This one takes the cake for me. Yesterday, I'm traveling up the interstate and in the process of passing a tractor trailer, my passenger side window literally implodes. If you've ever experienced losing a window at 70 mph, trust me, it will scare the sh&@t out of you. At first, I thought the tractor trailer blew out a tire and it shattered my window, but as it kept going, I didn't see the usual flying rubber and tire debris from the semi. By this time, my car was swerving (I know now that this is to be expected when the draft from a large vehicle enters the drivers cabin in less than 1 second) and I thought I might have lost a tire. I made it to the emergency lane near the center wall to check the damage, but the whole passenger side was clean except for some scratches in the clear coat where some of the glass fragments hit the door. No tire damage, no dings, dents, or scrapes on the side of the car. A state trooper stopped by and neither he nor I could tell where any object entered the vehicle and there was no debris on the road that we could see that might have done it. Since the tractor trailer was covering me on the right, "pellet gun snipers" are out. And with the speed and ferocity that the window blew, I'd expect something larger than a pebble to cause it. Further, I'd expect such a piece of debris to be in the car or hit something else on the car (fender, door, quarter panel...). The state trooper said he'd never seen anything like it and suspected a defective window. My insurance agent feels the same. The salesman at the dealership is inclined to believe this as well, but I'm not so sure about the service manager. He is conducting some searches via the computer in Dearborn today. I'm a little pessimistic about this falling under warranty coverage and I doubt if the local glass repair specialist has a 2006 Mustang GT passenger window sitting on the shelf.

Has ANYONE heard, seen, or dreamed of this happening or should I go ahead and invest in a Hefty bag while I wait on Glassmasters to get a new window in? Since these cars don't have a window frame, I don't think it's that far fetched to believe that this could be a defect, but I'm afraid that if the computer in Dearborn doesn't come up with a similar occurrence, it falls on my insurance.

 

Hard to say what happened. Insurance is going to say car defect and Ford will say otherwise to protect each other.
Does sound very scary to have happen..

 

Not that it matters,.... but is this a vert or coupe ?
If it's a vert, my best off-the-wall, wildass guess is that maybe, a severe downdraft off the semi, compressed the vert roof down, and shattered the window.
If it's a coupe maybe some mysterious debris popped it.
Plus 1 on the insurance / defect dilemma.
The insurance will pay anyway, as they can't prove defect, and afterall it's still an accident. But, you'll probably have to **** around with deductibles.
Sorry bout the situation.
GOOD LUCK.

 

The car is a coupe. I'm more worried about the paint scratches and dodging thunderstorms. I'm thinking that the insurance company will balk on the scratches and try to say something else caused it. I park my car out in BFE everywhere I go, which pisses my wife off to no end. There's not a scratch on it; especially these kind of scratches. I called the glass repair people and they said that it was unlikely that the glass scratched the door. I suppose that nickel sized pieces of glass falling out of the door at 70 mph can't scratch paint. They also gave me some crap about road vibration and temperature as likely culprits. If that were so common, the feds would force auto manufacturers to use shatterproof glass. Believe me, these windows are NOT shatterproof. Either that, or my elbow just decided to develop a minor flesh wound and start bleeding right after the window broke.

Thanks for the feedback. My dealer has been great to deal with on everything and the customer service has been top notch so far, so I'm hoping they'll make it right regardless.

 

The glass installers are clueless as to what caused the scratches, don't even consider their comment, or mention it to anyone.
Great to hear ur dealer is working with you, they'll make it right, if not, your insurance won't question the scratches.
GOOD LUCK

 

It is my guess and assumption something obviously hit your window..probably a rock or other debris..
because as you know the side windows are not like windshields...was your Radio loud and perhaps didnt hear it..
but for it to do the damage it did i would say you would have to hear...Weird..but i dont think it would just do it because of a faulty window..But certainlty would scare the crap out of you...good luck...

 

damn thats some scary ****

 

I would have thought something hit as well. I was talking on my cell phone and heard a loud pop. When I looked over, the entire glass was shattered and chunks were coming into the car bacause of the draft off the tractor trailer. I was convinced that something must have hit me, but being so close to the tractor trailer and the violent way the window broke, I would have thought the debris would have either come into the car or danced down the door or quarter panel leaving some dents or scrapes. I was literally shocked to see that there was no damage (other than a few scratches) on the car. I know the pressure from the tractor trailer forced the glass into the car, but it was a damn lucky shot for debris to hit the window and nothing else.

At the time of the break, I was about half way past the trailer, so the side draft was pretty intense. If the glass had a stress crack maybe the force of the air could have finished it off...I don't know. I do know that when all that air rushed in the car, she got pretty squirly and I damn near put it in the wall, which is why I thought I must have blown a tire.

I really hope it was debris and not something spontaneous. I thank God that my wife wasn't in the car because she would have gotten nailed.

 

There we go. It's pretty obvious now. Was the pop you heard really loud, almost like a gunshot? Rocks hitting glas on cars sound extremely loud and scary. My guess is that a rock was kicked up by the tractor trailer, smacked into your window, and flew off. This caused your window to not just crack or chip like a windshield would, but to shatter. What do you think?

 

The only thing I could think of is that a small rock hit the window at just the right spot and then bounced off. The pressure from the truck was probably enough to finish it off. Most of you guys probably know that you can shatter a window by applying pressure at the bottom of the window with a pointed object. It was probably just a one in a million chance that the rock hit that part of the window. If a small rock did hit the window it would have bounced off and not hit another part of the car. That had to be some scary s***! What did you tell the person on the phone when it happened?