Amen. I expect what I buy to operate as designed, nothing more and nothing less. If it costs 16,000 and comes with a moonroof, it damn well better work correctly!

 

First of all in response to your windshield comment. I am one of the people who posted in that particular thread. And I specifically said it may or MAY NOT be a defect, but it was an odd coincidence that in my 11 yrs of driving this is my first cracked windshield, and Ive only had the car for 4 months. So dont twist other peoples words around.

Second of all, we are talking about a glass deflector that is breaking due to air pressure, NOT ROCKS!

And finally, if you think that everyone should just simply accept major car flaws because they didnt pay a BMW price tag, then you've got some issues.

Im a space systems - test/reliability engineer. If there were more people like you, who have so little expectations from your machinery investments, our lives would be so much simpler.

 

my windshield cracked after like 2 weeks. i think they cheaped out on a few things like that and the deflector. hopefully it gets recalled to get it fixed. i do warranty for a auto supplier and even if its the parts fault we pretty much find a way to blame it on you or someone elses parts. its wrong but companies do anything to save money.

 

man I hope my front bumper dont shatter from me driving to fast

 

whoa.... imagine scion recalling all the TCs.. what are they going to do give us hard top replacements/?/

 

^^^ Plexi glass replacements.. that'll suck more..

 

If your sunroof shattered at high speeds while it was open how on earth would you know if a rock hit it or not? This is one of the silliest threads I've read in a while.

 

I think I'd like to weigh in. Fist of all I've been driving for 35 years and I buy a new car every 3-4 yrs. I have had my scion tc less then a month and have a small stone chip/crack (3/8") already in the windshield. (which BTW you can still see somewhat after the "repair" )I have NEVER had a windshield break let alone chip on any car. My last car was a 02 wrangler whose windshield looked sand blasted from hits (almost at a 90 degree angle) but NO CHIPS OR CRACKS. I find it interesting that many new buyers of TCs are experiencing this problem. While I dont suspect inferior glass, (although I put NOTHING past coporate America or Japan ...yes even Toyota) I do however suspect an acute angle that is prone to such chipping. In fairness I do a lot of highway driving and it occured on the highway from a big rig. But I have been hit before as prieviuosly stated with no chips or cracks.
As to the moon roof; WHERE IN THE MANUAL does it give any warning about the roof and speed. I checked mine last night. The only thing it says is at highway speeds dont open the roof the last 2" in order to stop "wind throbbing". (I checked; theres no difference and I dont think the wind noise is that loud anyway) Do I have a different manual??? Mines an 05. I have also not experiened any of the popping noises, rattles, and creeks others have on their 04s I 've seen on these various internet sites. Could there be any corolation between a moon roof that "pops" when you turn and one the shatters for no reason?
Also there are two types of auto glass on your car. Laminated glass and safety glass. The windshield is laminated and when broke stays in one piece. Safty glass explodes into small squares. It is VERY easy to break safty glass especailly if it is flexed or impacted at the corners. (Ever see a fireman break the side window of a car with a trapped person inside? He uses a very small spring loaded metal punch in the corner.) The moon roof is saftey glass. I dont think the wind defeltor should be made of that material. It does NOT need to be. And if it does it should be laminated glass because it faces the wind (like your windshield) and potential small missles. I would suspect that the moonrooofs that shattered did so because they were under tension/torsion for what ever the cause. I suspect faulty instalation evidenced by unexplained "popping" noises when turning. Have they addressed this in the 05s ??? I dont know. (How about some feed back from 04 owners vs. 05 owners.) The only time I did have a window break was when the service guy was replacing a hinge on the glass window on the back of my wrangler. Its all glass and held on by 2 metal hinges and gas shocks. He took one off to replace it and the second he removed the gas shock on one side (in the up position) and the windows weight caused it to flex ever so slightly it exploded like a gun shot into hundreds of tiny peices. Sound familar?

 

Being paranoid.......I re-read my manual, checked all the little yellow warning boxes, pgs. 24,25,26 and no where does it say that running with it open at any speed will cause a problem. I think this is an urban legend!

 

Very good post fedcop. And no, there is not ANYTHING in the manual about not driving at highway speeds. If you will notice, the person that mentioned it never would tell me where he saw it in the manual. Thats because it is not in there. I was actually looking at the moonroof section in the manual while reading one of his posts.

