Windscreen replacement advice

[Tribal]

Good Morning guys,

So needing advice once again from you all regarding an unfortunate dilemma I've had since the first week of owning my Focus.

A few days after parking it up in the basement of a multi-storey car park, I came back to the car to notice a collection of scratches, roughly 15-20 or so, a few deep enough to catch my finger nail on, in the drivers side, towards the middle of the windscreen and just underneath the rear-view mirror. The scratches vary in length, but are roughly 3-4cm long. There were also scratches on the passenger side roof, which I took to my local trusted bodyshop repair who simply polished the scratches on the paintwork out for me.

Due to the random nature of the scratches, it seems likely it was a fox, or other large, suburban animal, that had possibly been clamouring onto my car roof to get out the way of another car or something, and in the process damaged my windscreen.

After speaking to my trusted body-shop repair specialist, he advised me that glass scratches are notoriously difficult to correct, and very often end up causing further distortion to the glass in the process of the repair, and was obviously reluctant to attempt a repair as it was not his field of expertise.

So, I've looked into steps about improving the scratches online for the last few weeks myself, and seen very mixed opinions and results. I would simply want to use a product and micro-fibre cloth, I wouldn't feel comfortable going any more heavy duty than that. I've heard Cerium Oxide works wonders, but as some of the scratches are harsh, and I don't have a drill or buffer pad, is it worth even trying?

I live in the South East, so you would assume there was lots of glass scratch repair specialists right? Actually, there isn't. I've approached 5 or 6 in the region, who all advice against repairing scratches, and just go in for a complete replacement if the damage impairs or distracts from the vision of the road.

So my main question for you guys would be, at what stage should you go down the road of a complete replacement? The scratches are usually quite prominent in direct sun, less so in overcast or dark times of thd day, but does sometimes catch my eye with street-lights etc at night.

In everyone's experience of windscreen replacements, has anyone had any horror stories or leaking and additional wind-noise immediately after or in the following years after having a replacement. I've also heard of individuals finding damage to the window frame from the old glass being removed after the fitter installs the glass, anyone had this issue?

My insurer, like many, use Auto-glass, the excess is the standard £115 for a replacement screen. I'm going to insist on an OEM one as I've heard the non-branded windscreens are more likely to run into issues with the above issues, and that the digital assistants sometimes are more prone to error-failures with the generic glass replacement.

Sorry for the long-one, please have a look at the picture to see what you make of the scratches. As always, your advice will be much appreciated.

Luke

[Botus]

glass is incredibly hard...    you can take special glass polish and a small dremel with polishing mop and go as much as you like - see you in 3 hrs and I doubt you'll have touched it

only real trick is not to heat it up, so 1 min work, 2 mins cooling - I put a secondhand interior mirror in and it came with a light scratch 2cm long half depth of human hair - took me 10 hours of polishing with a dremel to just about hide it - it has made a tiny distortion on image but in day to day use you NEVER notice it

trying to get dings from hoodies throwing sharp stones at her screen 15 hrs still there

 

I wouldn't change it yet - but yes ONLY genuine screen do not accept pilkington trash - they will fight like hell to only put budget crap in there

animals shouldn't be able to scratch glass (paint and lacquer no problems at all) - the only animals that can are hoddies with a diamond who don't like you - sorry to hear but the solution is to move

 

 

[Zen23]

I had peugeot with scratched windscreen from wipers. I can't remember what exactly what I used but it was diamond based glass polish. It took ages even with power tools. Result was disappointing,  scratches are gone but distortion were so bad in the end I got new windscreen. 

[Tribal]

Thanks both for your replies. It sounds as though that my microfiber cloth isn't going to be a match for the amount of scratches that are present. It's interesting Botus, that you think the scratches were caused by potentially vandalism. I didn't at first associate it with that, but the scratches are in such an odd place, and an odd size/shape, it could be I guess!

Although I want to just get over the scratches, I'm afraid my brain can't unsee them, their especially annoying when I go to check my rearview mirror or glance towards the middle of the screen to check left-sided road-signs. Made worse as I only owned the car for 3 days before the damage occurred!

I think I'm going to push for true OEM glass replacement, but if my insurer isn't willing to replace for such, and only offers a generic equivalent, or they offer OEM, but at an extra of £££'s I might end up just having to put up with it.

Zen23, when you had your glass replaced, was it a tidy job? Did you have any issues with leaks or win-noise etc after?

[Zen23]

The guy who changed the glass done a good job. We had a glass  replaced on 2 our cars that day. Peugeot 306 2004 had pilkington glass, polarised and it was replaced with the same glass. It had sensor in a windscreen as well. Didn't have any issues with new glass.

[StephenFord]

4 hours ago, Tribal said:

... a few deep enough to catch my finger nail on...

If you can feel it with your fingernail, it won't 'polish out'...

[TomsFocus]

1 hour ago, StephenFord said:

If you can feel it with your fingernail, it won't 'polish out'...

That's for a thin layer of paint.  The glass is much thicker on a windscreen so you can polish that more deeply without going through to another layer.  However, you have to take off so much material that it will distort the background as mentioned above.

