E30 Zone

Came to fit my new windscreen today after my friend cracked it during my emergency removal to get into the car last month. Brilliant bloke, he owned a few 325 E36's and was mentioning how his mate has a nice E30 M Sport which he's owned for the past 20 years and spent god knows what on it.

Had a general nice natter, he hasn't done an E30 screen in about 6 years either. Which led to the problem of him not having the right tool on him to put the locking-seal back in it
I'm lucky I don't need it this weekend as he'll be back first thing Monday morning to finish it off.

But god it does look nice having a windscreen with no chips, scratches or cracks in at all, just a shame I can't drive it for now

it would be nice to know what the windscreen tool looked like - any chance you could take a pic

He's gone now but it's basically this



You put the strip through it then pull the tool around the rubber to feed it in.

Quaser wrote:it would be nice to know what the windscreen tool looked like - any chance you could take a pic

I use a small flat-bladed screwdriver,from the glass side and soft soap(send your 'er indoors to chat up your local tyre fitter!)but the 'proper' tool is a U shaped hoop with a device to open up the rubber channel.

I did my rear screen last weekend using a 10cm wide putty knife to lever in 10cm stretches at a time. Didn't take that long actually (but the corners were tricky) but I'm sure a fitter with the weather strip tool could have done it quicker !

tbh i wasnt impressed with the actual screen quality, when autoglass did mine , seemed iffy in rain/light at night like on motorway etc, what make it is it, their own branded one ?

Autoglass fit cheapshit polish glass as standard, they will fit a genuine screen if you demand it though. With the proper tool it takes less than a minute to fit the locking strip

DanThe wrote:Autoglass fit cheapshit polish glass as standard, they will fit a genuine screen if you demand it though. With the proper tool it takes less than a minute to fit the locking strip

not true i'm afraid, depends on which insurance company you are insured with, some will authorise/pay for OE stamped glass others may wont

polsta wrote:tbh i wasnt impressed with the actual screen quality, when autoglass did mine , seemed iffy in rain/light at night like on motorway etc, what make it is it, their own branded one ?

they offer a lifetime warranty so you can get it looked at and replaced if its deemed necessary

mine did get replaced about 8 months later, but they wont drive around in it for a period and in diffeent situations and weathers, which was when you noticed its poor quality, not long after it had the 2nd i sold the car

when i tried to insist on an oem bmw glass, they said it couldnt be done, nothing about speaking to the insurer, i rang round a few other glass companies but none would do a bmw glass

polsta wrote:mine did get replaced about 8 months later, but they wont drive around in it for a period and in diffeent situations and weathers, which was when you noticed its poor quality, not long after it had the 2nd i sold the car

when i tried to insist on an oem bmw glass, they said it couldnt be done, nothing about speaking to the insurer, i rang round a few other glass companies but none would do a bmw glass

well, if there was a problem with the 2nd glass then possibly there may have been a quality issue.

The time I had to replace my drivers side window autoglass was £200 more expensive than buying direct from bmw.


So I wont be using them ... ever. Ever ever.... EVER!

bab-91 wrote:The time I had to replace my drivers side window autoglass was £200 more expensive than buying direct from bmw.


So I wont be using them ... ever. Ever ever.... EVER!

Same here, the Dutch equivalent of Autoglass wanted about 150 euros more for the boot-space glass than BMW did for the glass, surrounding trim and gutter trim

Cloggy Saint wrote:

bab-91 wrote:The time I had to replace my drivers side window autoglass was £200 more expensive than buying direct from bmw.


So I wont be using them ... ever. Ever ever.... EVER!

Same here, the Dutch equivalent of Autoglass wanted about 150 euros more for the boot-space glass than BMW did for the glass, surrounding trim and gutter trim

The price I was given was for their own glass. So they really charge for the fitment!

It's a bit of a joke unless your getting it through your insurance

DanThe wrote:Autoglass fit cheapshit polish glass as standard, they will fit a genuine screen if you demand it though.

not true mate , autoglass use Pilkington which is the same as o.e.m just not stamped and yeah you have to ask for the genuine item but thats if your insurance company agree to pay
it was rac windscreens (auto windscreens) that made they own screens and what a mess that was

I had 2 windscreens on an A2 i had - the windscreen had a curve near the bottom and it distorted the view on the curve on the non audi glass - they tried 2 non oem screens and saw the distortions - on the third attemt, the oem glass was scratched, and they got it right on the 4th.

