Anyone with any knowledge of similar events occurring? This is my first 911 and nothing like this has ever happened to me in any car I have owned.
I was driving on the freeway (70 mph) in dry clear conditions. There were no cars on either side of me and I was not passing under an overpass. Out of nowhere, my window just exploded. It sounded like a gunshot, scared the you know what out of me. I imagine most of the glass is on the freeway, but as you can see much of it is still in the car and in the window frame.

 

I have never seen anything like this . The photo shows a clean break which implies either a hard piece of road debris or even worse .. a malicous individual . The fact that it occured under an overpass raises even more suspicion . Have you called the Police ? Either way you will have to call the insurance company . This is just awful !! Glad you are OK.

 

Sorry if I was unclear, it was not under an overpass ( I only included that so that one wouldn't think someone threw something at my car). I was on the freeway about 5 miles from my friend's place that I was headed to, and about 20 miles from my home. I turned around and went back home. I did not call the police as I was not in an area I wanted to sit around on the side of the freeway in.
There was no debris (rock, bullet, whatever) inside my car and no scratches (that I could see) on the paint of the passenger side door. There were shards of glass in the passenger side seat, the passenger side floormat in the front and even some glass on the floormat behind the driver seat.
Thanks for your reply Yrralis, I am also glad that I'm okay and that there was no one in the passenger seat.

 

My first suspicion is that something hit your window (by accident or intentionally).

 

something had to hit it, right? Never heard of such a thing. Glad you're okay mate.

 

Thanks guys. No clue. I mean I know a little about physics, but there was no one on my immediate right side that I would suspect to have shot something at it. I suppose it could have been a rock but it's not as though I was passing a large truck or any traffic really to kick something up. Who knows? At any rate, we'll see what the dealer has to say on Monday.

 

Show it to the Porsche techs in service . If that window was improperly installed or in any way defective they would see it . But I doubt it . I do find it very odd that the break is so clean . The rubber housing and the paint on the car's exterior is blemish free.

 

The lack of exterior damage suggests that it is Porsche related doesn't it? as opposed to malicious intent by someone

 

The window didn't just shatter on its own. My WAG is a high powered .177 caliber pellet rifle (or handgun) was involved fired from a passing vehicle or from the side of the road.

 

I agree. We had a recent spate of that here in Southern California. I doubt a pellet would penetrate the window to be found -- but it could transfer enough energy to shatter the window. I'd be astonished if that was a glass or installation defect. It appears to me to be the result of a ballistic encounter.

DMoore
'13 C2S
'13 Panamera GTS

 

Something did NOT have to have hit that glass for it to break. Hyundai veloster moonroofs have been recalled for randomly exploding, from driving on the road to being parked in a garage. Weird I know..

 

Apollo - I really hope you're right. I have 14000 miles on the car, I've driven at higher speeds and at more extreme temperatures than 64F (temp at the time it shattered), so it seems weird that one night it just explodes. Again, hope you're right my friend.

 

Like Apollo mentioned, on bimmerpost there were a handful of cases of m3s and 335s sunroofs exploding out of nowhere. All incidents were on the freeway too if I recall correctly. I think the conclusion was something about air pressure inside the cabin was too high. I didn't really get it either so I just kinda prayed it wouldn't happen to me. I'm not sure if side window and sunroof have the same rigidity and flex characteristics but nevertheless, they are both forms of glass.

And to those who suggest a pellet sniper was the culprit?! You'd have to be pretty skillful at a far enough distance to shoot a .177 at a 70 mph moving target and hit it. I'm just saying, it's not impossible per say but sorta far fetched.

If I have to guess, I'd say its road debris that just got caught in the right wind and velocity to hit and shatter your window. Hey look on the bright side, at least no one was hurt and it didn't do serious damage to your cars body/paint instead. Good luck with situation.

 

The glass had a stress fracture. Could have happened when the glass was made, when it was installed in the car, during transport, or hit by a rock or something recently. They don't make glass like they used to.

 

This makes sense to me too. +1