Windscreen Replacement

[Russ]

Just had my windscreen replaced by autoglass (bullseye chip and a star-break close together) must say the guy who did it was great and explained everything even down to showing me that the 'original' ford stamped screen had very little bonding on it and the top passenger side corner actually had NO bonding on it! After reading some of the horror stories online about autoglass I have to say the guys done a good job on our focus, no problems with the sensors in the screen and everything works as it should. The only difference with the screen is instead of being stamped 'Ford' it has Pilkington which supplies OE to the industry anyway.

Had to pay £75 excess but better than the £520 had I replaced it at my own cost!

Anyone else had their windscreen replaced and if so how did it go?

[IINexusII]

Good stuff, i will be replacing mine very soon due to a large crack on the windscreen.

[Glassman]

How far apart were the two impacts?

[Russ]

They were 5 mm apart. One was a 'bullseye' the other a 'star-break' which encroached into the bullseye and both were also in the wiper sweep area above the stearing wheel. An MOT failure. I should add the total damaged area was larger than a 10 pence piece.

[Zico]

Had a ~6 inch crack in my Fiesta Zetec windscreen which required a full replacement. Autoglass replaced as per your experience. No idea what the original screen was like (bonding etc.) but the replacement worked perfectly (heated elements).

[south_bound]

Needing to get mine done as of yesterday evening - crack coming up from the scuttle panel about 4" long. Autoglass couldn't do it before I go to France tomorrow so they have arranged their French partner company Carglass to do it when I get there. Hopefully I have as good experience as you had. I had a chip repair done a couple of years ago and while it is still visable it did the job at the time. He even moved the template a bit as it was on the edge of where they should have replaced the whole windscreen so avoided having to replace and pay the excess. Also hopefully more professional than one of the others (National Auto Winscreen I think) who tried to sell me new Wiper Blades before thay had even booked me in!

[CookieM]

Had my previous car (fiesta ZS) done by autoglass and they did a good job on that. Request an official ford screen too which insurance agreed to and got fitted. only problem was the black box that sticks to the windscreen behind the rear view kept falling off. Could've just replaced the sticky pads but hey ho.

Now booked in to have my ST windscreen replaced tomorrow (must have bad luck with windscreens, see picture :() but this time with another company. Not sure who they are just done through insurance for £65 excess. Not too bothered about it if I'm honest since its going back to fords next week to be swapped my new Focus st :)

[CookieM]

Had my previous car (fiesta ZS) done by autoglass and they did a good job on that. Request an official ford screen too which insurance agreed to and got fitted. only problem was the black box that sticks to the windscreen behind the rear view kept falling off. Could've just replaced the sticky pads but hey ho.

Now booked in to have my ST windscreen replaced tomorrow (must have bad luck with windscreens, see picture :() but this time with another company. Not sure who they are just done through insurance for £65 excess. Not too bothered about it if I'm honest since its going back to fords next week to be swapped for my new Focus st :)

[Glassman]

£65 excess.

swift cover? AXA?

[CookieM]

Hastings

[south_bound]

Just got the job done by Carglass in France - all seems to have gone ok. They even fitted a new set of Bosch wipers at no cost - still had the originals on from 8 years ago so if they last half as long and don't streak I'll be happy enough. £90 excess though so expensive wipers if you look at it that way!

[mitch84]

Had my windscreen replaced twice at autoglass, great service.

I guess I've been unlucky with my focus and its windscreen though as its the only car I've so far had to replace the windscreen, bottle thrown at it while driving and a stone chip turning into a large crack across the screen. Both occasions costed me the £75 excess.

I always drive to the repair centre as the online booking system is pants and you normally have to wait ages if you want a call out, by that time your chip turns into a crack, so its best to go to a rapid response autoglass repair centre if you have one local as you can get booked in much much quicker.

[CookieM]

So I rang up auto windscreens on Monday to book my car in to have screen replaced. They booked me in for yesterday. I rang up on Wednesday to confirm everything was ok and that glass had been ordered and they said everything was fine. The guy rings me on Thursday to say he's near and it turns out he's not got a screen for me and thought it was a repair.

Rang them up to complain and get it re booked in but earliest they could do was Thursday next week (meant to be handing car back to fords on wed).

Decided to ring my insurers other approved repairer, nationwide windscreens and explained the situation. They've managed to get me booked in for Tuesday so hopefully it all goes well with them.

[south_bound]

All 3 major repairers that my insurance company deal with could have done the replacement the next day using mobile service, but I was pushing for same day as I was driving to France the next day. One of them could have done same day if I drove to the depot but that was 50 miles away. Overall sounds like I was expecting too much if they are quoting a week or more for replacements. The French Carglass arranged things on Wednesday and I got the job done today (Friday) so overall seems quite reasonable.

