rear screen!!

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bigjohn55
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Sun Nov 04, 2007 10:38 am

why would my rear screen just BLOW.it had no cracks or scraches on it. very puzzeld!!!!
all advice greatly received.
JONUK
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Sun Nov 04, 2007 3:22 pm

Was there a red dot moving around on the inside of the front screen as this happened? Was it just after driving under a bridge? Had any severe headaches since it happened?
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Templ8e30
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Sun Nov 04, 2007 5:24 pm

Blow as in shattered ?

It's not unknown for them to shatter after you've switched the rear screen heater off in cold weather.

Cheers,

Iain T
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2007 Mazda 6 2.0 estate
Political Correctness - A concept based on the idea that its possible to pick up a turd by the clean end !
nickfromgills
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Mon Jan 24, 2011 11:06 am

Templ8e30 wrote:Blow as in shattered ?

It's not unknown for them to shatter after you've switched the rear screen heater off in cold weather.

Cheers,

Iain T
I'll back you up on that one. I've had my 325i for five years and the demist has never seemed to work. I viewed it as a low-priority job. Then I noticed the other day it did work suddenly on the motorway. But as soon as I switched it off later... *bang*, shattered from the centre!

Could be an old window in old rubber had set in position from never being heated then when old wiring moved and created a circuit and heated and expanded the glass... well, it doesn't take much imagination to see what will happen.

I'm sure I heard the Autoglass guy rubbing his hands together at the mention of "bronze tinted" and "heated".. and hey it's expensive but when you're working in the day and your car is unsecured, time is of the essence... those guys must be raking it in!
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Brianmoooore
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Mon Jan 24, 2011 2:02 pm

IIRC, this was a common problem with very early E30s, prompting a change in the glass spec.
nickfromgills
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Mon Jan 24, 2011 3:00 pm

Mr. Moore, I do believe you should be on Mastermind with your specialist subject of E30s. You would win hands down! It is an '87 model so pretty early.

This is good news as I am actually sitting here waiting for the Autoglass guy to turn up in the now safe knowledge that the new glass will be perfectly safe, to the new spec... one can live in hope. Likewise, he may be she and outrageously attractive... but now we're talking too much hope.. ;-)

One thing they're not doing is replacing the rubber seal which surprised me considering it's age. Does anyone know if that matters - in other words, does the heat expanded glass compress the rubber or is the rubber designed to simply hold the glass regardless of its temperature and hence physical dimensions? I'm thinking that old rubber will not be as pliant and so less accomodating.

I guess the best thing to do would be to just avoid the demist button in future..
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