This morning when I went into the garage to leave for work, I discovered something VERY strange. The back window in my '88 coupe had violently exploded sometime during the night. There are chunks of glass in every corner of my 3 car garage. I live in a gated community and my garage was secure. Nothing is missing. I don't think this was caused by a human. Nothing fell on the car. My garage is completely dry-walled and there was nothing hanging over the Vette.

Here's my question: Have any of you heard of such a thing? Is there any rational explanation why the window would spontaneously explode?

BTW...the gas springs are original. Is it possible that one was pushing harder than the other and somehow put the window in a bind?

Thanks in advance for your feedback. This one has me baffled.

Greg Sullivan / Canyon Lake, CA

 

Excessive heat will cause windows to crack and explode, but you wouldn't think that to be the case in the garage. Beats the hell out of me.

 

:eek: I'm sure they give that huge peice of glass away too.$$$$

 

This happened to my dad not to long ago. He drove home and the ac on and parked his car came back about 30 min later and the glass was broken. He was explained to him by a friend that owns a glass shop that with the cold from the inside and the heat from the outside was too much stress on the glass.

 

Daym. I never heared of such a thing.

 

Maybe your garage is haunted! Better call Ghost Busters :D

 

Just a few days ago the back hatch on my neighbors Saturn SUV exploded in the garage. Just went BOOM! :crazy:

 

Perhaps a foreign object, such a screw, hairpin, a piece of metal; or the ground connector strap came loose and shorted the metal strips on the rear window defroster. If the strips were shorted, a toaster like build-up of heat would occur and the window would explode.
This has happened to one of my cars while driving on the Interstate -- quite an explosion. The car was not a Corvette.

 

No kidding... apparently, he has already called Glass Busters.

you might be able to find a used part cheap enough.

 

I guess it is possible that one of the struts didn't relieve the pressure and the unequal force put the rear glass in a bind - but that is one thick piece of glass. This is the first I have heard of a C4 coupe doing that.

Will your insurance pick up the cost or call it "act of God"?

 

:confused: :confused: So what are you saying, that one should turn the heat on for a little while to equalize temps or something. I know with my ac on, it dosent get that cold in the car, especially under that huge piece of glass in the back. Crazy stuff. :crazy:

 

Happened to my friend's '84 but it was parked outside under trees. He thinks a branch fell out of the tree and hit the window. Also when I helped my friend at his repair garage we always left the windows open when we brought a car into the garage from outside to stay there over night. They said leaving the windows shut with the change of temperature could break the glass.

 

There's all kind of reasons why it might have given up the ghost, but this is what most likley happened.

Tempered glass is an odd animal. It is extremely strong and can resist breaking in most circumstances. When I have replaced windows where the case is that the car was parked and it just exploded, I ask the custome was the glas hit hard in anyway at an earlier time. Most of the time it had.

The Glass gets bruised and now it is subject to variances in tempature or strees through torsion. I don't think your struts could do it, because I 've put all kinds of pressure on temperd glass getting it into doors where it did not want to go. You can actually bend it, slightly mind you. My guess is you had a bruise and the tempature change is what did it in.

Run it through your comp. insurance. You can't even get the part after market, it's from GM only. I've never done one but they do not look too difficult. Last time I looked the part was $1400 buck. :leaving:

Oh, in case you're wondering the glass explodes because of the tempering process. The glass retains all kinds of energy and when it breaks it is all let lose. Kind of wild to watch actually.

In closing the weakest part of tempered glass is the edge. I'm sure you've heard of kids breaking into cars with screw drivers, they just put a flat tipped screw driver into the crease between the body and the glass and bend outward. It breaks it immediatley.

 

This same thing happened to a dodge I owned once, dead of winter and a locked garage course that wasn't a vette so it didn't hurt as bad :cheers:

 

Thanks to everyone who responded. I do remember noticing that one of the two black round buttons that attach the latch to the glass seemed a little loose when I closed the hatch a few days ago. Could that have somehow stressed the glass?
Also, about a year ago my wife bought that clever little latch extender from Corvette Central that attaches to the latch on the rear window. It keeps the rear window part way open to provide better ventilation. When she used it, I could hear the rear window bang whenever we went over a bump in the road. We don't use that extender anymore because I fixed the AC this summer (unclogged the evaporator).
BTW...my AAA insurance will cover the gas struts, window seal and the glass. My deductible is $500. Just the struts and the seal would probably cost $250 over the counter. That makes $500 sound like a bargain.

Thanks again for all your feedback.
Greg Sullivan / Canyon Lake, CA.

 

Believe me brother, it was just your turn :banghead:

 

Sorry to hear about it....it may be possessed and now everything will start breaking...wait I think all of our cars are like that :lol:

 

The latch extender might have weaken the glass with all that banging.
I've seen hatchback glass explode with all the windows down at freeway speeds. Theres a lot pressure on that back glass.

 

Whats going to suck is that I don't think you can get the hatch for a 86-90 anymore with the high mount brake light.

 

Oh great, now we can tack on another lunatic Corvette procedure to the list.

Before jacking, open all doors and windows and pop hood.

Before shutting car off, open hood to vent extra heat.

Before closing garage, relieve cabin pressure by running the air conditioner.

:smash:

Sorry to hear about your misfortune. Convincing the insurance adjuster it was dumb luck will be interesting!