Windscreen – Its best not to notice it

You know how the windscreen is in a car – its best not to notice it – you just concentrate on driving and having that clear view up ahead, it should seldom come to mind. That is until you get a big crack on it.

Some precautions to take then, to avoid problems with your windscreen:

1. Stay a safe distance from that sports car in front with sticky tyres!
2. Stay a safe distance from that sports car in front with sticky tyres!
3. Stay a safe distance from that sports car in front with sticky tyres!

Apologies for the repetition, but that’s what happened to me. I know there are other ways of getting a big crack on your windscreen, but by and large, statistics show that stones kicked up by the vehicle in front are the cause of 79.53% of all cracked windscreens. How do I know that’s the figure? I don’t. But by my guess-timation, it seems right.

So other than staying a safe ways away from the sports car in front, once you get a crack, what can be done? Minor chips can be repaired using a windscreen compound.

But for larger cracks like mine, that’s quite impossible. Anyway, insurance tends to cover windscreen replacements for free without affecting your NCD at the next renewal. So that’s what I opted for and I’m sure you would too.

Some points to note when doing replacements:

1. Get a well reputed workshop to do the replacement (with comprehensive insurance and “own workshop” option, this becomes possible).
2. Monitor what they do – tell them you want to see the original logo and all the small wordings on the glass of the windscreen. Compare this with what you see on your old original windscreen.
3. Make sure the mechanic doing the replacement has some experience with such work and preferably, get a specialist who only does glass replacements on cars.
4. After replacement, look out for leaks (or worse, I have heard of others with shaking windcreens when travelling at higher speed). A good workshop will let you go back in case of problems without quibbling.

Wishing all a happy Christmas and may you not need to have this fix done anytime soon!