Road trip gone bad; broken windshield, broken window regulator

[Wanted33]

I agree the side window problem sux, and shouldn't have happened. IMHO the windshield is basically just the nature of the beast, and the pitiful glass manufactureres use these days. We took our new Wranger on a cross country road trip (from North Carolina) in 2019. When we got home my windshield had a ton of pits, but luckily no crack like yours. And no, I wasn't happy either. If you haven't already I suggest checking with your insurance co. for a replacement windshield since yours has that crack. Good luck. It aggravates me that these new vehicle windshields seem to be too soft.

Hopefully the warranty will cover your side window.

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[Wanted33]

Wranglers are known for their windshields being rock catchers... It's because of the angle and the airflow over the hood/whindshield. That is why jeep started offering gorilla Glass as an option.

my point being that getting windshield chips is probably going to be fairly regular on these types of vehicles.

as for the driver's window...that sucks. You're not the first person that has had issues like this. I get why Ford did it, it was probably driven by the ability to put the doors in the back, But it's a crap design. Other folks that have had windows like this and other Ford vehicles for years have said they hold up. Not sure about the frozen shut thing though.

hell, maybe that's why ford seems to blast So much air out of the defroster... Because they knew this was a problem.

Just a little info on the gorilla glass joker. From reports on the Jeep JL forum it looks to be just a marketing scheme. At this point they seem to be just as bad as the standard front glass. But, that doen't surprise me, and I'm sure it doesn't surprise you either.

 

[Murfman]

My windshield caught a rock at 300 miles, 7 days of ownership and 1st time on the freeway. 6 months to get a new windshield. The guy at safelite told me Weanglers, FJs, and H2/H3s are in the shop all the time. He expected to start seeing tons of Broncos as well. The indexing windows have me a bit concerned as well. Mine froze over at 10 deg the other day and made a ton of racket going down. Wait and see. I guess.

If you want to drive to Canon City, Fairicy Boys Ford, call Renee and they will get you scheduled.

 

[Bronco cat]

I’m sorry. Call me an asshole but this whole thread was started by someone who doesn’t understand the nature of these beasts (wranglers included) as for the frameless side windows tons of car makers use it with little to no problem. All of my Subarus had them and I live in the NE so there was always tons of snow. Never had an issue with the seals but I did have to pay attention to helping to keep them clean of snow and ice. As for the indexing window there are lots of cars operating in inclement weather that have them. Yes it requires some forethought when you own them but I think the benefit far outweighs the draw backs. All the people that add “I’ve owned lots of other cars that never did ……..” almost 100% of the time never owned a wrangler or have had any real experience with them. This is the vehicles biggest problem is people bought them and have no idea that there could possibly be compromises with a truck that the doors and top come off of.

I had the EXACT same scenario the op talked about just last night. Heavy rain followed by heavy snow (6 inches) and I had to leave in a hurry this morning so I remote started the car and started clearing the snow. I paid very close attention to the bottom window seals pressing slightly in on the glass while clearing the ice at the base of all windows and I had ZERO issues opening any of the doors. Windows indexed just fine. And btw it was 8 degrees without windchill.

 

[AK SNO RIDER]

I was all-in on Dynoflex this weekend until I read you can get a year or two at best "if you don't use your wipers". Unless you really keep it polished and use silicone wiper blades, you're going to end up with wiper brush marks. Seems it's meant for supercars that don't really see any rain or weather. Also, you shouldn't use your ice brush on it.

Yea, any film will have that issue unfortunately. Having a thousand dollar windshield replaced every year isn't exactly great value either though.

 

[Shane78]

If you are unhappy with your purchase, I will take it off your hands as is

 

[Snydermann]

Guaranteed, Ford knew that the windshields in the Bronco were shit. But an improvement would have cost $3.07 more per unit. Welcome to first year production vehicles, and their perceived ADM values (aka, pay more for less to be the first). By 2024 they will have better quality windshields, or risk increased insurance premiums, which might impact sales.

 

[Evolkidbell]

If you want to drive to Canon City, Fairicy Boys Ford, call Renee and they will get you scheduled.

it got fixed in January. Last August there weren’t any replacement windshields as they needed to be ordered from Ford, through a dealer.

