so its a pretty cold night in washington..id say 40 degrees or so. i used the rear defrost so i could see out of my window.
and then i park my car. visit someone. get into my car, notice a football sized hole in the bottom right of my window. i brake the car to inspect. as i brake, the whole windshield just caves in. hundreds of tiny pieces.
could this be due to temperature change, or did someone vandalize?
Rear windshield breaking due to me using heat?
Someone vandalized your car, and broke the window.
Whatever car you have, 40 degrees is not too cold for the glass and the electric warming elements enclosed in the plastic layer of the safety glass.
A car the same as your car is probably driving around northern Quebec at this moment. Temperature minus 20 !
Hundreds of tiny pieces of glass, all with a rounded edge, are part of a safety design that prevents damage to the occupants in case of a crash.
Car glass is 3 layers, with a plastic one in the middle.
Rear windshield breaking due to me using heat?
You have been vandalized my friend. I have actually used warm water on my glass, very carefully mind you and never broken one. I have on many occasion's when I was very poor and couldn't afford a decent ride and had cars with bad heating and defrosting systems used the old warm water trick. I just went very slowly and only allowed a very small amount at a time to hit the window I generally started at the top and allowed the water to run slowly down the glass. It would also be cooling off as it run down. I sure as hello don`t recommend any one doing this. I was desperate at the time with a bad car and a job I couldn't`t afford to loose. But, the point i`m making is that there is no way you could have damaged your glass by just using what ever means of defrost your car has. A passing vehicle could have thrown a rock from its tires and hit your glass. Or if you were in a bad neighbor hood a BB from a BB gun could have also been the culprit.
The first answer is correct except for the detail that the rear and side windows are tempered and break into small pieces and have no lamination of plastic, while the front window does have the plastic layer in an attempt to keep you in the car and can not be tempered.
I suppose there's always a possibility of a manufacturer's defect, but that sounds like vandalism.
I live up north where it can get to -15 (and even lower!) with the wind chill, and my car's windows have never broken!
I recommend contacting the police.
I live in a place in Canada that gets WAY colder than that. Car windows are built to resist temperature changes as long as their isn't a crack in them already.
