Exploding window covered under warranty?

[djrichard]

I was driving along the road this evening and I was slowing down for a give-way. I was doing about 5 mph and then suddenly my rear window just popped really loudly and as I looked in my rear view mirror I noticed that the whole window had shattered completely. It was pouring down with rain, but fortunately I have my windows tinted and it held the whole thing together. There was no-one around at all and Im fairly certain that nothing hit it.

When I got home I had a long hard look over the window and I can see where the fracture has started . There are no pit marks whatsoever to indicate anything hit it. Its totally smooth. Its all held in place 100% and the rain is not penetrating it. Is it possible for a window to suddenly do this without being hit by anything? Would I be able to claim for that from my warranty? Im not sure if my insurance covers anything other than the windscreen. I may be wrong its just that you hear them talking about "windscreen cover" and the rear window is not exactly what I would call a windscreen. Does anyone know if insurance like that covers all the vehicles windows? Im not going to claim my insurance if it messes up my no claims discount.

Could I get it checked to see if it was defective and replaced under warranty?

 

[Craigc]

You could always try warranty and see what they say. But windscreen cover should include all windows.

 

[Feel]

IIRC there were some exploding rear windows a while ago....

Do mean to be funny but have you search-ed?

 

[djrichard]

I did search funnily enough. I searched for "exploding rear window" and nothing came up.

I usually always search just to avoid comments like that!

I actually searched because I wanted to see if this was a known fault, just like water leaking into my boot when the window washer froze. I wanted some damning evidence to present to SEAT in hope of getting it covered.

Even if the rear window is covered under warranty I will still have to pay an excess which from what I can see should not apply to me. Think Im gonna be getting on the phone tomorrow and screaming at some people!

 

[mrcoyote]

Isn't the excess for a windscreen only something like £50 or £60 depending on your insurer?

 

[muddyboots]

BigAliH had the same thing happen to his - at the time they reckoned it was a shot from a BB gun. But maybe it was a design fault ?

My front windscreen developed a crack a while back, it appeared whilst parked up and there was no stone chip damage. Initiall warranty weren't interested. Then I found out that 3 others on here had exactly the same crack appear in the same place, and got them to send me photos.
So a stiff letter to warranty, with the photos attached, persuaded them it was a design fault and they replaced it free of charge.

Might be worth a try, if you can find anyone else with the same problem. Could save you your excess.

 

[djrichard]

Ive phoned the garage up and told them what had happened. The guy said he had not heard of this problem before and said he will call me back in half an hour once he has had a chance to ask around.

Wish me luck!

Anyone else on here had similar problems that I can highlight to use in this case?

 

[djrichard]

Hello SEAT UK spies!

 

[mrcoyote]

Hello SEAT UK spies!

Damn! Busted again.

 

[Syphon]

My old ibiza's rear window shattered for no aparrent reason once. I had it done via my insurance policy with £50 excess.

Scott

 

[djrichard]

I phoned up the dealer as mentioned earlier and in the half hour between my phone call SEAT UK had searched this site and sent a fax to the dealership with a print out of what this entire thread contains. They are trying to get out of fixing this under warranty. They say they need to examine the car, but I explained that if I move it the whole window will cave in and then there will be nothing for them to examine. What the hell is so difficult to understand about this?

me "i cant move it or it will fall to pieces instantly, there are fragments falling off even sitting still on my driveway"

SEAT "i understand that Sir, but we need to examine it, can you bring it in to the dealer?"

me "I just told you it will fall to pieces if i move it"

SEAT "i understand Sir, but we cant examine it without seeing it at a dealership"

me "what exactly are you going to examine if it caves in?"

SEAT "we NEED to examine it"

me "can you send someone out to my house?"

SEAT "we dont do that"

AAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH ****ing stupid ****ing arse holes! Im never buying one of these shite cars ever again. They can stick their new Leon up their arses!

 

[CHR15B]

this seems a bit of a ****!

is your local dealer the seat/vw at rowan st paisley?

 

[djrichard]

this seems a bit of a ****!

is your local dealer the seat/vw at rowan st paisley?

I phoned up Arnold Clark in Alexandria Parade. The people who were most annoying were SEAT themselves though. They are just not interested at all. They have their procedures in place and regardless of how useless they are in this particular case, they simply will not be flexible at all. I am really very very angry and I hate being treated like this by anyone, let alone a company that I bought a brand new car from and a company that I was going to buy the new Leon from.

Maybe all companies are like this, I dont know, but its a joke anyway and I will not allow it to happen to me again.

Im away to take some photos of it anyway, although my camera totally sucks so it will no doubt be useless as evidence as I can only expect to hear "Im sorry sir but its impossible to tell from these photos whether or not the damage was caused by a projectile or by a manufacturing fault. Seeing as we cant examine the window as it is in pieces after you driving it here then we can not help you anymore."

Nothing worse than being screwed over by faceless companies who are only wonderful when you are going to be parting with your cash. Once youve spent your money you can forget about anything else. I could imagine me walking into a showroom today and telling them that I would like to trade in my Ibiza and buy a new Leon, I could just see them telling me "not to worry about that missing rear window sir, we can take care of that for you, come this way and sign this paperwork and this nice new shiney Leon can be yours!"

 

[Chemical Al]

were the windows taken out to have the tints fitted?

 

[djrichard]

were the windows taken out to have the tints fitted?

No it was just fitted by sticking it onto the window while they were still in place. Cant imagine how much it would cost to get your windows removed and then tinted! Would the window not break when you broke the seal anyway?

I have some pics now which are not very good. I will resize them and when the spies are viewing the site again they can make their mind up if they want to rectify this terrible injustice.

 

[Gregor]

Gary Wells, Head of Aftersales UK just sent us a questionaire asking us to fill it in based on our recent experience with our dealer (which has been superb, and always has been - but that's beside the point).

Okay - it's obviously a database-driven mailshot, but it might be an idea to call customer care on 0500 222 222 and ask them to send you out a questionaire

 

[Chemical Al]

An experianced window fitter could probably do it in in next to no time.

 

[djrichard]

Here are a couple of pics of the area where the centre of the eruption took place. Its hard to see from the photos as I guessed but it gives you an idea. Ive also just sent these photos to Sandy Cochran at W Livingstones dealership in Uddingston. He was a lot more helpful. He had heard of it happening to a Leon before although he has not heard of it happening to an Ibiza. Once he has had a look at them and if they are clear enough, then he will send a report to SEAT and we can go from there.

 

[CHR15B]

thats one hell of a shatter mate!

 

[djrichard]

Now they are saying that its not covered under warranty due to the fact that it is tinted. hmmm so if it wasnt tinted I wouldnt be able to prove that nothing had actually hit it, now thast it is tinted and that they accept that nothing has hit it they are saying they dont cover it cos its tinted. Damned if you do, damned if you dont!