Hello,

Just purchased my 2nd Audi, 1998 A4 Avant Quattro. This morning driving into work, the rear window suddenly shattered. Nothing hit it, temp about 40-ish, rear defrost was on. Anyone have any ideas? Audi of America had nothing for me. Is it common or just one of those freak things. Thanks.

Kurt

 

i dont think thats common

 

that dosent sound common at all.. the only thing that i can think of to do that is a sudden temperature change... might want to see if there is something wrong with your defroster to cause it to like superheat ? how much is it going to be to replace that ?

 

Yeah deff not a common occurence but it does happen.

Ive never seen it on an audi but i was sitting in taco bell parking lot when i heard a clash in the car next to me. their window gave out too.

im told the if the weather is right and the glass bends just right itll break like butter....anyways sorry bout the lost. where r u located at i know someone that replaces it for cheap....

 

never heard of it before not common at all

 

I sometimes think that wil happen to me when I leave in the morning. It's cold and going over the speedbumps I swear the body is flexing or something. I'm just waiting for that. Now I'm worried. Were you going over a bump at the time or something?

 

All windows are designed to bend and wobble. it all has to do with how well the window is installed in the car. if theres any way for the window to move up, down, left, or right on top of giving alil bend itll break right away. I dont think that you have much to worry about seeing as this is not a common occurance

 

Dealer part about $240. Another $100+ to install. Having full glass coverage, priceless.

No, I didn't hit a bump, just on a nice smooth entrance ramp, uncommon in Minnesota but they exist. There is an outside chance something flew off an elevated roadway next to the one I drove on, but there was nothing foreign in the back end. There was no click like when a rock hits the windshield, just a dull pop and the whole window was toast.

Service Manager at Audi dealership was just guessing, but he thought that if the glass had been repaired in the past and was not correctly installed, it could break like it did. I almost suspect this, since the cracks seemed to radiate from where the wiper post comes through the glass, and I did run the wiper briefly. Maybe that is all it took and I was the unlucky one. It probably pays to go through a dealer-recommended installer.

I don't believe temp was a factor, as it was well above freezing. I asked the dealer if there could have been a malfunction in the defroster, making it get so hot it just shattered, but with no window, there was no way he could tell and hadn't heard of such a thing. I will follow up once my window has been fixed and post the results. I have heard of windows in hot climates breaking. Crank the a/c in 100+ heat, let it get nice and cold, the drop the window. I have heard of explosive results.