2024, 6000 miles, exploding back tailgate window

[Sunthank]

Add me to the list. 6000 miles on it, highway mostly, never had hardtop off. 55 degrees, 6:30 am, nobody on road but me. BOOM! Window craters into car. Drove to Ford immediately who took pics, called Ford, waited 3 weeks, and Ford denied it. Called Ford myself afterwards on customer care line. They took 10 min with all info, put me on hold for 5, and then said, "we have nothing to offer you." Huh? "We have no programs to help."

I have Progressive with a glass policy, and they said it was included for no $$, so Im going that route. However, I went ahead and filed with NTSB as a safety issue. Suggest others do too to get a recall going to help the next guy. Looks like this is fairly common on Bronco (and F150).

Sponsored

 

[CitrusBronco]

I’ve seen this on other not Ford cars and attributed it to heat, but I have no idea really what causes some back windows to just pop for no apparent reasons.

 

[bassist]

Your problem was you told them the window exploded, when it sounds like it imploded.

Call them back - the programs they have in place for implosion are awesome.

 

[Sunthank]

Funny enough, I sell toughened glass insulators for power lines and am very familiar with self shattering. In the manufacturing process, if a slight inclusion (microscopic object) remains in the glass when it's poured, usually its expansion and contraction rate differs than the glass. So there is a tension between the molecules as they are moving, with one moving more than the other. When this happens in the safety glass in the tension zone, the discontinuity will cause a tear, causing the prestressed glass to break everywhere (the BOOM is the release of pretensioned energy). Slow changes in temperature are less severe. That's why sometimes a hot windshield and a car wash cause it to happen. It's a problem embedded in the glass. Soooo - it happens in manufacturing. They got a bad batch. In my case, it was 55 degrees out and I bet the electric auto defrost kicked on and exposed the inclusion by heating it fast for the first time.

 

[tourproto]

Funny enough, I sell toughened glass insulators for power lines and am very familiar with self shattering. In the manufacturing process, if a slight inclusion (microscopic object) remains in the glass when it's poured, usually its expansion and contraction rate differs than the glass. So there is a tension between the molecules as they are moving, with one moving more than the other. When this happens in the safety glass in the tension zone, the discontinuity will cause a tear, causing the prestressed glass to break everywhere (the BOOM is the release of pretensioned energy). Slow changes in temperature are less severe. That's why sometimes a hot windshield and a car wash cause it to happen. It's a problem embedded in the glass. Soooo - it happens in manufacturing. They got a bad batch. In my case, it was 55 degrees out and I bet the electric auto defrost kicked on and exposed the inclusion by heating it fast for the first time.

Yup. This is what was explained to me when the sunroof in my 2004 BMW 330i imploded on the way to the airport one early morning. Luckily the sunshade was closed. After I heard the "boom" and tried to pull back on the sunshade, bits of shattered glass started dropping down on me. I took photos and called State Farm and they contacted BMW.

It was covered under warranty as a faulty sunroof.

Sponsored