 

[Weck]

These windows wouldn't be ideal up North I'd imagine. I've had them on my Mustang and Audi TT, but it wasn't really an issue down here (Southern VA). Those cars always stayed parked when we got the occasional snow/ ice.

That must have been awful driving all that way with your temporary window. Hope they get it fixed soon.

Did you pull all that tape off? Sometimes tape can leave a nasty mess. I'd be concerned about ripping the MIC apart when removing it, LOL.

I took the tape of as soon as I got home. It wasn’t stuck on very good due to all the dirt and toad grime.

 

[BigFootie]

I think I’m gonna start going in through the tailgate whenever it’s icy out

Ha! I did this for years with my ‘75 Mach 1. Door locks always would freeze. The rear hatch never did. The seat backs were always down anyways so……. I have no plans on doing that again at my age.

 

[GoTigersGoBronco]

I think the window motor design is one of the worst pats of the Bronco and I expect this to be a failure at an unreasonably early point.

 

[SevenT]

Exoshield.

X2 on that recommendation. I am on windshield #3 and had it installed.

 

[66GT]

All this talk about windows and windshields and last friday my windshield spontaneously cracked

My Bronco doesn't even exist yet, and now I have anxiety that it already has broken windows and a cracked windshield.

 

[Weck]

I’m sorry. Call me an asshole but this whole thread was started by someone who doesn’t understand the nature of these beasts (wranglers included) as for the frameless side windows tons of car makers use it with little to no problem. All of my Subarus had them and I live in the NE so there was always tons of snow. Never had an issue with the seals but I did have to pay attention to helping to keep them clean of snow and ice. As for the indexing window there are lots of cars operating in inclement weather that have them. Yes it requires some forethought when you own them but I think the benefit far outweighs the draw backs. All the people that add “I’ve owned lots of other cars that never did ……..” almost 100% of the time never owned a wrangler or have had any real experience with them. This is the vehicles biggest problem is people bought them and have no idea that there could possibly be compromises with a truck that the doors and top come off of.

I had the EXACT same scenario the op talked about just last night. Heavy rain followed by heavy snow (6 inches) and I had to leave in a hurry this morning so I remote started the car and started clearing the snow. I paid very close attention to the bottom window seals pressing slightly in on the glass while clearing the ice at the base of all windows and I had ZERO issues opening any of the doors. Windows indexed just fine. And btw it was 8 degrees without windchill.

I think the problem was the snow would melt in the daytime sun and freeze again at night. The melting snow would have water intrusion into the window channels and regulator which would freeze there. My service writer said the Super Duties have a recall for water intrusion. The water drips on the door release mechanism and freezes there. When pulling the interior door handle, the release breaks. So water intrusion can be a problem. He is working on my Bronco next week. I will report back on what exactly broke.

 

[Rdavis]

Took our brand new Outer Banks for a trip to Colorado for some snowboarding. We left central Texas and all was well on the trip up. The Bronco run and drove like a champ. While at Vail, it snowed every morning then the sun would melt it during the afternoon. Refreezing would occur nightly. This is where the trouble started. One morning I went to the truck to get something and while opening the driver’s door the window indexes down. It was frozen and made a cracking sound. I figured it was the ice breaking. I closed the door and the window indexed up. All seamed normal. A few days later we drove to Denver and stopped and a drive through. I lowered the window and it sounded like the whole window shattered. Then it wouldn’t go back up. The glass was fine but the regulator was toast. It was snowing and 4 degrees and no window. We had to get back to Texas, so I got some plastic and tape and made a new window. We drove for 14 very loud hours. Upon getting home I noticed three cracks in the windshield. Looking closer, there was hundreds of pits with tiny cracks forming. I am guessing this is from the sand on the interstate. A quick google search revealed that the Bronco Sports and Rangers all have serious windshield problems. Also, some other owners are reporting broken window regulators when the temp gets below 15 degrees. This is totally unacceptable. The vehicle only has 2000 miles and it can’t even be used in the snow. That is what I bought it for. We are heartbroken that Ford would put this kind of crap on the market. This supposed to be a rough and tough vehicle.

hate to say, im on my 3rd Windshield. 2 in town freeway. and one on my way to flordia. stay back from cars and stay back from TRUCKS. sure this happen on accident. just a FYI. thought about this when you crack window on freeway and it just wobbles. smh. goodluck, sorry to hear this.

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