Overall though, the customer service was good i thought.

on ebay, you can get a similar tool to above for about £10 - might be handy in the toolkit!

dips346 wrote:

DanThe wrote:Autoglass fit cheapshit polish glass as standard, they will fit a genuine screen if you demand it though.

not true mate , autoglass use Pilkington which is the same as o.e.m just not stamped and yeah you have to ask for the genuine item but thats if your insurance company agree to pay
it was rac windscreens (auto windscreens) that made they own screens and what a mess that was

If it doesnt have a brand name on it the glass could be anything, ive seen plenty of poor quality windscreens and they have pretty much all been fitted by autoglass.
I damaged a screen on a new/unregistered 7.5 ton DAF several years ago and the manager of the place rang autoglass, they quoted £1500 to come and replace it. I had it changed by a company from the midlands that travelled 70 miles to fit it and it cost me £350
Speaks volumes IMO...

DanThe wrote:

dips346 wrote:

DanThe wrote:Autoglass fit cheapshit polish glass as standard, they will fit a genuine screen if you demand it though.

not true mate , autoglass use Pilkington which is the same as o.e.m just not stamped and yeah you have to ask for the genuine item but thats if your insurance company agree to pay
it was rac windscreens (auto windscreens) that made they own screens and what a mess that was

If it doesnt have a brand name on it the glass could be anything, ive seen plenty of poor quality windscreens and they have pretty much all been fitted by autoglass.
I damaged a screen on a new/unregistered 7.5 ton DAF several years ago and the manager of the place rang autoglass, they quoted £1500 to come and replace it. I had it changed by a company from the midlands that travelled 70 miles to fit it and it cost me £350
Speaks volumes IMO...

Jack the cab with something on the seat by any chance?

When autoglass fitted a screen to my e30 m3 it was a pilkington screen, the same pilkington which supply various manufacturers, but you won't get a BMW stamped one unless its bought from BMW.

HairyScreech wrote:

DanThe wrote:

dips346 wrote: not true mate , autoglass use Pilkington which is the same as o.e.m just not stamped and yeah you have to ask for the genuine item but thats if your insurance company agree to pay
it was rac windscreens (auto windscreens) that made they own screens and what a mess that was

If it doesnt have a brand name on it the glass could be anything, ive seen plenty of poor quality windscreens and they have pretty much all been fitted by autoglass.
I damaged a screen on a new/unregistered 7.5 ton DAF several years ago and the manager of the place rang autoglass, they quoted £1500 to come and replace it. I had it changed by a company from the midlands that travelled 70 miles to fit it and it cost me £350
Speaks volumes IMO...

Jack the cab with something on the seat by any chance?

No, was cutting the chassis with a 9" grinder on the vehicle in front and missed the protective screen

harry_p wrote:When autoglass fitted a screen to my e30 m3 it was a pilkington screen, the same pilkington which supply various manufacturers, but you won't get a BMW stamped one unless its bought from BMW.

funny thing is that it only cost them a extra £50 to get one with bmw stamped on lol

I had two screens last year on insurance for the E32 and the E36 Coupe. Both from AutoWindscreens and neither were gen but they got all the rubber strips and fittings from BMW. I think they are Pilkington and are very good, especially for 50 quid a pop excess. A new screen makes a huge difference and both of mine replaced 19-23 year old originals.

DanThe wrote:

HairyScreech wrote:

DanThe wrote: If it doesnt have a brand name on it the glass could be anything, ive seen plenty of poor quality windscreens and they have pretty much all been fitted by autoglass.
I damaged a screen on a new/unregistered 7.5 ton DAF several years ago and the manager of the place rang autoglass, they quoted £1500 to come and replace it. I had it changed by a company from the midlands that travelled 70 miles to fit it and it cost me £350
Speaks volumes IMO...

Jack the cab with something on the seat by any chance?

No, was cutting the chassis with a 9" grinder on the vehicle in front and missed the protective screen

Arg, learnt that one the hard way when I first started the ka, screen is still full of pits to this day.

polsta wrote:tbh i wasnt impressed with the actual screen quality, when autoglass did mine , seemed iffy in rain/light at night like on motorway etc, what make it is it, their own branded one ?

He came and finished fitting it this morning and haven't had a chance to drive it yet but it covers the whole window space and it's fully transparent so, so far so good. The only branding I can see on the screen is "Toglass"

I'm sure if they screen's horrifically bad I'll complain but we'll see after I treat it with some anti fog and rain-x.

the "au" is missing !! my 1st one had "autoglass" 2nd "utoglass" or something , cant even brand the glass with any decency

Autoglass repair
Autoglass replace
Jism in your hair
Jism on your face

If you want a BMW screen, why not go to BMW for it?

