Our 2016 Civic, with "Honda Sensing" took a rock to the windshield 2 months ago. Small crack at the bottom, could live with it. Went though a carwash last weekend, cracked from top to bottom.
Being quoted at around 1500 bucks!taxes in to replace it. This is not a large peice of glass. Just to let you know what you'll be up against...the new standard response from the shops is now "well, the car has sensors looking through the glass, and must be re-calibrated" Uh huh, right...
I do like the LKAS feature on our Civic, it works great on long highway drives, as it actually semi steers itself. Thing is, this "Tech" is pretty close to becoming standard on all cars, so be aware...make sure your glass is covered. The day of the 300 dollar windshield is about over.
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65 Laurentian post, 67 Grande Parisienne 4 door HT.
For years the aftermarket has kicked OEM butt with pricing on windshields. We've done hundreds of aftermarket windshields during my employ here. Now with all this new stuff, we have no option in some cases but to pay the big money for OEM.
We have a well established, well respected one man mobile glass repair shop in our area. He's started buying some OEM windshields from me because he has been burned twice now putting a jobber glass in a GM and then some of this new stuff didn't work once he was done. He took a big hit on those 2 jobs. Last one he got from me was just under $900 for the glass only I believe, then there's still the labour.
Just another reason I love my Strato Chief!
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1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles
1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars
I always say technology is great when it works, but a pain when it works against you.
I agree that this type of technology does have its benefits, LKAS especially reduces fatigue on long drives once you learn to trust the technology and not fight it (like I do... lol). I could easily live without it though. My personal cars are older and don't have any of this new 'tech' stuff.
I would shop around for a price - $1500 seems steep. I mean, the costs are high anyhow but that seems a little too high.
Using rough figures I would expect the costs to be as follows:
Windshield and mouldings: $600 (Honda parts)
Installation labour: $200
Camera calibration: $200
Total: $1000 (+taxes)
I'm assuming that you got the quote for insurance, and I suspect some businesses may jack up the prices for insurance claims (I've seen it before). As mentioned in the article - make sure your windshield is a Honda part, and not some cheaper aftermarket piece. The figures above are very rough so costs could vary a little from these.
Still shopping around. Any quotes we get, they all (of course) suggest we go through insurance. Also the fact that this is the gouge capital of Canada doesn't help. The GTA.
The crack is smack dab in the center of the screen, and runs pretty much straight up. doesn't bother the eye at all...might leave it lol!
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65 Laurentian post, 67 Grande Parisienne 4 door HT.
You don't have safety inspections unless you want to sell the car, right?
If that's the case and it's not bothering anything I think I'd leave it until it becomes a problem. With winter coming on you might just end up with more stone hits once the pavement starts breaking up.
Down here we have to get inspections every 2 years (used to be 1 year), and it won't pass with cracked glass.
He's started buying some OEM windshields from me because he has been burned twice now putting a jobber glass in a GM and then some of this new stuff didn't work once he was done.
Also, OEM windshields are better quality glass than aftermarket in my experience. I'll never get aftermarket glass installed in a car ever again.
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Prince Edward Island
'64 Parisienne CS "barn find" - last on the road in '86 ... Owner Protection Plan booklet, original paint, original near-mint aqua interior, original aqua GM floor mats, original 283, factory posi, and original rust.
How and in what way is factory glass better than aftermarket? Just curious.
I found aftermarket glass "scuffs" way easier.
It may be poor luck, but I've have more bad experiences with stone chips with aftermarket glass. OEM seems to repel rock hits better.
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Prince Edward Island
'64 Parisienne CS "barn find" - last on the road in '86 ... Owner Protection Plan booklet, original paint, original near-mint aqua interior, original aqua GM floor mats, original 283, factory posi, and original rust.
How and in what way is factory glass better than aftermarket? Just curious.
That's a difficult question to answer without access to specifications or other data, but I would guess that there are probably greater dimensional tolerances, and likely some differences in chemical composition and construction.
OEM suppliers have strict specifications to adhere to, whereas the aftermarket can pretty much do as they like, as long as it keeps the costs down and follows the base requirements by law (i.e. laminated glass, etc.).
To illustrate this more succinctly, one only has to have a discussion about how many cheap Chinese parts have flowed out into the aftermarket that are absolute junk. Sometimes they don't even fit without modifications, not to mention substandard metallurgy, etc.
What is the basic process to calibrate it Rick? Did you have to purchase specialized equipment to do this?
As far as being responsible and staying in my lane, I can do that just fine. Have successfully for years. But the LKAS system, provided the car tracks well without it, is a really a great fatigue reducer on long trips. Made four, 16 hour trips to Gaspe this past year, and used it all the time I was driving. For those that don't know, it basically senses the road markings from a camera up behind the rear view mirror, and more or less holds the car between those markings. You must continuously have your hand(s) on the wheel, and it must sense an input every 7 seconds or so... or it beeps and warns you "steering input required", no input and it disengages. It's a neat toy though, in that within those 7 seconds or so, you can hands off the wheel and the car will actually round a bend and straighten out again...on it's own. Signal a lane change and it drops out and reengages in the next lane. No signal and it beeps and shakes the wheel when you cross the line. No visible or poor lane markings it beeps and drops out. But a light touch on the wheel and you can feel it gently inputting through your hands.
Basically you steer, but it more or less does half the work. You still are focused on your lane, and maybe even more so the road further ahead. My wife won't use it, and to be honest, it's something that you must get familiar with to have it work as intended. The LKAS with adaptive cruise is an excellent system to use on a long highway trip. But you still have to know how to manipulate it. It might just confuse you if you don't really know it.
One point about new glass, I think on some newer cars, the glass could be more prone to breakage...due to the fact the glass now appears so flat. Less convex so to speak. Could this be true? We lost two shields on our last Accord, and now one with the Civic. Never lost a windshield on any cars before, took some hits, got bulls eyes and all, but never a crack afterwards.
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65 Laurentian post, 67 Grande Parisienne 4 door HT.
I've had stone chips on my VW's fixed 5 or 6 times and never lost a windshield so I'd recommend getting any fixable damage fixed immediately. I did replace one after 300,000 KM's as it was getting big swirl marks from the wipers and was really bad heading into the sun.
I find the glass we get now doesn't seem as hard and immune to wiper swirls as I remember on the old cars. Maybe its just the aerodynamics changes the sun's glare since its hitting the glass at a different angle, more slant?
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63 Parisienne sport coupe (The Big GTO), black, maroon interior, 409 4 speed; former owner of a 59 El Camino, 63 Corvette SWC, 62 Chev Bel Air SC. 1963- Pontiac top selling car in Canada
Mahone Bay, NS Still not old enough to need an automatic
