Mystery Broken Window

[EnterName]

No idea why this window was broken.

No evidence of any tampering, nobody on the house camera.

First thing the window was fine, then a few hours later it wasn't. The window is not even roadside, but it faces the house.

Very odd! Now I have a door full of broken glass. 😞

Had Autoglass round and they said it's impossible to get the glass out.

What I think they mean is it's awkward and time-consuming to get the glass out. Drat!

 

Edited 22 August, 2022 by EnterName
Changed Rats to Drat as it was ambiguous.

[KenONeill]

6 minutes ago, EnterName said:

Had Autoglass round and they said it's impossible to get the glass out.

Perhaps they've never heard of a vacuum cleaner?  Yes, it does take a while, but it's eminently a DIY job.

[EnterName]

7 minutes ago, KenONeill said:

Perhaps they've never heard of a vacuum cleaner?  Yes, it does take a while, but it's eminently a DIY job.

How do you remove the glass that falls inside the door though, Ken?

[Gaz]

17 minutes ago, EnterName said:

Had Autoglass round and they said it's impossible to get the glass out.

 

Marketing department employee of the month 

 

G

[EnterName]

5 minutes ago, Gaz said:

 

Marketing department employee of the month 

 

G

In fairness to the guy, and my ambiguous original post, I think he was on about the glass rattling around in the bottom of the door.

But I did think it was a bit of a defeatist attitude.

[Gaz]

Time's undoubtedly not on their side.  

 

I had similar with a Honda Accord that was broken into (They stole a faulty CD player that skipped like a good 'un ).  A reasonable job was done for the glass that was on show, but my children were young at the time, so I took it upon myself to clear all the broken glass.  Taking my time, it probably took half a day, including taking the seat base, and door speaker out for better access to a tricky area.

 

Sorry you've had it happen - any fallen objects nearby or projectiles in the car (might be really small), or grazes in the paint?

 

Gaz

[gumdrop]

Have a look on the far side of the car for a spherical indentation, it could well be an 8mm steel ball bearing from a catapult.

We had a "home alone" kid using a tennis raquet to wallop golf balls and squash balls to all points of the compass and they don't

half richochet!

[GWoodhouse]

Any pressurised containers in the car? I had a tube of bike puncture sealant in the pocket on the back of the front seats that exploded in hot weather, true story.

[EnterName]

1 hour ago, Gaz said:

Sorry you've had it happen - any fallen objects nearby or projectiles in the car (might be really small), or grazes in the paint?

 

Gaz

No, it's a complete mystery. No local debris, nothing but glass in the car, and no sign of any projectiles (or tiles) outside the car.

All I can think is that the recent high temperatures have something to do with it.

Getting rid of the glass in the passenger compartment was easy enough, it's the stuff that fell down into the door I want to shift, if I can.

1 hour ago, gumdrop said:

Have a look on the far side of the car for a spherical indentation, it could well be an 8mm steel ball bearing from a catapult.

We had a "home alone" kid using a tennis raquet to wallop golf balls and squash balls to all points of the compass and they don't

half richochet!

I'll have a look, that's something I hadn't considered. 👍

But the projectile (if it exists) remains missing.

 

35 minutes ago, GWoodhouse said:

Any pressurised containers in the car? I had a tube of bike puncture sealant in the pocket on the back of the front seats that exploded in hot weather, true story.

Nope. There was a small bottle of rubbing alcohol in the car, but that was undamaged.

[RichieXR2]

I have a picture of my mate somewhere with his entire door off the car and upside down trying to retrieve a bolt and remove the broken glass. 
 

I’m not saying you should do this but it worked 😂

[ApertureS]

4 hours ago, KenONeill said:

Perhaps they've never heard of a vacuum cleaner?  Yes, it does take a while, but it's eminently a DIY job.

I promise you a vacuum doesnt touch half of it. What I do at work is remove the door completely, strip everything off of it, turn it upside down and vacuum what comes out, rinse and repeat about 10/15 times and you get 99% out.

I hate rattles. 

[EnterName]

34 minutes ago, RichieXR2 said:

I have a picture of my mate somewhere with his entire door off the car and upside down trying to retrieve a bolt and remove the broken glass. 
 

I’m not saying you should do this but it worked 😂

 

27 minutes ago, ApertureS said:

I promise you a vacuum doesnt touch half of it. What I do at work is remove the door completely, strip everything off of it, turn it upside down and vacuum what comes out, rinse and repeat about 10/15 times and you get 99% out.

I hate rattles. 

Sadly, I think this may be the solution.

