The Crack of Doom
So, a month or so ago, I got in my car as usual to go to work on a Monday morning, and as I backed out of the driveway I noticed something low on the right side of the windshield. It looked like a thin thread of something three or four inches long, maybe a pine needle stuck to the glass with sunlight reflecting off some dew trapped atop it.
Except there are no pine trees anywhere near my house. And it hadn't been there the day before, I was sure. I ran the windshield washer and failed to dislodge the thing. When I got to work I took a closer look at it, and found out why -- it wasn't something sitting on the windshield, it was a crack in the windshield. Oh, shit.
Well, I thought, my insurance company will waive the deductible if it can be repaired. Unfortunately, the longest crack that can be repaired is about 6 inches, and while it looked from the inside as if it was only about 4 inches long, further investigation from the outside revealed another 4 inches or so, extending to the bottom edge of the glass and hidden from inside view by the dashboard which covers the bottom several inches of glass.
You can see in the picture the origin of the crack -- a chip an inch from the edge, that probably came from a stone on the interstate some time ago. Its position below the level of the dash must have kept me from noticing it until it suddenly decided to blossom into a full-fledged crack. Too big to repair, it left me no choice but to get the windshield replaced, out of my own pocket. And I couldn't let it wait for long because the car is due for inspection.
$270 later, you can bet the next time something hits the windshield, even if I don't see any apparent damage from inside I'll be checking it out thoroughly from the outside.
4 comments:
I had that happen to me a while back - don't know if it's always worth it to get... but by having full-glass coverage on my insurance, I was able to get the window replacement was free.
I once had a teeny crack in the bottom of my windshield and went driving on a cold day (cold in Indiana, not cold in Virginia). I heard this weird squeaking noise, and looked down to see the crack getting longer and longer in the cold weather until it was almost a foot long. Very creepy.
I think $270 is a deal. I know that sounds horrible but I've seen windshields go for $500!
It could of been worse.
Jono: I might look into that. I have no idea how much it costs.
Shocho: That would be creepy, all right. This crack showed up after some of the wide temperature swings we had a while back, when I hadn't been putting the car in the garage overnight. I suspect a warm day followed by an overnight frost may have been what triggered it.
Kosmo: Oh, I know it could have been much worse. I was really quite surprised that it wasn't more; I was expecting around $500. But I didn't turn it down.
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