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old8tora

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It could just as likely that the rear tailgate is not perfectly aligned so that when the windshield was glued to the tailgate, it was already in a high stress state. A simple bump in the road could have caused the glass to shatter. Just because the presence of the majority of the glass inside the rear does not necessarily indicate that the impact was from the outside coming in. As I had mentioned before, the air turbulence from the rear at that speed could have created an air stream pushing the shattered pieces of glass inward.
Very interesting possibility . A stress on the glass caused by pressure by misalignment of parts of the vehicle body .

A sudden twisting of the body whilst driving might also cause a defective or poor quality glass to shatter .
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old8tora

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Overtightened hinges on the window, stressed the glass, and the constant vibration caused a stress crack. The glass is also made to shatter when it breaks. So, there is one option.
Interesting cause of stress on the glass .
 

DanW

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TwoTone

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Consumer Reports, which writes that these sunroof explosions “have happened in every month of the year in every part of the country, in vehicles from all over the world” and on every type of road, found that the most common vehicles included in the 859 complaints to NHTSA were the Scion tC, Hyundai Veloster, Kia Sorento, Nissan Murano and Kia Optima.

One theory for why sunroofs are shattering has to do with manufacturing defects. Global News cites the head of research for a large glass repair company, saying contaminants in glass (which is often tempered for strength, but shatters instead of just cracking) can cause high internal stresses, especially in high temperature conditions, which can increase the chance of breakage.

My Old Exploder had a recall on the rear hatch hinges.

Since we know the JL has nothing but the best QC, yea really hard to believe the glass could have had a defect since that is so much easier to see than a weld completely missing the seam
 

LoganDzwon

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For the guys saying there is no way to prove it wasn't a defect... that only busters the claim against FCA.... If something fails under the bumper-to-bumper warranty legally they have to prove it WASN'T their fault, not the other way around. Her case for warranty service may require a battle if FCA wants to be duchy about it... But with a competent lawyer she would definitely win the a court case and get back the cost of repair, cost of her trip, cost of loss of use, and the pay for said lawyer.

TBH, it sounds to me like OP's theory of "trying to wait her out" may be valid. This is NOT the experience I had a couple years ago when I a problem with my 14' JK that was arguable my fault. The dealer and Jeep bent over backwards to take good care of me. The service I recieved was a big part of why I bought a new JL.

It is unrealistic to expect a first year model with such major departures and advances as the JL has brought us to be perfect. However, I do expect FCA to communicate the lessons they learn in the form of TSBs/ recalls and to take care of those who are damaged by being early adopters.

Whatever the outcome, I sincerely hope to see MountainGurl posting an update in a few days about how FCA has gotten on top of this and made her a very happy JeepGurl again.
 

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RubiRob

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For the guys saying there is no way to prove it wasn't a defect... that only busters the claim against FCA.... If something fails under the bumper-to-bumper warranty legally they have to prove it WASN'T their fault, not the other way around. Her case for warranty service may require a battle if FCA wants to be duchy about it... But with a competent lawyer she would definitely win the a court case and get back the cost of repair, cost of her trip, cost of loss of use, and the pay for said lawyer.

TBH, it sounds to me like OP's theory of "trying to wait her out" may be valid. This is NOT the experience I had a couple years ago when I a problem with my 14' JK that was arguable my fault. The dealer and Jeep bent over backwards to take good care of me. The service I recieved was a big part of why I bought a new JL.

It is unrealistic to expect a first year model with such major departures and advances as the JL has brought us to be perfect. However, I do expect FCA to communicate the lessons they learn in the form of TSBs/ recalls and to take care of those who are damaged by being early adopters.

Whatever the outcome, I sincerely hope to see MountainGurl posting an update in a few days about how FCA has gotten on top of this and made her a very happy JeepGurl again.
Except (no offense to op) fca has much larger pockets and time to fight it. Its unfortunate what happened but honestly it's going to consume so much time that it's just not worth the squeeze.
 

DanW

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Yeah, take FCA to court over an $800 window confident you will win. Smart.

How many here will give FCA credit for going above and beyond if they help her. If they treat her like they have me with my JK, I won't be surprised.
 

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... Is this a defect or just an unfortunate occurrence?
First I'll start by saying the same thing everyone else did. That sucks.
Now to answer the question. I'd say it's most likely an unfortunate occurrence. Could it be a defect? I suppose so, but I it's unlikely. If a defect would cause the glass to fail, it would likely do it somewhere other than a flat straight road (as you described it). If it were a hinge defect or an alignment issue, I would expect the glass to fail when you opening the hatch or while driving on a rough road that would be causing flex in the body/roof.
I'm not saying it's impossible to be a defect, just unlikely. Keep reading, I'll explain.

.... there were no environmental conditions that could have contributed,.....
Ah, but this is where you're missing something. Everyone keeps assuming something (a rock, pebble, bb, etc) hit the glass causing it to break. We're leaving out an environmental condition though. The sun.
Thermal breakage is not unheard of. I've seen it happen, even on a parked car. At the local base we had a car parked when the glass broke. The owner was a reservist there for drill and his car had been parked for 2 days when the rear window imploded. I thought for sure it had to have been hit with rock, or something because the majority of the glass was inside his car (some midsize sedan, I don't remember what kind). I checked inside the car for any rocks, pellets, etc, but there was nothing but broken glass. A check of surveillance video showed that the window simple shattered, with nobody, and nothing around. Turns out it was the sun.
Basically what happens is that the sun hits the glass and heats it. Depending on how quickly/slowly the glass heats the exterior surface of the glass can get hotter than the interior surface of the glass (or vice versa). If the conditions are just right the temperature difference can result if failure of the glass. As we know, items expand when the get hot. If the exterior surface is expanding faster than the interior surface, a perfect storm of conditions can lead to an unbearable stress on the glass causing it to fail. Once that happens safety glass does it's thing and turns into a bunch of really small pieces in an instant.

