The windshield of your car plays a crucial role in maintaining its entire structure. They are very important as are your seat belts and airbags. Windshield, as the name suggests will shield you from rain, wind, dust, UV radiation and other debris. Most people are unaware of the fact that the windshields are known to bear about 40-45% of the vehicle’s roof support. The windshield is designed in a specific way that it adds to the safety and protection of the passengers and help prevent the roof from colliding on to the passengers during an accident
A damaged windshield might directly hamper the driver’s vision and clarity while on the road. Irrespective of where you get your car parked, it’s inevitable that sooner or later you might find a crack or a chip sitting blissfully on your windshield. It could have been from pea gravel that fell from a construction truck, or occasional chunks of debris kicked by vehicles passing by. The causes can be several, but you must be aware of the need to decide whether to go for the crack’s repair or the complete glass replacement.
Types of Windshield Cracks
Windshield damages can be categorized as major and minor cracks, and further into whether it can be repaired or not. These are described as follows:
Star Break
As the name suggests, these are star-shaped, short radial cracks radiating from the point of impact. These cracks spread outwards when left unattended. If left untreated they will pose a threat to the strength of the windshield.
Bull’s Eye
These are circular-shaped damages caused by a sudden hit on the glass by a circular body. These are one of the most common cracks that are found on the windshield. They can be treated very easily.
Half Moon
Also known as Partial Bulls-Eye, these are chips caused when an object (not completely circular) hits the glass, leaving a half-moon shaped damage.
Combinations
The combinations are the cracks that develop as a result of a combination of two or more types of chips or cracks. They are very hard to repair as there are multiple types of cracks in a single hit. It is not a vice choice to leave a combination of crack unattended. The windshield should be replaced at the earliest so that the safety of the passengers are not at risk.
Floater Cracks
This crack type begins at a distance of two inches from the windscreens lining and appears identical to the edge crack. They can be fixed depending upon the size of the damage caused.
Long Crack
Cracks having than 15 cm length fall under the long crack types of glass cracks. The windshield has to be replaced as these cracks are very difficult to replace.
Should you repair or replace?
A common observation is that the driver usually acts on the windshield repair if it falls directly on the line of vision and leaves the rest unattended. While some of those can be easily repaired, there are certain types of glass cracks that are too deep and positioned at places that cannot be corrected, and thus it becomes mandatory to get them replaced.
The decision on whether your windshield damage should be a replacement or a repair will depend on various factors that include the depth of the crack, its position, the extent of damage and the shape it represents. The repair becomes necessary as in order to avoid the damage to extend further so that it risks the safety of the passengers.
Get your windshield crack inspected from a trained mechanic and understand the damage extent to determine whether the correction would be a car windshield repair or windshield replacement.
Keep the following pointers based on the crack’s size, depth, position and extent of damage in mind to help in the final decision:
Size and Depth
Any crack or chip that you notice has penetrated more than halfway into the glass should necessarily call for a windshield replacement. If it is a bull’s eye or star-shaped crack and has a size smaller than 1″, you can opt for car windshield repair; whereas for the same having a size larger than 3″ must be sent for replacement.
For cracks or chips smaller than a quarter’s size, you can get your car windshield repaired easily. It gets difficult for multiple cracks and the ones with longer, wider cracks. Wider chips and longer cracks, usually longer the size of your currency note are generally not repairable and hence need replacement. Although now, with technological advancement we see repair shops fixing glasses with cracks up to 18 inches long.
Location
Any crack that is hindering the driver’s visibility must be repaired instantly.
A ding or crack that is away from the edges and within the permissible limits of size and depth can be repaired easily. But, for any windshield damage, if it is close to the edges must be sent for replacement, without delay.
Type of windshield glass
If your windshield glass is not laminated and is of the tempered kind, you must go for immediate windshield replacement.
It is advisable that you get your windshield repaired for any major damage that you see as it might eventually worsen over time and risk causing greater damage to both your safety and your passengers.
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