Picked up a little chip on the way to the gym this morning. Of course this has now spread across the entire windshield and will cost me another $1500 to rectify. I'm done. Getting it fixed ASAP and I will trade this POS in on thing to get rid of it. That's all. Happy Memorial Day and take a second to think of the fallen. I've known too many.

 

Yeah ok. Annoying yes. Why don't you get full glass coverage or something?

 

try installing clearplex

 

I have full glass cover. I am not going to file a 3rd claim in a year for fear of my rates going up. Saving that $1500 will end up costing me twice as much in the long run.

 

I've been looking for something like this (apparently not that hard)! Have you used it / has it worked well for you? Any downsides? I'm thinking of calling the local installer tomorrow.

 

And another extended Defender test drive comes to an end. Looking forward to when it's just us Defender enthusiasts left here on this forum and all the JLR newbie complainers move on. I miss the positive attitudes on the old LR4 forum where everyone loves their LR4 and will do anything to keep it running.

 

We still have our 2010 LR4 with 160k miles. Anything we need to do to keep it going we are, and to be honest it is not that much so far!

 

This recurring windshield problem is quite the conundrum. Bad luck, bad timing, rock magnets? Of course, those that have had one replaced will be the ones we hear about, but how many Defenders on the road that haven’t had a problem? Had a few tire problems in the last three years, picking up a nail or screw, but when I thought about it, I realized that I haven’t had a tire problem in the 30+ years, so is this a hundred year storm issue? Or the areas I’m driving in, more debris, less road cleanup? But I can’t blame the tire manufacturer. Had to replace a windshield in my Evoque 8 years ago, due to a rock chip but this was the first windshield incident in nearly 50 years of driving. How to explain these occurrences, especially when its happened to someone like the OP three times. Although he did say he picked up a chip on the way to the gym, so it didn’t happen out of the blue. But I understand, when it happens to you three times it gets old fast. Some have suggested the rake of the windshield being a possible contributing factor, but my beach/beater car is a Honda Element and side by side the Element’s windshield is much more upright, and with 170k miles, no problems with the windshield so my guess is that is not the inherent problem. For those suffering a crack or chip, my sympathies because it definitely sucks to be in that camp. Time will tell, and the numbers, if this keeps occurring in increasing numbers. Happy Memorial Day, remember those who served for our country.

 

The first time was the notorious 'self-cracking' windshield that cracked in my garage just sitting there. No impact, no chip, nothing. The glass installer with 20 years of experience even said he was 100% certain nothing hit it. This latest one was a small rock or something that a car kicked up as it changed lanes right in front of me on the highway. Not really a crazy chip, just tiny but the whole windshield immediately cracked all the way across. I've never seen anything like these Defender windshields in my whole driving life.

 

Yeah, pull my 'enthusiast' card because I can't abide replacing a windshield every 6 months. Every brand has its own fanboi culture. It's sad that JLR's seems centered around taking pride in crap.