Exploding window

[Depotchick]

A few days ago I was waiting to pull into traffic when my rear window exploded. (Yukon 2004). There was no one around. No houses and no kids except a toddler with her grandma. The temp had not changed. It sounded like an explosion. Has anyone else had this happen?

 

[HiHoeSilver]

A few days ago I was waiting to pull into traffic when my rear window exploded. (Yukon 2004). There was no one around. No houses and no kids except a toddler with her grandma. The temp had not changed. It sounded like an explosion. Has anyone else had this happen? View attachment 183484

There was a thread.... I think it was guys finding them broken upon returning to their parked trucks... Do some searching.

 

[ScottyBoy]

I'm not 100% sure on this, but it "might" have something to do with the way the hinges and the lift supports attach to the glass. I remember reading somewhere that GM discovered a problem with the way it was designed, the rubber was coming detached from the glass. When the rubber started coming off the glass, it would cause stress on the hinge points, and where the lift supports attach to the window. In 2005 they redesigned the rear window glass to a new "frameless" design. Instead of the hinges, the latch, and lift supports attached by the glued rubber frame, they are now actually bolted through the glass with the new design. If you notice on some 2005 and 2006 models, the rear glass will have a black plastic "shroud" across the top of the glass, this is a cover to hide the hinges that are bolted through the glass. Whether or not this has anything to do with the cause of your window exploding is anyone's guess, but I just thought I'd mention it as it's a possibility.
I also remember in the 90's my dad had a Chevy Blazer and he had the same issue. For some reason he went through 3 windows in a little over a year. I remember the first two times the glass was broken when we returned to the parked truck. But then the third time, the window "exploded" when my Dad tried to close it. I was standing right next to it, and I saw it clearly. He put his hand of the glass and went to push it down to close it and it just exploded. We initially thought that he slammed it or something, but we saw that it had not even latched shut before it broke. The dealership and the glass shop both said that the lift supports had too much "pressure" and that's what caused it to break.

 

[08HoeCD]

Tempered glass can shatter spontaneously. It happens with car windows and sunroofs, shower doors, oven doors, table tops, etc. It's rare, but it happens.

The tempering process creates tension and compression, which gives tempered glass a high surface strength. But this also stores energy within the glass itself. If an internal occlusion exists, which is very difficult to detect, it can ultimately trigger a failure. The result: the failure allows the stored energy to be released, causing what looks like an explosion.

 

[Danny3737]

I've seen it happen twice, both times it had to do with the wrong type of window tint installed.

 

[02Lightning]

I've seen it happen twice, both times it had to do with the wrong type of window tint installed.

What is the wrong type of window tint?

 

[Danny3737]

I'm not sure of the type that was used, but like 08Hoe said, it created built up energy within the glass causing it to explode. It's more common than you would think

 

[08HoeCD]

I do business handling thousands of pieces of tempered glass annually. It happens.

 

[02Lightning]

I'm not sure of the type that was used, but like 08Hoe said, it created built up energy within the glass causing it to explode. It's more common than you would think

Is there a type of window tint that will not cause tempered glass to break?

 

[ezstriper]

the limo black that does not reflect sunlight can cause the glass to overheat in the sun