They can deal with your insurance company like Autoglass and you can rest assured it will have a BMW stamp on it. More than likely it wont be fitted by BMW, but a local mobile fitter will go to the dealer and fit it. Unless that dealership has a screen fitter in their staff.

Funnily enough, my e36 screen cracked after yesterdays hard frost.

206,000 miles old, and still with the running in instructions sticker I think I've had a new screen in every car I've owned now! it's not growing, nor in my view at the moment so can wait until next week when I'm on the different shift.

I'm not so bothered by a bmw stamp, but I want the screen to be optically perfect, if it's not right do you have grounds for a replacement or are there certain acceptable levels of distortion? (like dead pixels on a new lcd display)

Good call on actually going to bmw though, might be worth a trip for a word, and a look through my insurance docs. Sometimes they're linked to a specific supplier.

they are not always linked to a specific supplier, the excess may be slightly more , say £50 to their preffered (autoglass) or say £80 if you choose your own, but its then finding the supplier with gen glass/who will, as most dont forget will have their suppliers, and make £££ on the glass, aswell as the fitting, if they get a gen bmw glass they wont make anything on it

Andyboy wrote:Autoglass repair
Autoglass replace
Jism in your hair
Jism on your face

FLol

polsta wrote:they are not always linked to a specific supplier, the excess may be slightly more , say £50 to their preffered (autoglass) or say £80 if you choose your own, but its then finding the supplier with gen glass/who will, as most dont forget will have their suppliers, and make £££ on the glass, aswell as the fitting, if they get a gen bmw glass they wont make anything on it

a very large percentage of glass comes from a supplier called laddaw who are owned by Belron. Belron also own Autoglass

If you use one of the big companys to replace the windscreen, autoglass, National windscreen, AA, autowindscreens etc all will pretty much source their glass from laddaw.

but as i said earlier in the thread, some insurance companies will pay for OE glass, people like directline, swiftcover etc will not, but if you have a decent policy like Cornhill you will likely be allowed OE stamped glass - all depends on the insurance company.

lhd220turbo wrote:

polsta wrote:they are not always linked to a specific supplier, the excess may be slightly more , say £50 to their preffered (autoglass) or say £80 if you choose your own, but its then finding the supplier with gen glass/who will, as most dont forget will have their suppliers, and make £££ on the glass, aswell as the fitting, if they get a gen bmw glass they wont make anything on it

a very large percentage of glass comes from a supplier called laddaw who are owned by Belron. Belron also own Autoglass

If you use one of the big companys to replace the windscreen, autoglass, National windscreen, AA, autowindscreens etc all will pretty much source their glass from laddaw.

I used to work at the Laddaw wharehouse. Most the stuff there was Pilkington glass when I worked there but there seemed to be more and more unmarked glass appearing during the year I was there. Only OEM glass I remember ever seeing in stock was for Fords or Jags.

Mark up on some of the screens was nuts, I paid £12 for a new screen for my E21 while I was there!

Kedge wrote:

lhd220turbo wrote:

polsta wrote:they are not always linked to a specific supplier, the excess may be slightly more , say £50 to their preffered (autoglass) or say £80 if you choose your own, but its then finding the supplier with gen glass/who will, as most dont forget will have their suppliers, and make £££ on the glass, aswell as the fitting, if they get a gen bmw glass they wont make anything on it

a very large percentage of glass comes from a supplier called laddaw who are owned by Belron. Belron also own Autoglass

If you use one of the big companys to replace the windscreen, autoglass, National windscreen, AA, autowindscreens etc all will pretty much source their glass from laddaw.

I used to work at the Laddaw wharehouse. Most the stuff there was Pilkington glass when I worked there but there seemed to be more and more unmarked glass appearing during the year I was there. Only OEM glass I remember ever seeing in stock was for Fords or Jags.

Mark up on some of the screens was nuts, I paid £12 for a new screen for my E21 while I was there!

Things have changed a bit since then; Jag screen arnt OE stamped, Fords are though

laddaw stock pretty much all modern BMW OE glass as Cornhill insurered vehicles have to have this installed

there are many many manufacturers of glass which are mainstream now, Pilkington, FY, Saint Gobain, Shatterprufe, AGC to name a few