Windscreen chips!

[Jimble]

Is a chip in the line of sight only a problem at MOT time?

If so how long are you keeping the car? Would a repair suffice?

I had one repaired in the week by auto-glass just above my line of sight. Top job and have not noticed it since although if you look for it you can find it. The repair guy even went round cleaning all my other windows whilst i waited!

It would be an MOT failure yes, unfortunately the point of impact on the outside is almost nothing it's the crack between the laminates thats visible so a repair would be pointless, i can't live with it as it is, it's literally directly in front of my face!! grrr

[JoeGTI]

Jim,
Yeah I dealt with the dealership, they ordered the screen but the day the job was done I left the car into Autoglass myself and collected it there after, they are close to the VW dealers here anyway.
Like you I was paranoid, but there was no need. Honestly I'm as fussy as they come and the job was flawless - both times!

I'm not sure if they replaced the rain sensor or if a new one came with the screen.

The warranty claim was due to the screen itself delaminating.

[Jimble]

Thanks for that Joe, i'm going to speak to direct line on saturday, when i had mine replaced on Autoglass' premises the job was spot on so i think i'll go that way, it was the mobile guys that messed it up.

[linc-dub]

Living in rural Lincolnshire with farmers mud on the roads in Winter and stone-chippings on roads in Spring / Summer I've had 3 x windscreens in 3 years in my previous Mk6 GTD's - no financial impact on insurance at renewals though.  Have already had a stone scratch just the surface of my current Mk7 GTD which was new in Nov-13.  Its really annoying as its not caused by tail-gaiting, its stones flicked up by oncoming vehicles and most of the time its been at relatively slow speeds!

[Jimble]

Just got back from my local Autoglass after asking whether a repair would be any good or would the screen need replacing? He said the repairs are not designed to be invisible just to prevent the chip going any further, i asked about an OE screen replacement? He looked and said that VW normally use Saint-Gobain but mine has Pilkington but "all glass is made to the same quality", now we all know thats not true!? He said try my insurance but don't go through the main phone number for glass as it'll go straight to Autoglass and they'll just order a replacement not an OE one, he also said it may go down as an actual claim so might affect my renewal?! WTF? I can see this turning into a real ballache!!

Also does anyone know if the rain sensors are bonded to the screen these days?

[Jimble]

Ok so went back to try a repair, nice bunch of guys tbf, initially he thought it was just inside the maximum repair size but when he put a little pressure on there were two legs that meant it was just outside the tollerance so new screen def needed!

They are going to put a request in for an OE screen to my insurance and see what happens, oh well...

[Jimble]

Insurance declined an OE screen even after much moaning and reasons for having an original part!  anyway, i agreed to have a new one fitted and if any issues arose then we would deal with them.
Went to the Autoglass premises for 8am this morning and after a little mix up with their booking system agreed to get started, a couple of the technicians were looking at the chip and said it should be repairable even though the two 'legs' took it outside the maximum repair size so agreed to give it a go before changing the screen, the repair was done and tbf it was quite a good job and if it had been 3" in any direction on the screen i'd have left it but it just wasn't QUITE right

So a new screen it is!!



Being honest i'm very happy with the job and it's night and day with the last job i had by Autoglass, the kit he used ensured no damage to the bodywork and he had a brand new gel pack for the rain sensor ready to put in, the screen itself is pretty much identical but has a small Pilkington square logo instead of the VW badge which i think i can live with tbh, all in all i'm happy with the job.

Thanks Neil and Avril at Autoglass

[dereks]

I had my screen replaced on my mk6 like you say doesn't have the vw logo but other than that you can't tell the difference I would guess they are only a couple of major manufacturers of windscreens would doubt they are of any lesser quality.

[Tornado8]

Had mine replaced last week, but the rain sensor isn't nearly as sensitive as it was(MK7). I read in the manual that it has to be re-calibrated, is this correct? By the way the screen is a Pilkington. Also what is this Gel pack and should mine have been replaced?

[Jimble]

Had mine replaced last week, but the rain sensor isn't nearly as sensitive as it was(MK7). I read in the manual that it has to be re-calibrated, is this correct? By the way the screen is a Pilkington. Also what is this Gel pack and should mine have been replaced?

When they pull the rain sensor off the old screen it leaves 4 indentations, one for each of the lenses in the old gel, so when they put it on the new screen they put a new gel pack between the sensor and screen so it's perfectly flush., and yes yours should have been replaced, if it doesn't look perfect from the outside then it hasn't been changed.