[StephenFord]

1 minute ago, TomsFocus said:

That's for a thin layer of paint...

In the world of 'watch restoration' it holds true. Even if the 'glass' is mineral, or 'sapphire', once you feel it with your fingernail, usually best to order a new crystal, though severe polishing as you say can decrease the scratch, but by that stage, distortion sets in...

[Tribal]

Yep. It's a pretty dire conundrum, as to fix the problem, you likely cause a new one. With the position of the scratches where they are, I'd likely notice distortion in the middle of the screen quite quickly. At this stage, I'm leaning towards a replacement if I can. It sucks as it's not a decision I'm taking lightly, but in the dozen or so years of driving, I've never had such a distracting area on my windscreen to try and 'see past'. That makes me even more fixated on it as I'm used to pretty pristine windscreens.

[TomsFocus]

It might be trying something like Rain-X to act as a sort of 'filler' for the scratches.  I've never tried it for that so just a thought.

Between myself and my Mum, we've had 3 windscreens replaced, and problems with all 3.  So personally I'd just put up with it until the screen needs replacing for a large chip or crack.

One leaked and had to be removed and refitted, leaving the car smelling of wet dog for months.  One was terrible quality, the mirror mount fell off within an hour and the shaded hatchings wore off the second they were touched with a cloth.   And for the final one, the wrong screen was brought out so the tech wouldn't fit it, next tech brought the correct screen but broken the wiper sensor, 3rd tech came out to 'check' the sensor was broken.  4th attempt they brought a new genuine sensor. 

We are generally pretty unlucky though, I'm sure most people have positive experiences.

(Also worth considering if you have a camera on the front screen, they sometimes need to be calibrated at a workshop, rather than being possible on a driveway.)

[StephenFord]

3 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

Between myself and my Mum, we've had 3 windscreens replaced, and problems with all 3.  So personally I'd just put up with it until the screen needs replacing for a large chip or crack.

Haven't had a windscreen replaced for years, but yes, a very successful experience, however it was for a car that had no windscreen 'tech', apart from a tint, and sun filter!

[Botus]

a good screen fitter can fit another and you shouldn't be able to tell they did it

the biggest telltale is where they don't fit genuine - at the local merc garage have a new genuine screen come in at least once a day...

 

[Tribal]

Thanks for your experiences Tom and Stephen.

I think the leakage aspect of a glass replacement that you touched on Tom is my biggest concern. I would honestly be floored if the screen developed a leak and damaged the interior etc. Do you recall if it was genuine OEM glass or a generic brand that was used on your leaky windscreen?

I'm intending to keep the car for as long as I can because it's a practical, efficient car that should meet my needs for thr foreseeable future, so would definitely rather do without water ingress!

I'll have a look at RainX, cheers. It looks like you had a positive experience Stephen, how long ago was that glass replacement? I take it no issues since the install?

I definitely hope that the techs at Autoglass are able to do a tidy job as Botus, each branch must do possibly dozens, of new screens a week, so imagine they are pretty good at it! As you touched on, they do fit OEM, it's just whether my insurance are happy to sign off on it.

[StephenFord]

5 minutes ago, Tribal said:

... It looks like you had a positive experience Stephen, how long ago was that glass replacement? I take it no issues since the install?

I had no issues at all in the 10 years when it was done till I sold the car...

[TomsFocus]

It was a genuine screen that leaked, presumably a fitting issue though never actually confirmed either way.  Had to wait months for another one because the car was still fairly new at the time.  The new genuine screens were all going to the build factory as quickly as they were being made, and aftermarkets hadn't had time to start making copies.

The screen fitted to the final car was non genuine, made by Pilkington, and I couldn't tell the difference from the original.  Had exactly the same IR reflective coating and screen heating elements inside.  Had no issues with that screen in the next couple of years until I sold the car.

[ScaniaPBman]

Windscreen  glass is hard stuff as everyone has pointed out, but not always.

Many years ago I had a Rover car from new as a company car. After a while the screen had collected unusual scratches and marks. A friend used it to go to the south of France and said that after driving through sand blown off a beach, the screen was foggy.

It turned out that the screen had not been manufactured properly leaving it with comparatively soft glass.

Of course that sort of thing could not happen these days!

ScaniaPBman.

[Jimpster]

I had a rear screen done on a Renaut Megane Scenic i owned, some swine put a brick thru it. Insuarnce wanted £300 excess, national screen chain wanted £600. Rang my local scrappers they put me onto one of the locals that put cards in their shed, £60 fitted and all broken glass hoovered out. Made a fantastic job, couldnt tell.Just saying its an option.

[alexp999]

I had the windscreen replaced by Autoglass on my Mk4 when it was 6 months old with a non-Ford badged screen.

4 years later and no issues.

Ford don't make the glass anyway, it just has their stamp on it.

[Tribal]

Thanks for the extra feedback guys. Very reassuring to know a replacement, when done right, generally leads to no issues down the line, and that's regardless of what glass is used. I'm currently awaiting my insurers decision regarding replacement for the scratches, so will keep you all updated if they are happy to authorise a replacement.