Has anyone had any issues with the heated windscreen being properly fitted? The guy here said it is guaranteed for life against faulty fitting so we will have to see about that. I guess I won't find out properly until the first signs of frost in thwe winter.

[Stoney871]

Put a cup of hot water on the dash to steam up the screen and test the demist that way.

(Don't scald yourself or knock it over ;) )

[south_bound]

Good idea Stoney, I'll give it a go but its 35 degrees here at the moment (and not less than 25 degrees at night) so not sure the steam will condense on the window, but will try it.

[StephenFord]

Always nice to see a 5 year old post re energised!

[Stoney871]

And a nice cheeky advert too [emoji106]

Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk

[F0CUE]

[south_bound]

Funny I was thinking about this the other day, that last winter parts of the windscreen weren't demisting as they should, mainly around the edges each side but also a few random vertical lines in front of the passengers face.  So despite singing the praises of the French Auto Glass people it seems their lifetime guarantee is not up to scratch, but I don't think I have the energy to go chasing them down for it.

[WireyWhenWet]

7 hours ago, south_bound said:

parts of the windscreen weren't demisting as they should, mainly around the edges each side but also a few random vertical lines in front of the passengers face.

Oddly I was going to post more or less exactly that myself the other day when this got revived.. One of the lads had his screen done at work by Autoglass and he made sure to check out the quick clear as soon as he could; he had a similar issue but was told because he'd signed the papers for it being done on the day he was refused another on the grounds that it was okay before they left.

He had a good back and forth for a couple of weeks about it and eventually went back to the insurance who did actually resolve the issue for him, but god knows how his next premiums will look :$

 

I had a Shatterprufe put in by West Yorkshire Windscreens for my mk2.5 and despite a few negative reviews I was happy with it. I got a belter of a stone ship the same day like but I much preferred it over OE as the quick clear seemed to just work more efficiently, and the wires didn't seem quite as intrusive when it was on, where the OE one seemed to thicken up quite alot. I paid £150 for that one and it was great, my insurance excess for a screen was £75 but read the small print and a lime about windscreen replacements *may* affect future premiums put me right off..

[FatHead1979]

On 5/5/2020 at 4:48 PM, WireyWhenWet said:

Oddly I was going to post more or less exactly that myself the other day when this got revived.. One of the lads had his screen done at work by Autoglass and he made sure to check out the quick clear as soon as he could; he had a similar issue but was told because he'd signed the papers for it being done on the day he was refused another on the grounds that it was okay before they left.

He had a good back and forth for a couple of weeks about it and eventually went back to the insurance who did actually resolve the issue for him, but god knows how his next premiums will look :$

 

I had a Shatterprufe put in by West Yorkshire Windscreens for my mk2.5 and despite a few negative reviews I was happy with it. I got a belter of a stone ship the same day like but I much preferred it over OE as the quick clear seemed to just work more efficiently, and the wires didn't seem quite as intrusive when it was on, where the OE one seemed to thicken up quite alot. I paid £150 for that one and it was great, my insurance excess for a screen was £75 but read the small print and a lime about windscreen replacements *may* affect future premiums put me right off..

Autoglass replaced my cracked MK2 quickclear windscreen over 5 years ago via my insurer at the time, I noticed through the last winter that blocks of elements weren't working so after a quick call to Autoglass describing the issue and offering to send pics they approved a free replacement (life warranty for a replacement screen).  The brand for this screen wasn't Pilkington but it works perfectly AND was free of charge so I'm not complaining!

[WireyWhenWet]

2 minutes ago, 1979Damian said:

AND was free of charge so I'm not complaining!

You definitely got that one good! I imagine that it's probably all been down to the guy fitting and his effort to be bothered having to come back out again or something daft like that as I haven't heard many other complaints in all fairness

[FatHead1979]

3 minutes ago, WireyWhenWet said:

You definitely got that one good! I imagine that it's probably all been down to the guy fitting and his effort to be bothered having to come back out again or something daft like that as I haven't heard many other complaints in all fairness

It was over 5 years after they originally fitted it that they replaced it free of charge, I just called up their number, explained that they fitted a quickclear windscreen 5 plus years ago and loads of the elements had stopped working.  I didn't even have to ask for a replacement, I just stopped talking and got "It sounds like your windscreen has developed a fault, let me take a few details and we'll see about booking in a replacement for you".

[StephenFord]

You've just jogged my memory! A while back now, after 6 years of having a windscreen replaced on my Celica GT4  I chanced my arm and called them saying the top had started to de laminate, fully expecting to be told where to go. I couldn't have got better service, the screen was fully replaced free of charge at my home! Can't recommend AutoGlass highly enough.