Any chance it could be vandalism? You do live in SJ

I've heard of windshields doing it rarely, but not the other windows (but maybe I missed that).

I would not worry about it happening again if it was defective glass.

 

one other thought- you might try a local glass shop like alpha auto glass (look at yelp).
They will come to you and probably could cut the cost in half

 

We had this problem on our 2005 Dodge Grand Caravan. Twice we came out in the morning to a shattered rear window. No clue how or why it happened either time.

 

Yeah it might be vandalism. At least the dealer mechanic seems to think so. Really sucks. More than the money its the question why me? No other car in the neighborhood was vandalized. Anyway thanks for all the feedback.

 

As much as I hate Honda i would look closer for the cause because as much as I think Hondas are garbage, it would be the ultimate piece of garbage that would make a yugo look like a luxury car if the Honda smashed its own window. See if your neighbors have cameras. Or heard anything. It takes an immense amount of pressure to break a safety glass unless you. Know what you are doing, then it takes a little pressure from a pointed spring loaded safety glas breaker. Look for the point of impact.

 

I lived in NYC for 27 years and when business got slow, local glass and tire places would hire goons to slash tires and bb gun the windows of blocks of cars at a time in order to bring in business. It was common to see 30-40 cars in a row with damage. Glad I moved out of that cesspool.

 

We leased our 2016 odyssey in February. Three days ago in the middle of the day, I walked outside to my car in the closed garage and noticed my entire back windshield was shattered. There is a giant hole on the right size almost identical to the original poster image! The window shattered from the inside( both spouse and I are in investigations and its pretty obvious). This is now going to cost us $500 to fix because insurance doesn't believe in spontaneous shattering. Any suggestions on how to notify Honda this is an actual issue! I have three kids who's car seats were COVERED in glass, thank goodness no one was in the car!

 

There were a couple of incidents where the moon-roof shattered with no explanation - maybe related, poor quality?

 

I had the rear window in my '09 shatter out with no obvious cause last year. Best explanation that I heard for it was a torsional/twisting force applied to the tailgate from being unevenly packed (some items pressing outward on one side harder than the other side). We were packed for a long trip and hadn't given much thought to items pressing out on the tailgate, so it's a possibility. Still not sure what actually caused it and I'm not sure I'll ever know.

It was shocking to see for sure - my wife witnessed the shattering as she walked toward the van in an empty parking lot.

Nate

 

Interesting stories. It does sound like there is a problem here. With many defective items, years of denial from the manufacturer are finally followed by a recall, so save your receipts.

I wonder if it could be related to a pressure differential from outside to inside. On my '99, there was a problem that would only happen in certain temperatures. If you were to drive the van, full of a family of sweaty skiers and snowboarders home after a hard day, then park it overnight in freezing weather, as the inside air would cool from hot and humid to freezing cold and dry, you'd end up with a pressure differential that was enough to press the sliding doors in very tight against the body. With moisture freezing at that interface, you'd often have the sliding doors frozen shut in the morning, with that little bit of frozen moisture between the rubber seals and the body.

Of the many solutions to this problem, one of them involved applying air-permeable tape at the sealing surface. This was intended to gradually allow any pressure differential (partial vacuum inside the van) to be filled with air leaking in from the outside through this permeable seal.

Anyway - that's just a little more well-known example of where a pressure differential can build up in some of these cars. We never shattered any windows over it, so it seems that the pressure would need to be accompanied by some other defect to concentrate the stress in that area and break the glass.

 

Had the same problem with my 2015 Odyssey.
Stopped at a light and heard a boom. Looked in the back for a rock or other projectile to see if someone had thrown something - found nothing. Looks like the window shattered from the inside out.

 

Ouch, yet another thing to look out for...

 

Looks like residual stress leftover from the manufacturing process (either from the window itself, or how it was installed on the van). This happens very rarely, generally. The same thing happened on one of our family cars (Mercury Sable wagon) back in the early 90's when I was a kid.

-Charlie

 

Similar random rear hatch glass shattered on my 2006 Ody. Came back to the van, and it appeared to have shattered outwards. I figured that it was a combination of a soft spot in the glass and having the trunk being opened and closed repeatedly over the years (I had a manual tailgate).

 

Probably a defect in the window like others have said but if something did hit it, it would most likely bounce off and would not be found inside.

 

Tempered glass can do this occasionally. Sometimes it is a long term manuf. defect, other times it just takes some energy from a slam, hit, edge nick or so on. You can see that the tempering is closer to the heat strengthening range by the way the glass has broken. If it was fully tempered, you would only be left with little pieces.

 

I just bought a new 2016 Odyssey EX-L a month ago, it has hardly 1000miles on it. Came home at around 6pm and parked it in the driveway. Had the defroster on while driving. Inside van temp around 67F and night time temp ws around 55F. Woke up in the morning to find the rear tailgate window has shattered and pieces fallen inside. Interestingly the window had crack fractures even at the very edges under the molding or the window frame at the edges. Iam quite certain that no projectile or bibi hit it, i searched inside. The small cracks seem to emanate from a point in the middle, a few inches above the wiper. Im dismayed and perplexed. The window seems to be bulging outwards, especially near the edges like its trying to expand outwards. The dealer is not covering it, i have a $500 deductible, hope the insurance pays for the other $600 (the part itself is about $920 from the dealer). Ive read other posts here about older models having seen this issue. Has anyone seen this on 2016 models? Is this even possible? Its really weird. Any info is appreciated. thank you.
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I just bought an 08 odyssey yesterday and was driving home from work. I had the heat on and all of a sudden parked at a light the rear window exploded!! I thought I got shot at. It exploded from the inside out. this is def a defect!! i got a glass guy that's willing to replace it for 250$ with a lifetime warranty. I've looked it up and apparently this happens, often...smh scared the shit out me!!

 

I just bought a new 2016 Odyssey EX-L a month ago, it has hardly 1000miles on it. Came home at around 6pm and parked it in the driveway. Had the defroster on while driving. Inside van temp around 67F and night time temp ws around 55F. Woke up in the morning to find the rear tailgate window has shattered and pieces fallen inside. Interestingly the window had crack fractures even at the very edges under the molding or the window frame at the edges. Iam quite certain that no projectile or bibi hit it, i searched inside. The small cracks seem to emanate from a point in the middle, a few inches above the wiper. Im dismayed and perplexed. The window seems to be bulging outwards, especially near the edges like its trying to expand outwards. The dealer is not covering it, i have a $500 deductible, hope the insurance pays for the other $600 (the part itself is about $920 from the dealer). Ive read other posts here about older models having seen this issue. Has anyone seen this on 2016 models? Is this even possible? Its really weird. Any info is appreciated. thank you.
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My driver's side rear window on my 2021 Honda Odyssey suddenly exploded as I approached a red light. It seriously sounded like a mini-explosion or how it sounds when someone crashes into you. You are not losing your mind and I doubt you were vandalized; I have read a ton of articles on this since it happened and apparently the expanding of glass with temperature changes can result in this spontaneous rupture of car windows. Got mine fixed at an auto glass dealer near my home. Hoping it doesn't happen again.