Sorry about your issue, I probably would have had the big one. Seems to me like the glass was stressed also. I would think Porsche would like to look into this one.

ChuckJ

 

Sorry to hear and glad you are OK. After cleaning out the glass, were you able to find anything in the car that might have caused it - a rock, a bolt, piece of metal etc? Same thing happened to my wife many years ago when she was driving and the rear glass blew out. As she was cleaning out the glass, she found the culprit, a metal bolt. She was driving on a bridge at the time.

 

I didn't disturb any of the glass or look through it at all. My thinking was if it was some type of glass fracture or internal cause I would just leave all the evidence as it was. Will see what Porsche has to say on Monday. Will call the highway patrol today and see if there have been any similar incidents in that area.
Would you file a police report just to make an insurance claim at this point not knowing if it was indeed a projectile?

 

As for police report, might be a question for the highway patrol when you call them. Let us know what happens.

 

I've not heard of this happening on Porsches, but there were a spate of exploding sunroofs on BMW E90's a few years ago. I agree with the stress fracture assessment. Hope no one was taking potshots at you. Have you been fooling with anyone's girl lately?

 

Haha, good one.

 

My window exploded on 605 doing 75 but it was in my SUV. The glass blew into the car and it was something I would not like to experience again. On examining the suv I came up with on cause. It was a fast traveling projectile hitting the car on the side window. 710fwy, 110, 105 and 605 are all passing through gang areas of Los Angeles. 105 always scares me at night time where it is the Watts area of town and drivers have died on that section of the fwy.

 

I think you will find that the glass was never treated properly in production to reduce that natural production stress. All glass items are annealed in ovens to accomplish stress reduction in production. It appears that the glass just shattered into many small pieces, which it is suppose to do if it breaks. Not like broken house window glass which can break into many very dangerous sharp long knife pieces. This window breaking is fairly common in cars that have been parked outside out of the shade on very hot days. I have had it happen on a MB and a Ford SUV in the past.

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Took the car into the dealer and this AM the service guy said it doesn't look like they can prove one way or another whether it was Porsche defect or an outside hit. Tells me he'll call me back later to let me know how much it'll be to replace. Calls me back at noon to say he e-mailed with the factory Porsche rep and they will be replacing the window under warranty. In my mind I figured it was going to cost me at least $1,000, so this is great news.

 

That is great news. Sounds like you wouldn't have had to pay either way. Don't insurance companies typically cover windows with no deductible? However, in any case, it's better to have Porsche cover under warranty so you don't have to deal with a claim. Makes me wonder whether they've seen this before.

 

I called my insurance company just for advisement and they informed me that my auto policy does not include glass coverage --- apparently a separate type of coverage on top of the auto insurance. The glass coverage does cover any window/windshield/glass damage sans deductible. However, my auto policy deductible is $1,000, so if it weren't covered by warranty I would have had to pay. I did not have to fight hard to have my dealership service guy say that it would be covered under warranty which makes me equally suspicious that they have seen an event like this before. If it's covered under warranty, it worries me to an extent. I love this car, but to have a window explode this way while driving at high speeds is not exactly safe. Thankfully, no one was in the passenger seat, but it could have been much worse if there was. I will talk to the GM and service folks when I pick my car up this week and see what is going on.

 

It's time to get tint, tint will help keep all the glass pieces together when it shatters.

 

You might want to think about getting glass insurance. It is cheap and will bring peace of mind, and it is done without touching the deductible (at least with my insurance co). Not sure if you should look too much into the fact that the glass is being covered under warranty. It is all about customer service and the dealer is getting paid to do the work, if not from you then from Porsche. I'd still am interested to know what caused glass to explode - and you are right, lucky there was no one in the passenger seat.

 

I bounced this off a service advisor today . He expressed that he has seen stress fractures on a windshield or rear glass but never on a passenger window . I told him you got it covered under warranty and he seemed surprised but he didn't flat out reject the idea . Obviously he hasnt seen the car and i did not show him the pictures .. but he did say that he never saw this on a passenger window .

 

Very interesting, good point, thanks all. Yeah, I cannot imagine it was a Porsche defect. Which makes it all the more scary. It is nice to see the dealership show such exemplary customer service. Definitely going to look into the glass coverage -- my agent also said it is all covered sans deductible. Does tint really do anything to protect the window? I've always thought some tint would make it look even sleeker.