Anyone's Sliding Door Window Shattering?

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by tredfishards:
Has anyone else had or heard of the sliding side doors window shattering? Our 2001 ody was sitting in the shade on a no hotter than any other day when the drivers side window completely shattered. Opening the door with the remote before reaching the van and noticing the shattered window, it fell out in large chunks and scratched up the door and filled the van with glass splinters. There is no sign of an attempted burglary (t.v. left in place) and it was parked in a place where there is no possibility of any object striking the window. Haven't been able to get Honda to return my call and don't know if I'll get stuck with a $200 deductable or not. Thank the Lord that it didn't happen while the two babies weren't in the car seats. T</font>

Click to expand...

Hi Tredfishards,

Sorry to hear about your experience. I'm glad no one got hurt. I used to work for car dealers (Chrysler and Lincoln/Mercury) many years ago. While this is certainly a very rare occurance, it was not unheard of. Basically, if the window was installed in any kind of a bind, all that would be required was extra pressure being applied at the correct point (either due to temperature changes or slamming a door) to cause it to shatter. I think Honda should cover this but unfortunately you may have trouble convincing them that the breakage was spontanious and not caused by some external event. Good luck with it.

To Travis, you're right in that the window should break into pea sized pieces. Sometimes these will stick to each other to form a larger part but should break apart with very little effort. As for the lack of sharp edges, that's not necessarily true. When glass breaks, you will have edges capable of cutting. The idea is to have the parts small enough so as to not produce a life threatening injury. The victim is much better off with 200 small cuts that barely penetrate the skin than one laceration that goes six inches deep into the body cavity puncturing any vital organs that happen to be in the way.

FWIW,
Drive Safe,
Steve

Well, I just did a search on "sliding door window shatter" and this thread is all that came up. I wanted to tell you all about what happened to my '03 Ody today and see if anyone else has had this happen since the previous report.

I drove my van to my parents-in-law's house. I took my daughter out of her seat on the passenger side, using the sliding glass door. I closed the sliding glass door. I realized I left something inside so I looked through the window, saw it was right there, opened the door again, and closed it again. I noticed no window damage at that time.

Two hours later, we came outside to leave. My husband used the remote to open the sliding door and bam! It looked like a projectile was thrown from inside the van through the window of that door - by which I mean the window exploded outward towards us. No actual projectile was involved. We searched the area and found no signs of anything that might have hit the window at any time while we were inside, either.

I will call Honda tomorrow - any tips on how to get them to consider this a manufacturing defect? I just can't imagine it being anything else really...

thanks,

webhillary

A 3rd incident...

Our 2002 Odyssey's sliding door glass (driver's side) just shattered this evening. Had the van 2.5 years.

Very cold cold front was coming through tonight and we went to the mall right after leaving the Honda dealer trying to work out a deal trading in the '02 towards a new '05 Accord. Dealer drove the van over to their used car lot and came back within 15 minutues or so, after which we went to the mall to eat and shop.

Anyway, wife and kids wait inside while I go out and get the van. I walk up, unlock the driver's door with the key and hold it over to unlock all doors. I start the van, close the driver's door and then go to the back. I open the hatch, put bag of goodies in the back and then close the hatch at which point I hear an eary spider web splitting sound and a split second later, hear something hit the ground outside on the driver's side. I go around and there is an 8" wide by 3" high oval hole in the driver sliding door glass and the missing glass is "outside" the vehicle.

Mall security was nearby when it happened so I flagged them down to help me get some tape and cardboard. Managed to wrap my hand in a plastic bag and gently knock out the remaining glass and scared the food court Taco Bell lady half to death by the dumpster trying to borrow some cardboard. Got it patched up to get home. The kids were not fond of the wind noise.

Gee, those little glass chunks sure do get everywhere.

I'll check with Honda tomorrow to see what kind of warranty coverage might be applicable. I'm only at 30 months and 27000 miles into the ownership.

Re: A 3rd incident...

rlpenny said:

I'll check with Honda tomorrow to see what kind of warranty coverage might be applicable. I'm only at 30 months and 27000 miles into the ownership.

Click to expand...

UPDATE: Had a nice 30 minute converstation with Todd, a case manager at American Honda Customer Service. I explained to him the details of what happened and answered other questions. They were unable to warranty the glass but as a goodwill gesture for a loyal Honda owner they offered to share the repair expense 50/50. I'm pleased and think it is a fair resolution.

I could have pressed for 100% coverage but can also understand Honda's vantage point since the van is 30 months old (rather than a few weeks or months) and I was the only witness of the incident. The resulution puts peace in my mind since we are very close to purchasing an '05 Accord.

My hypothesis for why the glass failed. A couple of days before the glass breakage, the driver's sliding door stuck against the weatherstripping. I figure that happened because we'd not driven the van for a couple of weeks due to the new '05 Ody. I figure the sticking door incident a few days prior must have flexed the window frame enough setting up an unseen stress point in the glass. Just a couple of days later during a blustery cold front, the sliding door glass fractures and blows out upon closing the hatch. What amazes me is how the glass didn't bust up when I opened/closed the driver's door some 10 seconds before I opened/closed the hatch. Put another way, had the sliding door not stuck closed a few days prior, the glass probably would not have failed until some other time, if ever. We'd only encountered a sticky sliding door two times prior and in both of those instances, the door just stuck momentarily but did open on its own. This past weekend, the sliding door had stuck for good and had to be assisted by hand. When I take the van in for glass repair I'll ask the dealer to put that special stuff on the door seals to prevent further sticking due to long term non use of the sliding door.

MISC...
All I can say is Honda product, always known to be reliable and respected by me for years, has over the past five years has reached the Toyota level in regards to the NVH and road noise department such that this 4 time Toyota owner is 99% close to getting into his 3rd Honda in as many years. Three years ago you'd never heard me say I'd own an Accord over a Camry but since I've driven an '04 and '05 Accord, we have to say hello Accord, sorry Camry. I'll keep my '92 Camry though. Very nice silky car.