I seem to recall that hanging a car door after removal may not be a simple task, but things may have improved in the last 20 years.

I'll have a chat with my local garage and see what they advise.

[J.R.]

What they mean is that it is impossible within the time constraints they have to do the job for a fair market price to remove all of the broken glass, some will likely remain.

[StevesTruck]

There's always an excuse why they won't even have a crack at getting some of it out. My favourite was "Sorry, I normally have the door card off and everything to get the glass out, but the hoover's not working". He didn't look happy when I said "No problem, I totally understand - I'll get you mine"

[Cap44]

The easiest door ever to take off, just undo the very small hex headed screws going into the 2 hinge pins.  Lift the slider that locks the wiring plug in & disconnect then just lift off the hinge's. No need to adjust anything when putting it back as long as you don't undo the hinge mounting bolts.

[EnterName]

7 hours ago, Cap44 said:

The easiest door ever to take off, just undo the very small hex headed screws going into the 2 hinge pins.  Lift the slider that locks the wiring plug in & disconnect then just lift off the hinge's. No need to adjust anything when putting it back as long as you don't undo the hinge mounting bolts.

This is very encouraging. Thanks for the tip. 👍

[StevesTruck]

Reverse the process to reinstall, though I'd personally give it a couple of weeks for this heat to go down before doing so.

[Cap44]

while on this topic how do you disconnect the glass from the lifting gear? Any link's would be usefull please

[Stoofa]

I lost the rear window on my Mk2 vRS a number of years ago (at a time where there wasn't a single one in the country with the antenna etched - so I had to drive with makeshift plastics in place for nearly two weeks).

I ended up with glass inside the tailgate which the eventual glass installer informed me "wouldn't all be removed". The sound of rattling and sliding glass was an annoyance to say the least.

 

My car went into Skoda for some reason soon after and as I was quite friendly with the team there, they said they would take a look - they added on an hours labour, but they effectively stripped everything back for me and rescued all but a couple of little chips (that you could just about hear when you closed the boot) - money well spent as far as I was concerned.

Edited 24 August, 2022 by Stoofa

[EnterName]

On 24/08/2022 at 09:13, Stoofa said:

I lost the rear window on my Mk2 vRS a number of years ago (at a time where there wasn't a single one in the country with the antenna etched - so I had to drive with makeshift plastics in place for nearly two weeks).

I ended up with glass inside the tailgate which the eventual glass installer informed me "wouldn't all be removed". The sound of rattling and sliding glass was an annoyance to say the least.

 

My car went into Skoda for some reason soon after and as I was quite friendly with the team there, they said they would take a look - they added on an hours labour, but they effectively stripped everything back for me and rescued all but a couple of little chips (that you could just about hear when you closed the boot) - money well spent as far as I was concerned.

Yeah, I will not be putting up with a load of broken glass rattling around in my door.

I can't believe they think that's normal.

[EnterName]

Update: I'm due to have the glass replaced next week, almost a month after contacting Autoglass to replace the window.

"Just In Time" stock management working its usual magic. 🙄

 

[J.R.]

You have used the wrong example for a JIT inventory system.

 

Unless that is you were able to tell Autoglass in advance of when you were going to break your window and would require the replacement to be on hand.

[EnterName]

2 hours ago, J.R. said:

You have used the wrong example for a JIT inventory system.

 

Unless that is you were able to tell Autoglass in advance of when you were going to break your window and would require the replacement to be on hand.

So are most broken car windows planned events, @J.R.?

[J.R.]

No but just in time inventory is!!!!!!!

 

A car window is indeed a JIT stock item, when its fitted new in the vehicle manufacturing plant, it and all the other components are delivered by the suppliers to the assembly line just in time, the supplier will know in advance the expected volumes for the year updated regularly as new car sales happen, they produce in volume production runs and hold any buffer stock, deliveries are made daily to the plant with the exact number of the correct individual screens for that days production timed to be there just in time to be placed on the vehicle, they are delivered directly to the workstation, the car manufacturer holds no stock, has no capital tied up in stock nor needs space to store it and move it around to the assembly stations.

 

It could not be further from a random event like a windscreen breaking on a vehicle, one of thousands of different types of screen that could break that day, or a weather event like a hailstorm smashing every front & rear windscreen of vehicles within the area.

 

No replacement windscreen company could ever run a JIT system, you picked the wrong phrase.

[PetrolDave]

The thing about JIT is that it relies on the future being able to be accurately predicted based on the past as it uses past data to try to predict future demand, so when major changes come along (like a pandemic) JIT is about as useful as a chocolate teapot.