then during heating and cold cycles eventually causes the rear glass to shatter like that.

raringsunny

I own a Toyota camry 2009. There was a winter storm and it heavily snowed here in Virginia today. Just like others I cleaned the car's wind shield with a scraper and then turned on the heat. After a few minutes I heard a crackling noise and noticed a 4-5 inch long crack on two different locations on wind shield.

After reading this post, I get a feeling that it has definitely to do something with the quality of the glass.

My vehicle is covered under platinum warranty. Not sure if Toyota will honor it to replace the glass. This is clearly an issue with the quality of the glass.

Thanks!

Mr_Shiftright

Glass defects are inherent in the manufacturing process. I think they are usually handled as insurance claims. I do vaguely recall a case or two in the past where the factory admitted to some structural problem causing glass breakage, but gee, proving that would be a long haul for the poor owner. We have a topic here in the Forums on spontaneously exploding sunroofs, and owners all report them as being handled by insurance.

atom88

I bought a 2013 Toyota Camry LE in Aug. of 2013, now in Oct. 2014 we noticed a crack in the windshield after it had been parked in a parking lot for about 2-3 hours. The crack is on the driver's left side, about 8 inches up or so from the bottom of the windshield, in the driver's line of site.

No visible sign of rock chip or damage. I don't know if it is perhaps due to some defect in the glass? The temperature was around 70 degrees Fahrenheit so I don't suspect thermal expansion or a rock chip (since it wasn't being driving when the crack happened).

Mr_Shiftright

Hard to say what causes these things. You can try for a warranty claim but most windshield cracks are handled as insurance claims.

shamrockgirl01

I have a 2016 Toyota Corolla, came out of the house on Sunday morning and there's a long hairline crack on the passenger side. It's only 6 mos old, I'm so mad. I had 2 diff. people in the passenger side on Saturday and no one said a thing. $1265 for new one from dealer, what a scam!!! If it was an older car, I'd go with an after market but it's too new for that. So depressed.

Mr_Shiftright

Doesn't your insurance handle this?

shamrockgirl01

Well, I am going through insurance and I have to pay the $500 deductible. That's how NJ operates. Other states don't charge you for a new windshield.

Mr_Shiftright

Harumpf.....well as I understand it the only way you could get warranty coverage is to prove there's a defect in the glass. That's probably not easy to do.

Keta

Toyota needs to really look into this! This is not the time for anyone to have to replace a windshield! I am furloughed and do not have money for this! My insurance company is gonna repair it. I'm so thankful! But I still didnt need this unexpected cost! No matter the price! Money is tight and paying regular bills is a struggle right now..

Keta

I have a 2019 Toyota Camry LE. Purchased Sept 30, 2019.. I came outside today and got in my car. Looked in the rear view and I couldn't see out of it. Thought it was fog or snow. Looked around and none of the other vehicles were like mine. Got out and walked to the back to see that my back windshield was shattered and cracking and pieces falling before my eyes! This has to be a defect! I will be calling the dealership to see if more complaints have came in about this. Its sad! Poor quality and cheap glass has to be the reason!