Over the past few days I noticed a strange new creaking noise, and I could'nt figure out just where it was coming from. I knew it was coming from around the windshield area and it only happened when I was on a rough road. I thought it was coming from the sun visors. You just could not pinpoint the noise.

I even unbuckled the belt, and leaned as far forward as I could and still drive, and listened. I took off the sunvisors. Both with no help. I couldn't figure out the noise.

THEN IT HAPPENED.

I watched before my very eyes, a crack grow from the edge of the windshield and grow outwards. Then the noise SUDDENLY STOPPED !! I pulled over and looked. No rock chips, if fact, no one was on the road or in front of me.

I truly think this is a design flaw with the xB. What is everyones opinion ??

I am going to call 1-866-70-SCION and I go in for my last free oil change on Tues. HELP. I need ammo, cause I don't want to have to pay for this. Rock chip....Yes. Creaking noise....crack in windshield....no creak......NO PAY !!

 

Maybe a rock had hit at the very edge around the seal and you didn't know it. I've had my box for only 2 months and had the windshield repaired 3 times. The window is so vertical, that any thing that hits it is like straight on....

 

Perhaps the box shape is not structurally perfectly rigid and subjects the window to stress from body flexure. There is the frequent spontaneous cracking of windshields with no impact noted, which you have so remarkably witnessed. And elsewhere in this forum, it was noted that Webasto had stopped selling Panoramic Moonroofs for installation in xBs, due to "roof bucking issues".

 

Why are the strut bars so popular, and when people say they can feel the difference, what are they feeling? Is what they are feeling due to less body flexure affecting the distance between the strut mounts? If the strut mounts move, does the window opening above them also have movement? If large sunroofs cause roof buckling (whatever that means), is the roof also trying to move?

Has anybody with a strut bar had a window crack?

 

All very good questions with even tougher answers.
I will call Scion, but I bet I'll be using my insuance windshield deductable instead of them helping me out.

As for the glass being too verticle, I owned a Jeep CJ-7 for years with no problem, at least not as many as it seems from reading this site. Talk about glass thats straight up and down, nothing beats a CJ-7. Maybe it's the stress of the glass, or the flex of the body, but we as a group should not have to put up so many broken windshield with just rock chips.

 

The CJs (and MBs) have a lot longer hood 'shadowing' their windshields from debris kicked up from the road. The xB has a super-short, rounded nose followed immediately by a very large, nearly verticle target, uh, windshield.

The xB's snub nose and windshield are also mounted lower, closer to the ground than the average Jeep.

Just as a casual observation, it appears as though the xB OEM windshield may be a bit thinner than those in the average 4X4 - even the Fuyao Glass replacement on my xB appears thicker...

Probably a LOT of things combining to make the xB windshield a 'problem' on US freeways...

(My Fuyao replacement has taken some substantial 'whacks' without damage, and even rain noise on the windshield appears to be a bit lower with the thicker Fuyao glass...)

 

How and where can we get this windshield at...

 

This other thread doesn't tell you how and where to get this glass, but just about any good independent glass replacement outfit should know where to get it - they are a BIG supplier. Some good discussion in this other thread starting aobut the third or fourth post.

https://www.scionlife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=100962

 

I have to stand up for the xB windshield, because a couple of days ago I had a large round object fly off the wheel of the car in front of me that resembled a lug nut hit my windshield while I was going about 70mph or so dead on and nothing, no crack or chip of any kind. But when a little pebble hits it, a chip. I don't understand how a little pebble can chip the windshield, but a lug-nut does nothing.

 

Lug nuts are softer?

 

Seriously, I had my box for 16 months now and had no problems about crack windshield. However there is a paint chip just above the windsheild about half inch and now rust starting to form. I've bought a paint touch up kit for that. Lucky what ever that thing hit didn't jit my windshield.

 

I have an idea. Let's all ask our local Fedex / UPS driver how often they get cracks in their windshield. I'm leaning towards it being less than the scion crowd simply because the glass is crappy in the stock scion windshield.

 

...and I'm leaning toward it being that anything that hit their windshield would go right over our roofs... :D

 

In almost 50 years of driving, I have only had two windshields replaced. Both were on my 1991 Mazda truck with 150K miles and somewhat vertical glass. But the damage was immediate. Both times a rock from a big truck hit the windshield with a loud noise and made a big visible chip that then spread. I drove a couple of BMW 2002s which also have fairly vertical windshields for a total of 125K miles, and they had no problems.

 

I haven't had to replace my windshield yet, but I have had about 7 chips repaired. Zero deductable for repair, $100 for replacement.

 

That's what I had to do. Used my insurance deductible. My insurance company used the same glass guys the dealership did, so I had it done there the FIRST time.

A few days after they installed the replacement, the rubber seal started curling, and I could hear a "roaring sound" when I drove. This time they came to my work parking lot to fix it.

They ended up replacing the replacement with a different type windshield (different logo than the first two, in a the opposite corner of the window). So far, so good.

[quote="Davestoaster"]All very good questions with even tougher answers.
I will call Scion, but I bet I'll be using my insuance windshield deductable instead of them helping me out.

 

when i bought xb a year ago they talked me into this thing called dimond fusion and its like my winshield is permantly rainxed and i also got a life time warrenty on my windshild against chips and cracks

 

The whole creaking thing sounds weird. Maybe something hit it and you didn't see the crack until it started spreading. If you live somewhere cold, it could happen. In really cold areas, if your defroster heats up the glass and its getting blasted by the cold air outside- it can expand and crack. It would look sudden, but it's definitely from something ( chip/crack)that you didn't see. I had this happen on my old Ford ranger, but it was when I lived in the frozen tundra known as Detroit.

 

While I have not heard what "buckling" means, I now think it would not be related to body flexure or the windshield problem. It sounds more like an issue of the large moonroof (frame, glass, cover) being too heavy for the xB's roof, which is wide, flat and made of thin metal. The moonroof was probably sagging the roof of the xB.

 

I think our windshields are rock magnets. I must have twenty pits on my windshield at this point. This is somewhat of a result of driving around LA freeways I am sure. I have replaced windshields on my wifes Rav4 and my Chevy S10. Its just a jungle out there.