Scratched/chipped windscreen

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Outkast

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Hi. Yesterday whilst doing sone speed down a motorway a stone hit the screen and it has chipped and marked the windscreen on the passenger side.

Looks more of a scratch than a deep chip.

Could someone advise what the best step to follow would be?

Heard autoglass going through insurance is freevand doesnt increase premium.

If it cost alot i dont feel like changing it as it is not a major distraction.

Just hurts seeing it like that 4 month in ( 8v s3)
 

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A replacement windscreen won't affect your no claims. You just pay the windscreen excess (usually around £50-£75, depending on your insurer), someone from Autoglass or Auto Windscreens etc pops round to see you, fits a new windscreen and.... that's it!
 
Looking at that they'd just fill it, probably cost you £10 (depending on your insurance company), I'd say take it in for them to see/check/fix, it will take around 30 mins to fix. If left as it is it may turn into a crack, which would mean a new screen and the excess for that would be around £70 (again depending on insurance). Either does not affect your no claims.

Look on youtube and you will see how they are repaired
 
As mentioned before it will be filled and you will always see the mark. If you want a replacement don't fill it and a few hard frosts or even a pothole in a road will crack it. I had a pool car at work one day. Mentioned it had a chip and it needed fixed and they said take it. Needless to day 1 pothole later and it cracked the whole length of the screen.
 
I think you can normally insist on a replacement. Check your policy though.
 
If they won't replace it because of a chip and you want it replaced, get a hammer and tap that chip lol
In the end you still pay £75 for the replacement right?
 
Yes smash it and get a replacement, everyone else does the same from now on = next year we all moan that our insurance has gone up!!!! Why replace when you can get it repaired at a fraction of the cost to both you and the insurance company and not even notice the repair??? :confused:
 
Replacing your windscreen doesn't affect your premium
I've replaced windscreens before and my premium has always gone down in price, has always been going down every year

Anyways I wasn't serious about the hammer thing
 
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S32B said:
Look on youtube and you will see how they are repaired
Click to expand...

Interesting. Can you post up one you'd say is a good one?

As for the claims NCD / premiums etc on some policies, the NCD will be affected, and on others, there will be a rise in the premium. In any case, it is still classed as a claim.

OP: the damage on your screen is repairable, but I would be very selective about who repairs it.

http://www.glasstecpaul.com/botched-windscreen-repair/

http://www.glasstecpaul.com/the-windscreen-chip-they-didnt-repair/

http://www.glasstecpaul.com/what-isnt-clear-about-windscreen-repairs/
 
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Liquidfusion-S3 said:
If they won't replace it because of a chip and you want it replaced, get a hammer and tap that chip lol
In the end you still pay £75 for the replacement right?
Click to expand...

Ahem, a fake replacement. The majority of replacement windscreens (and glass) are copies, IOW, not original, Audi branded glass.
 
Liquidfusion-S3 said:
Replacing your windscreen doesn't affect your premium
I've replaced windscreens before and my premium has always gone down in price, has always been going down every year

Anyways I wasn't serious about the hammer thing
Click to expand...
But if people do (not saying that you do) someone has to pay, the more the insurance companies have to pay out the higher the chances are that they will have to put premiums up. Years back every man and his dog were putting whiplash claims in for tiny little accidents as they saw it as an easy couple of grand, that booted premiums up for everyone. Looks like they will be rising again http://www.mindfulmoney.co.uk/perso...-whiplash-claims-continue-to-plague-insurers/

Glassman said:
Interesting. Can you post up one you'd say is a good one?
Click to expand...

Try this clicky thing
 
Apologies for bumping an old tread on this, but I have a minuscule pitted chip (only 1mm to 2mm, doesn't look too deep) in my screen after a stone was flicked up by a wagon infront.

Auto glass have said the minimum size for a repair would be 3mm :grumpy: Is there anything I can do to minimise the possibility of it cracking due to temperature fluctuations of potholes?

