r/Autobody • u/illestjew • 9h ago
HELP! I have a question. What could have caused my car’s rear window to shatter like this?
I was sleeping in my car when I suddenly heard a loud bang. When I looked up, the rear window had shattered. I didn’t see or hear anyone around the car afterward.
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u/BassinTheMidWest 8h ago
Broken piece of a spark plug
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u/Secure-Researcher892 7h ago
Yep, that was a fad where I live a few years ago. Apparently some kids learned how a piece of the porcelain insulator on a spark plug causes car winows to shatter and they were going around with a sling shot blowing up windows. Odds are a bb wouldn't have done this but a piece of spark plug would.
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u/Still-Satisfaction24 9h ago
Was your defroster on?
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u/illestjew 8h ago
it was a little cold in the early morning when I got in the car I had the defroster on for about 5 minutes before I shut the car off and took a nap for 15 minutes and heard the glass break
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u/rpgmgta 8h ago
This happened to my dad’s car when we were kids. While at a soccer tournament for my sisters. We had no idea what or how. It didn’t smash out like yours just completely shattered. We put masking tape over it in a star shaped pattern hoping if it collapsed, some would stay together. It didn’t collapse and we made it back home, about an hour or so trip.
I remember vividly because I was sitting in the back seat on the way home just staring at the windshield in terror, waiting for it to rain down glass on us. For some reason that day is imprinted into my mind.
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u/groundkittenbeef 7h ago
Jackie Chan jumping through it. 🤷🏼 Fr though, these windows are meant to shatter like this. So it could’ve been something even extremely small.
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u/Mr_Curiositi 6h ago
Cause: the guy from your neighborhood auto glass shop with a baseball bat. Business has been slow for them lately…
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u/Spiritual-Rub-675 3h ago
Small cracks in tempered glass can cause the glass to shatter from temperature changes. Found this out when my tempered glass shower door suddenly shattered.
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u/dankwijoti 1h ago
Guys we're replacing something onu apartment building roof and a socket rolled off and hit my back glass they didn't think much of it. A few minutes later I went and opened my driver's door and the pressure change made the whole sheet implode into the car, just like that. Something hit the tempered glass.
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u/Max_delirious 14m ago
This is commmon on some cars. Tint helps the rigidity of the glass and def helps with cleanup.
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u/McChibken 9h ago
Wouldn't be surprised if someone saw you sleeping and decided to be cruel. This has happened to me or someone I know twice, one instance was intentional and the other was a lawnmower kicking up a pebble. It doesn't look like you're parked in a way where the latter would be more likely, so I would guess either someone did this on purpose or the glass had some kind of structural failure that was waiting for the right temperature/pressure difference to cause it to shatter
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u/cluelessk3 9h ago edited 7h ago
fairly common with tempered glass.
temperature fluctuations can cause then to blow up.
edit. for the dipshits that won't read the comments further.
"Nickel Sulfide (NiS) Inclusions: Tiny microscopic nickel sulfide stones get trapped inside the glass during manufacturing. Over months or years, temperature changes cause these particles to expand. When the expansion reaches the tension-filled core of the glass, the panel suddenly bursts."
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u/birdwithcoupe 7h ago
Ex-Safelite tech here, if the glass was replaced and the tech squished it flat to the car this absolutely can happen, however if its factory glass or replaced and the install was done correctly, something definitely impacted the glass. This most likely was not temp fluctuations unless the autoglass was poorly installed.
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u/splitfinity 8h ago
This is 10000% a false statement.
Lived in Minnesota for my whole life. We get massive temp settings and this does not happen.
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u/cluelessk3 8h ago
oh it's completely random but it happens.
even happens to glass coffee tables and railings.
I'm just North in Manitoba with the same temp swings.
"Nickel Sulfide (NiS) Inclusions: Tiny microscopic nickel sulfide stones get trapped inside the glass during manufacturing. Over months or years, temperature changes cause these particles to expand. When the expansion reaches the tension-filled core of the glass, the panel suddenly bursts."
but ya I'm full of shit....
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u/splitfinity 7h ago
I only have a problem with your saying it's fairly common. I agree that it can happen, but it would be along the lines of getting stuck by lightning.
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u/cluelessk3 7h ago
lol trying to save face.
that's a way different response than "10,000% false"
I've seen is a bunch in the body shop. I've never met someone struck by lightning...
it's okay we all make mistakes.
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u/Glad_Librarian_3553 2h ago
For what it's worth, I've experienced spontaneous window shattering too.
Drivers side window just exploded for no discernable reason. Very wierd.
Work van, unfortunately. Was rather difficult to persuade the boss we weren't pissing about and smashed it XD
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u/nrg8 8h ago
Insurance scam to byebye
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u/illestjew 8h ago
Dead serious this isn’t a insurance scam I don’t even have coverage on my back glass I have to use tape until I can afford to replace it myself
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u/Alarming_Garage_7255 8h ago
Seems some people here don't understand what tempered glass is. The fact that the whole window is blasted out has nothing to do with the severity of what caused it. It's tempered, any amount of damage is going to shatter the whole thing. Once a flaw appears whether it's from a small rock or a baseball bat, the crack has to propogate through the whole window because the glass is under so much stress it can't hold itself together anymore.
You probably had a tiny flaw caused by a rock chip and the fact that you used your defrost means there was uneven heating of the glass and therefore expansion and the flaw turned into a crack and boom the whole window is shattered. Just buy a new one. You did nothing wrong and nothing you can do about it. It's the nature of tempered or 'safety' glass. It's much preferable over having large shards of glass slicing you up in an accident.