i have a new 09rx350. less than one month old. the other morning while i was driving on the hwy, i heard a loud bang..couldn't figure out what happened and finally looked up and my sunroof had shattered into million pieces!! luckily it didn't drop down into the car.. anyway, i can't figure it out. it wasn't caused by a rock chip or anything.. maybe just a faulty glass?? has anyone heard of this happening?

 

Were you going under an overpass at the time? If so I would suspect a rock or a pellet gun hit. If not, I would just chalk it up to a window with a big scratch in it that let loose all by itself.

 

I seem to recall reading someone else on this board that had the same thing happen. I do not recall what thread - try searching. It almost sounds like it was defective from the factory, probably had too much pressure on it.

 

Let us know what the dealer says...

 

You didn't by any chance put "tinting" on the Sunroof?
That can make it shatter too!

 

Welcome to the Club

An object just doesn't shatter like that without some force put on it. I highly doubt this was something from the factory (a.k.a. faulty glass), but if someone were to throw a rock or any other object at high speed, chances are it could occur. Even someone throwing something high into the air and it landing on a moving vehicle at that speed is going to do damage.

 

How?

I've tinted everything I ever owned. Most of my friends have tint, as do their friends. I never heard of tint causing auto glass to shatter, and I can't imagine any mechanism by which that would happen.

[Edit] I also can't think of how a single scratch would cause it to shatter. Break along the scratch line, possibly - like a big windshield crack, essentially - that I could see. But not fracture into multiple small pieces. If that happened, I would concur with Lexmex that something hit it.

Got pix?

 

the service ppl said it wasn't a rock or anything that caused it to shatter.. didn't drive thru an overpass or tinted the glass.. lexus said they don't know what caused it.. hmm..the only thing i can think of it was cold in the morning.. maybe 29-30 degrees... that was the only factor, but that doesn't make sense.. hm. anyway.. lexus fixed it for free!! they called it "one time goodwill" which was nice but i didn't do anything to cause the shatter!!

i regret not taking a picture of it! it was so all of a sudden, out of nowhere! so i was just stunned. i agree with cdefabio- maybe too much pressure. defective from the factory

thanks for the input!

 

The other thing that could have happened is a piece of rock got kicked up into the air from another car at high speed and it fell on top of your sunroof. This happened twice to 2 friends of mine in Mexico (in one case a windshield, and in the other case a side window).

 

Stresses that were inadvertently built into the glass can do this, especially in a temperature change (cold soak in below zero works). Best guess, short of something dropping or hitting the glass, was that there was a defect during manufacture causing it to stress fracture due to temperature, a sudden jolt or it was just its time to break. Have seen this effect happen in other applications of glass, including something as small as watch crystals. Glad that Lexus stepped up to the plate and helped you, and that you're not hurt.

 

I agree with Orzel. I have seen glass spontaneously shatter from what was probably an internal defect created at the time it was manufactured.

I am not sure what kind of glass is used in large sliding glass exterior doors but I think it might be laminated and tempered, much like a automotive glass. One night, a loud "Ting" in a quiet house got the attention of both my Lab and I. Sometime later another "Ting" got our attention but neither one of us could locate the sound. The "Tings" started coming more frequently and this finally allowed us to locate the sounds to a large sliding glass door. The glass in the upper right corner was crazed. With each "ting" the crazed area expanded before our eyes. Eventually the Tings came in very rapid succession and the whole pain crazed with very interesting geometric patterns. The glass sagged but did not fall out of the door, making believe it might have been laminated and tempered.

 

If there was no "impact" point detected, and you were not going down an overpass where something may have dropped, then it's a stress fracture. We had 0'F temp here a week or so back and my friends BMW 550i front windshield just cracked when she opened the front driver's door. She went to BMW they did some test where they ran a "pen" of some sort that supposedly detects "impact damage" that we may not see with the naked eye and they saw nothing. So, they determined it was a stress fracture and replaced the glass for free.

I would think same thing here, just stress from the manufacturing process and then it went. Atleast it seems it was tempered glass and didn't just fall through.

 

Can't be the cold we drive ours in -20. Sunroofs won't even open in these temperatures. Could debris had gotten into the track lifting an edge upon closing and then you hit a bump?

 

agreed, we drove our rx in -10, -14 degree weather and parked it outside during those times this winter in chicago. i don't think the cold shattered your glass...

 

The cold doesnt shatter glass, its the quick change in temperature that will shatter glass. If the glass have a defect from the factory, it will shatter under the right conditions.