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Comment by leesalminen | Hacker News Reader

My wife has a 2020 Toyota Corolla. Less than 3 months old and it’s got a bad crack in the windshield.

Toyota says a replacement is 6 months out and there are 800 on backorder in North America right now.

So, it’s not just Tesla. Can happen to any manufacturer.

Can’t you just go to one of the dozens of windshield replacement businesses in your area? You drive it there and they plop in a new windshield for very reasonable rates. They will often even come to you to fix it.

I have wondered about this between my 2008 Honda and my 2019 Honda. The 2008, I have had the windshield replaced twice, no sweat, once due to a rock from the road and once due to a hailstone. On the 2019, there is a suite of sensors behind the rearview mirror that (I presume) handle lane detection and object avoidance (emergency braking) duties. I don't know what assumptions those sensors (or the software behind them) might make about the properties of the glass they're looking through, but I wouldn't blindly have the shop on the corner replace the 2019 windshield like I would on my 2008.

Similarly, I recently had to replace the windshield in my 2016 Acura. Safelite threw in aftermarket glass and every sensor in the car went haywire. For the next two weeks I was driving around with constant beeping reminding me that the sensors I had turned off aren’t working.

What ended up being the resolution?

Pretty much. Same deal on the Corolla.

Just out of curiosity I checked safelite.com and they don’t even offer a replace option on this year/make/model. Only repair, and this crack is well beyond the repair limit.

In aviation, we stop-drill the ends of cracks in aluminum to stop propagation by diffusing the stress point.

If you need to wait 6 months, you might want to investigate doing that.

Drilling specialty tempered glass is not advisable.

Honey I’m going out to drill some holes in your windshield.

... okay?

That's what the "repair limit" is.

Return the Corolla while you still can. This is hot garbage.

Because part availability isn't 100% just yet, it is "hot garbage"? That seems like a stretch.

TBH, this kind of thing happens pretty regularly with various parts. Usually the delay doesn't end up being 6 months, but often those kinds of estimates are on the pessimistic side.

It isn't unusual for places like Safelite to be dependent upon the manufacturer's glass, especially on newer cars.

Those sensors need to be recalibrated after replacing the windshield. That should be in the fine print somewhere.

>I don't know what assumptions those sensors (or the software behind them) might make about the properties of the glass they're looking through, but I wouldn't blindly have the shop on the corner replace the 2019 windshield like I would on my 2008.

Figuring that stuff out is the glass manufacturer's job. The dealer doesn't have some glass guy who's magically better than the glass shop's glass guy. Many smaller dealers actually sub out glass (along with body work, frame pulling and other things they aren't big enough for it to be worth the overhead to do in house).

Which sounds great until you realize the windshield you need requires automatic rain sensors, or has an antenna built in, and none of the cheap Chinese replacements are equitable drop-in swaps. Also, those "very reasonable rates" end up translating to shit-poor work in many cases. Anecdotally I've been through 3 windshields at one of these places. Each time it was improperly sealed, leading to water incursion damage. Eventually I did the right thing and went to a dealer who actually knows what they're doing. The cheap place ended up being the most expensive route I could have possibly taken. Maybe those trained monkeys can ham-fistedly install an older Ford F-series pickup truck's windshield and it's fine, but for modern cars I won't take chances anymore.

Most likely if the dealer is replacing it, it's a manufacturing defect. In which case you can't go to a third party if you want OEM glass and/or have Toyota pay for the replacement, not to mention possibly voiding the warranty.

Right?! Six months for a windshield replacement is ridiculous, especially for such a name brand

Where are they getting there windshields from? If they're just a customer for manufacturer made windshields then you'd have the same issue.

Not if you want it replaced under warranty for free.

um, my Nissan got a windshield crack, I went to the dealership to get it fixed and they said run away. We [Nissan] will charge you ~$1000 and it might take the whole day while if you go to safelite, they'll do it in 2 hrs and <$300. I'm super thankful the sales clerk was nice and honest.

Windshields are the exception for car repair and you shouldn't have been going to toyota.

Why is the dealer fixing a cracked windshield? Is this somehow under warranty?

People have a perception that third party parts are inferior. Maybe Toyota limits access to some OEM parts by others for whatever reason.

Maybe this is true, but for newer cars, installing third party parts or even having the car looked at by a third party will void the warranty. So at least during this early period, the incentives are such that you're better off taking the car to the dealership so you still have the warranty later when you really need it.

>>Maybe this is true, but for newer cars, installing third party parts or even having the car looked at by a third party will void the warranty.

Unless the law varies hugely where you live compared to the rest of the Western countries, that's just simply 100000% not true. You can do almost any modification to your car and it doesn't void the warranty, unless the manufacturer can show that the fault occured due to the modification being fitted(so no, a manufacturer cannot refuse engine repair because you used a 3rd party windscreen or fitted custom rims on the car, unless they can prove that either of those caused the engine damage).

Note that a manufacturer warranty might be distinct and separate from statutory obligations the manufacturer also has. So while the rights your consumer protection laws give you are not voided, an additional, voluntary warranty provided may well be.

> Note that a manufacturer warranty might be distinct and separate from statutory obligations the manufacturer also has.

In much of the West (including the US, even though it has generally weak consumer protections), there is a statutory restriction with regard to when the manufacturer can and can not void a warranty.

There are some limited exceptions, but generally speaking what you are saying would be in violation of Magnuson-Moss.

Unless it can be proven by the warrantor that the 3rd party labor or parts caused the fault, the use of 3rd party labor or parts does not void the warranty.

For a windshield on a new car I would prefer OEM. The material, tint and cutouts might interfere with the sensors causing safety issues. The tint colour may also not match the side windows. The UV protection could be less. The strength can be less which will interfere with airbag deployment. The smoothness of the glass might be off causing suction mounts to operate worse. The fitment could be worse causing rust around the windshield in the future due to glass rubbing against the body or due to water ingress because the window is not big enough.

Insurance is usually paying for it, might as well go OEM.

Here in the UK I have bought several OEM parts from Toyota service centres by walking in off the street. Some service centres (not my local one) even sell surplus inventory on ebay.

My impression is that they do not limit distribution: if you have the part code they will sell it to you (for an exorbitant price).

Even though I brought up limiting distribution, whether or not they limit distribution has absolutely no bearing on people’s decisions if those people have the perception that distribution might be limited to dealers. Perception is all it takes.

I've got a 2019 SUV and when my windshield cracked, insurance told me to get OEM because of the whole EyeSight thing. This makes me question the viability of the third party windshield business going forward.

Sounds like a manufacturing defect.

I'm surprised to see Toyota doing this again. I bought a 2010 Camry for my wife and the dashboard started melting into a shiny puddle of sticky mess within a year. It took 18 months to get the replacement because of the same sort of backorder. This was a few years after the whole "stuck accelerator pedal" hoopla relating to floormats. I resolved to never buy a Toyota vehicle again after that.

I wonder what happened to their whole Kaizen philosophy?

>So, it’s not just Tesla. Can happen to any manufacturer.

How many Corollas are on the road? How many Teslas?

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