Ideally I'd like to drop in to an autoglass / Autowindscreens centre for them to have a look and pick their brains, but none in my immediate area.
 
My niece's fiancée is a windscreen fitter. He had a look at a chip in my windscreen on Boxing Day, when everyone was over. I'd had it about three weeks by then - he told me if it hadn't developed into a crack by then it would never do so.
A month later, including a very very cold snap and having the heating up full blast, and guess what? No change, no change. Happy days.
 
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batch said:
My niece's fiancée is a windscreen fitter. He had a look at a chip in my windscreen on Boxing Day, when everyone was over. I'd had it about three weeks by then - he told me if it hadn't developed into a crack by then it would never do so.
A month later, including a very very cold snap and having the heating up full blast, and guess what? No change, no change. Happy days.
Click to expand...
Thanks for that, guess I need to get through the next few weeks then! Really just don't want to have the pain in the *** of having a replacement if it does crack!
 
DH81 said:
Thanks for that, guess I need to get through the next few weeks then! Really just don't want to have the pain in the *** of having a replacement if it does crack!
Click to expand...
Don't take my word for it, bear in mind I had the hindsight of a few weeks. Yours could be vulnerable and go tomorrow!
 
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Just find a local independent windscreen place. I did this on my old car cost me £75 to have it repaired.
Rang auto glass they wanted £230!!!! So imagine way it costs the insurance company

As it says above a claim is a claim it will effect your policy price at some point
 
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I had the same yesterday, poxy stones! called my insurer and the chip is being repaired tomorrow for £20
 
Pickle1970 said:
I had the same yesterday, poxy stones! called my insurer and the chip is being repaired tomorrow for £20
Click to expand...
It is annoying!! How big would you say the chip was In yours?
 
it's about 5mm with no cracks, I never saw the stone but it sounded more like a bullet hitting the screen. made me jump out of my skin!
 
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So many misconceptions about this subject and TBF, some are very easy to believe.

First of all, a distinction needs to be made between what is structural damage (to the glass) and surface damage. Both will usually have an impact crater; the lighter 'chip' is merely a scuff which has breached the surface of the glass and taken a fragment of glass away. It is usually no deeper than a fraction of a millimeter and is easily fixed with the right tools and products. Insurance companies will not pay for this as they see it more as an aesthetic/cosmetic issue. Some of us in the trade call them 'vanity repairs'. Used car salesmen love them because with some very careful attention to detail, they this kind of repair work can transform a very tired looking windscreen into something that doesn't draw attention.

A structural repair is a break below the surface. There are different types of 'breaks' and they all require different skills to fill (with resin) successfully. There are 'bullseye' breaks; starbreaks; half moon; clover leaf and a few more appropriately named types of damage. The repair method is essentially the same throughout; the differential being in the experience of the repairer, his (or her) technique, and also the quality of tools and products. One of the most vital stages of repair is to dry out. The majority of repairers do not do this. Some even commit one of the most bizarre sins in windscreen repair: heat up the break whilst it is being injected (glass is a solid object and will expand under heat, therefore the break will close... and reopen a day or two later once it cools down properly!).

The most annoying thing about windscreen repair is that an alarming number of repairers do not know what a good repair looks like, never mind how to achieve one.
 
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Appreciate the feedback @Glassman Mine certainly sounds like the former example you give, I suspect that there is still a small chance that this will develop into a bigger problem if not treated?
 
DH81 said:
I suspect that there is still a small chance that this will develop into a bigger problem if not treated?
Click to expand...

It might. It might not.

There are many variables to list and the probable outcomes are as diverse. As long as you can see through those adverts which tell you that there is never a good time to have a stonechipped windscreen...

In the winter, the cold weather (??) might turn that tiny little chip into a great big crack costing you your EXPENSIVE excess; your kids will go hungry and you will no longer have enough money left to take them on holiday when they break up from school.

The Summer! Oh yes... whack on your AC and the same thing could happen... only this time that money you were saving for nanna's funeral will have to spent on having China's finest glass put into your car. You won't have any money left to pay the household bills so your house will be repossessed and you will go to prison and will be forced to play mummies and daddies with your new family, Terry and Dave.