And as I mentioned, a BIRD hit the back part of the sunroof glass on my saturn and did NO damage to the glass. Sure, a large rock will break it, but it is strange that we are already hearing these complaints. And the group that is performing the investigation does not just investigate any old claim. If you look at their site, you will see that there is a complaints section as well as an investigation section. They weed out many of the complaints before they make it to the actual investigation stage. So they seem to think their is some validity to it. I in no way am bashing toyota, because I do not know the cause, and mine has not broken. But it is worth keeping up with since I do own one of these cars. My guess is that if they have a recall, they will replace the glass with a different type. There are plenty of other cars with moonroofs that do not have this issue, so there is a solution out there.

 

i checked on my tC and it says ashai - tempered not laminate on the parts where it's printed.. (sunroof, and rear passenger sunroof).. but the deflector has no writing on it.. but i'd assume it's tempered.. laminated would be the best but doesn't look like they used that..

 

It is Tempered...it has to be by Federal Law. If not it would be subject to breakage due to extremes of heat and cold. (thermal tension) There is no reason that it could'nt be a polymide or carbon fiber...you dont have to see through it and as a matter of fact you cant see through the one on my car anyway. It's a bad choice of material for this application.

 

To tell you the truth, I don't know why they made the entire roof glass...why didn't they just go with a conventional moonroof and two glass panels?

 

sorry i still don't buy it. i've seen 2 customers return with their cars after being in a side impact collision that caused serious damage to the vehicle and the roof was completely solid.

not every rock is the same nor is every angle they hit at. a more dense rock will do more damage etc...etc...its unfortunate but 2 opposing forces that collide have to transfer some kind of energy, either a loud ___ bang or possibly a piece broken away. it happens.

 

It could have been caused by a rock, which would be a different story I agree. They are investigating it because it was reported to them that there was no impact. If that turns out untrue, then they will close the investigation I am sure. But as long as there is doubt then I dont think it is a bad idea for them to investigate. If it was indeed broken by air pressure then they will have to fix it. I am sure it will get taken care of either way.

 

It wouldn't make any sense of not being able to oepn the moonroof while driving (tilt of open). The only time I have my open in anyway is when driving. I've only had the car for a day but I did realize that it shakes (fully opened), almost violently while driving at about 40 miles (not on freeway). I coudln't make the observation when tilted but my rear passenger says it still shakes a bit. Maybe it's the size of the glass but it does shake a lot and it seems a bit unsafe and seems to damage the mechanism. Does anyone have this same problem of glass shaking excessively? As far as the shattering go...I think the glass should be alrite more worry about the shake than the shatter.

 

There are no 04 tCs. No such animal. MY04 had xAs and xBs but no tCs.

The popping could have something to do with it. I think the popping was due to screws not down just right and allowing the track to flex.

I would be more inclined to think something hit the glass and caused it to break, hell I'm sure a big June bug at that speed could cause it to shatter if you hit it just right, those are some big ___ bugs. I would also be willing to assume the wind noise at highway speeds would make hearing any impact noise before the glass shattered very hard to hear.

I don't know why you would want to run at highway speeds with the roof open. Not only is it loud, but you are causing unneeded drag that's just going to kill your gas mileage.

 

I'm not sure a Big June Bug at any speed would break it. I suspect faulty instalation. Also, I run with the top open on the highway all the time; I dont find the wind noise all the bad. At 80-90mph I only have to crank the music to 45 on the volume and I can hear it fine.
Then again I just got rid of a Wrangler w/a hard top and let me tell ya about wind noise! I had 7 speakers in that one.

I had no idea there were no 04s..I thought this car had been out for a year. I never heard of it untill April 12th when a friend of mine told me about it. I test drove it and bought it on the spot.

P.S. ***Also... to Sparky... Read my thread entitled "WIND DEFECTOR" in refernce to your roof shaking violently...you may hav a bad one.

 

I have driven at all kinds of speeds with the roof open....never had a problm with the reflector shattering...the only one werid thing that happened, is after going on the freeway..a piece of plastic from the highway flew into my car....luckly it didnt hit me...but it look like it was a plastic screw tht had been driven over a few times...but its nice to see thy are looking out for us

 

;)