To give some explanation form those who specialize in the field, I've added some quotes from a publication from the AGGA. Yes that's an Australian publication, and yes there are papers from the states too, but the Aussies explained it very well.
"Thermal stress occurs in glass when there is a temperature variance in different parts of the glass. If the stress caused by the temperature difference is greater than the strength of the glass, thermal stress glass breakage will result. Thermal stress glass breakage is not a new phenomenon ..."
"As thermal stress breakage is not often due to a glass fault, but rather the result of a set of conditions that a pane of glass is exposed to, it is generally not covered by a glass supplier’s warranty."


This is NOT a simple broken window. I am just about certain that a fault in my brand new $50K feels-like-a-lemon with all of the problems JLU is what caused this. My insurance company should NOT have to pay for Jeep's poor manufacturing.
That is true, IF it's poor manufacturing. The problem though is if it's thermal breakage, or a result of the magic rock, it's not a manufacturing issue. In which case, Jeep shouldn't pay for it, the insurance should.

Maybe false advertising about the "heavy safety glass" part , no ?
No, not at all. Safety glass is intended to shatter into a bunch of tiny pieces. These tiny pieces do significantly less harm than big jagged shards of glass. The fact that it shatters into tiny pebbles of glass is exactly what makes it safer.

A tire can kick up a pebble and throw it forward, but only forward of the wheel (or more specifically, forward of the release point of the pebble from the tire which could be rear/up/downwards relative to the vehicle body). It can not throw the pebble backwards behind the vehicle then curve it forward to strike the rear windshield unless the pebble was shaped like a boomerang....
Agreed. Basic physics here folks, Newton's First law of motion. An object will continue in a straight path, unless it is acted on by an external force. So for a rock to kick up it will keep going in whichever direction it was thrown (forward, backward, at an angle, etc). BUT how can it reverse direction? Wind, an odd angle causing a awkward hop, etc. Sure, those work but again we need to refer to our buddy Newton. His second law states that in order for the rock to be propelled forward it must be acted on by a force greater than it's current force plus the force of the new direction. If the rock is kicked backwards at 5 mph it would have to be acted on by a forward force of at least 81 mph (of the same mass) for it to propel forward 1 mph faster than the 75 mph jeep. Keep in mind the Jeep is driving away from a rock if it's hitting the back window. Add to this that a 1 mph difference isn't likely to be enough force with a tiny rock to break the glass and I'd say the magic rock is out.
Front window strikes are easy because you're driving INTO the impact, not away from it. In those cases a rock can be moving forward and hit the Jeep without changing direction. If the rock is moving east at 50 mph, and the Jeep is moving east at 75 mph, you will still hit the rock. On front window strikes it can be you hitting the rock, just as easily as a rock moving the opposite direction and hitting you. On the back window the rock has to hit you. If you propelled it, it's just not going to happen.
So what if you propel the rock forward. Well if you propelled it at 80 mph forward it never gets behind the Jeep because it's going faster than you're driving. If it's propelled at 70 mph, you'll pull ahead of the rock. Barring some external force to accelerate the rock forward from 70 mph, after you pass it, it won't be able to catch up the back glass.
Anyway, all that to say a rock is out. Impossible? I don't like to use such definitive terms, but I'd certainly say extremely unlikely, bordering on impossible. The only reason I wouldn't say impossible, is because there are forces that could act on the rock to propel it forward, but the OP mentions no other traffic so I doubt a rock is to blame

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.....

I am so disgusted with all three Jeep dealers I have interacted with, and FCA for COMPLETELY IGNORING my warranty claim, that I am seriously considering selling the Rubi, taking my losses, buying the Toyota Tacoma that was my second choice, and sincerely hating Jeep in my heart of hearts for the rest of my life.

Thinking about that. Jeep has a LONG WAY TO GO to earn my trust FOR THE FIRST TIME.
Sorry to hear you're not happy with the service you've gotten so far. Hopefully they'll make it right, and you become a happy Jeep owner.
 

old8tora

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Hopefully they'll make it right, and you become a happy Jeep owner.
This wouldn't have happened if she had a soft top .

Therefore Jeep ought to remove her hardtop , and install a free soft top for her .

Problem solved .
 
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TwoTone

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Yeah, believe it if you want. There's no evidence yet that isn't more than anecdotal. Not one NHSTA complaint about it.
LOL- So there where guys like you saying the same thing about the welds.
 

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DanW

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LOL- So there where guys like you saying the same thing about the welds.
Plenty of complaints about the welds, plenty of concrete evidence. If you can't see the difference, nothing I type here will help you.
 

old8tora

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Plenty of complaints about the welds, plenty of concrete evidence. If you can't see the difference, nothing I type here will help you.
However , members have reported that some dealers "cannot duplicate" the steering problems . So , there is real experience evidence , documented by videos and jeep informant , but some dealers imply there is "no concrete evidence" , lol .
 
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old8tora

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