Windshield Cracked

[J_C]

I was doing what I considered a routine thing. I jacked the vehicle on the "approved" jack point on the front of the left lower control arm.

Once up, jack stands on the cross-beam between that LCA and the right LCA. All good, so I thought.

I swapped out an axle hub, did brakes on both sides, and then the test drive...

My windshield is cracked. There's a crack starting at the roofline about 8" to the right of the mirror mount, extending down towards and just above the mirror mount, and going straight a few inches after it.

Granted, I did do some washing of vehicles this morning, but not the windshield on the explorer. There might've been slight overspray, but I am wondering more about whether jacking it caused some stress that cracked the windshield? Is the windshield adhesive strong enough to cause that?

I'm baffled in that there is nothing I did differently today, than I've done many times over the many years, and yet now, windshield crack.

Is rust causing decay enough that the frame shifted and caused the cab, then windshield to crack? I'm not noticing the frame falling apart or anything, this was a surprise.

I'd almost think it was more likely overspray from washing the hood on an adjacent vehicle but I've washed vehicles plenty of times without this happening. Plus it wasn't all that hot outside "yet" being the morning, and the explorer hadn't been driven so it was gradually acclimating to the temperature, not a case of cold inside and hot out.

??? If it were much younger, I'd think maybe a flaw in the glass, but it's now 22 y/o.

 

[Mr. Alligator]

Maybe it is in the category of “nothing lasts forever”?

Good luck and be safe.

 

[rasouth]

Sometimes a little chip in the glass will all of a sudden crack, continuing to grow, even if it was chipped a while back. There are some kits that can "repair" the crack and prevent it from growing.

 

[BKennedy]

Unless you have enough body rot to effect the integrity of the vehicle, it wasn't caused by jacking it up. I have off-roaded my Explorer all over the country for the past 24 years and have never had a windshield break from body flex. You can see all the spot welds in the door frames and I had the firewall start to separate from the floor, but never a windshield. I have had them crack from rocks, a rollover and most recently a tree branch, but never body flex. I have heard of people cracking windshields from heat differential, but have never seen it happen. I washed a rental car in 114* heat because I didn't want them to know I took it in the dirt and no cracks. You probably had a small crack that got longer when you jacked it up. I could see that happening.

 

[J_C]

I had a better look in the light of day, yeah there is a tiny impact crater, that was hidden behind the rearview mirror mount. It must've waited till it got over 90F that day to expand the crack.

It's just extremely ironic that it happened right after I'd done work on it, and I'm pretty sure I didn't throw a ratchet at the windshield. The front hub came off surprisingly easy.

 

[J_C]

Replaced the windshield and when I got it back I noticed they replaced the rearview mirror too.

It works, haven't noticed a difference really except that there is a black circle in the top center, that looks similar to how they were in prior years? Did I give up anything, does this rearview mirror work as well as my original? I didn't notice anything wrong with the original but if it's new that's not all bad if it works equally well... though I did notice something different, there is some sensor wire going down into a plastic shell cover at the bottom of the mount, I guess for some supplemental light sensor? I am not sure why it needs another one if the black circle is where a sensor is that handles the electronic dimming from light behind me.

 

[koda2000]

The black circle should be the one that dims the mirror when it senses headlights behind you. You can test it with an LED flashlight.

There is also a sensor on the backside of the mirror which is for the auto-lamp feature. It's there to turn on your lights automatically if it senses it's dark outside (assuming you have the auto-lamp switch turned on). It also automatically turns off our lights when the darkness abates.

 

[J_C]

I had both the autolamp feature and self-dimming from the factory, but did not have a black circle at top center of the mirror. That was the first sign I noticed that the mirror was new rather than just wiped clean and armor-all'd.

Unfortunately I have no pictures of the face of the factory mirror and tried to take one of the new mirror but wrong time of day to accomplish that. New mirror looks like this one on ebay:


The original had a potmetal cover on the bottom of the windshield mount and the replacement, slightly larger plastic. The replacement is a Gentex GNTX-156 but I couldn't tell you what the original was or if it just had a Ford part #. Some newer (early '00 decade) listed as OEM on ebay are Donnelly brand but those put the autolamp sensor in a different location.

I saw a Gentex 149 on ebay that has the black circle off to the right side of the mirror and "maybe" that's where I had a circle on the old one.
Gentex 149 Ford Explorer Rear View Mirror IE13014006 Gntx-149 OEM ? 4.E2 | eBay

I just know that black circle wasn't right in the middle like the new one has it. Can't recall ever having the mirror replaced, know the windshield wasn't.

It seems to work fine so I guess it doesn't really matter. Here's a pic of old vs new mount as seen from outside. I know, they look very similar, but if you look close you can see that years of sun exposure, wore away the paint on the corners of the original potmetal cover while this new plastic one won't ever do that. Instead the whole thing will get lighter gray.



Heh, maybe I'm losing my mind and just imagining all this, but in person I did see the difference in the mounts that I attempted to picture above and know the plastic cap is larger and fits looser than the original did, though I popped it off and put back on and it seems to fit much snugger now.

 

[koda2000]

I had both the autolamp feature and self-dimming from the factory, but did not have a black circle at top center of the mirror. That was the first sign I noticed that the mirror was new rather than just wiped clean and armor-all'd.

Unfortunately I have no pictures of the face of the factory mirror and tried to take one of the new mirror but wrong time of day to accomplish that. New mirror looks like this one on ebay:


The original had a potmetal cover on the bottom of the windshield mount and the replacement, slightly larger plastic. The replacement is a Gentex GNTX-156 but I couldn't tell you what the original was or if it just had a Ford part #. Some newer (early '00 decade) listed as OEM on ebay are Donnelly brand but those put the autolamp sensor in a different location.

I saw a Gentex 149 on ebay that has the black circle off to the right side of the mirror and "maybe" that's where I had a circle on the old one.
Gentex 149 Ford Explorer Rear View Mirror IE13014006 Gntx-149 OEM ? 4.E2 | eBay

I just know that black circle wasn't right in the middle like the new one has it. Can't recall ever having the mirror replaced, know the windshield wasn't.

It seems to work fine so I guess it doesn't really matter. Here's a pic of old vs new mount as seen from outside. I know, they look very similar, but if you look close you can see that years of sun exposure, wore away the paint on the corners of the original potmetal cover while this new plastic one won't ever do that. Instead the whole thing will get lighter gray.



Heh, maybe I'm losing my mind and just imagining all this, but in person I did see the difference in the mounts that I attempted to picture above and know the plastic cap is larger and fits looser than the original did, though I popped it off and put back on and it seems to fit much snugger now.

All my auto-lamp mirrors have the circle in the upper center (like in your first pic). Mine were on 2000's and 2001's. IDK if the earlier models looked different. I've never had one that looked anything like the eBay pic you included.

When I had the windshield replaced on my 2001 Sport Trac, the new windshield had the metal mounting puck thing already attached to it. The guy just transferred my old mirror over.