Potholes! Don't forget the potholes. Go over one of these and you shouldn't think about complaining to the council for not maintaining our roads, or for paying peanuts to Albanian sub contractors who - if they remember to - will stamp in a bit of asphalt in between tapping up local residents for small building jobs at the weekend.

The fact is, glass is a solid object (well, it's actually a liquid believe it or not). It expands with heat and contracts in cooler temps. Some stonechips will never worsen; some will crackoff immediately and some might even 'snap' through torsional forces ripping through the chassis (that said, if the screen has not been fitted well, it probably will not make the slightest bit of difference). Different chips or types of damage will behave in different ways. The variables *could* be temperature, or it could be in movement, vibration, or a bird's feet pressed up against the glass as she's having a portion stroked into her.
 
My screen is cracked under the dash line from 1 side to the other. I can only see 1 very small chip at the passenger side. The screen isn't Audi stamped so guessing it had a new screen in the 1 and a bit years before I purchased it. Auto glass coming out to fit a new one on Tuesday. I asked if it was an Audi screen and was told it's the same quality without the Audi stamp

Lifetime guarantee though.
 
Davec30 said:
I asked if it was an Audi screen and was told it's the same quality without the Audi stamp

Lifetime guarantee though.
Click to expand...

Total rubbish. if it doesn't bear the four rings, it's NOT the same and not even close. The hardware will be of an inferior quality and if you look along the top of the glass, you'll see that the under-glass-edge extrusion doesn't fit as well. There will also be distortion in the glass.

This 'stamp' thing is utter ********.
 
Glassman said:
Total rubbish. if it doesn't bear the four rings, it's NOT the same and not even close. The hardware will be of an inferior quality and if you look along the top of the glass, you'll see that the under-glass-edge extrusion doesn't fit as well. There will also be distortion in the glass.

This 'stamp' thing is utter ********.
Click to expand...
Yeah I know. I did put an emoji after that from my phone but it never worked.

I have no doubt it won't be as good a quality. I'm sure if the one I had was an Audi screen it probably wouldn't have cracked like it did.
 
Not all insurance companies are willing to cover the cost of an OE screen though.

It's even in their T&C's that they may fit an OE equivalent part, not genuine.
 
I did go into Audi and asked them about it. Apparently they don't fit windscreens but if my car was in getting warranty work, I could organise auto glass to fit there new screen in their workshop.
 
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To be honest, I never noticed it wasn't an OE screen until I seen the crack. I don't think many people would know the difference.
 
veeeight said:
Not all insurance companies are willing to cover the cost of an OE screen though.

It's even in their T&C's that they may fit an OE equivalent part, not genuine.
Click to expand...

It varies from insco to insco. The bottom line is, a lot of them would have agreed an average invoice value deal which basically means the 'nominated' repairer can/will only fit cheap products in order to service the deal and still make a profit (based purely on volume).

Davec30 said:
I did go into Audi and asked them about it. Apparently they don't fit windscreens but if my car was in getting warranty work, I could organise auto glass to fit there new screen in their workshop.
Click to expand...

Most dealerships will have a sub contractor.

Davec30 said:
To be honest, I never noticed it wasn't an OE screen until I seen the crack. I don't think many people would know the difference.
Click to expand...

Perhaps. However once the difference(s) is(are) pointed out, you'd be wondering how you never noticed them before.
 
Davec30 said:
I did go into Audi and asked them about it. Apparently they don't fit windscreens but if my car was in getting warranty work, I could organise auto glass to fit there new screen in their workshop.
Click to expand...

True- but when my screen went and I wanted OEM fitted (InsCo would not cover OEM), went to my dealership and true - they don't fit them themselves but they order in the Audi OEM parts and get a local windscreen bloke to fit - I paid the dealership, so it was all underwritten by them. No mention of getting Autoglass in.
 
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