spontaneous shattered tinted glass wind deflector 2015 Genesis

[Aquineas]

I love my s̶u̶n̶r̶o̶o̶f̶ moonroof, though the spontaneous shattering and the rattling are obviously undesirable side-effects .

 

[waz]

I love mine too, although yesterday's incident shook me up a bit.

I have a theory about what's causing these glass panels to break:

It seems obvious that these things shatter during cold weather only, and that there's a temperature differential happening between the interior of the car and the exterior surface of the glass. I had just turned on the heat a few minutes before the glass exploded.

Sunroof glass today is much lighter (thinner) than in the past due to fuel efficiency concerns.

I think the cold air rushing over the surface of the now heated pano glass at highway speeds causes an area of lower pressure to develop, similar to the upper surface of an airplane wing, that literally sucks the tempered glass upwards.

When conditions are just right (temp, speed, buffeting, etc.) ....POW! you're brushing glass out of whatever hair you have left.

 

[AustinTX]

When conditions are just right (temp, speed, buffeting, etc.) ....POW! you're brushing glass out of whatever hair you have left.

That got me to chuckle sitting here at my computer. I may be old, bit I still have a lot of hair - think crazy professor hair (or Einstein, with a lower hair line - just not as smart unfortunately).

The glass breaking is scary, but it seems that these things happen more around the colder areas in the country, such as Western North Cackalacky (I thought that was a joke, but Google found it for me) ...

It's been very warm here in TX, 70's most of the year so far ... my A/C has run more this year than my heat, both in my house and in my car ...

I'd still prefer not to have the sunroof ... I ordered my previous (non Genesis) car with all options except the sunroof and the V8 (gas mileage on the V6 was bad enough already).

 

[waz]

Update: I got the Scarlet Avenger back from the dealer today, and the tech did a nice job on replacing the sunroof glass. I did, however, have to thoroughly vacuum the interior because there were some glass shards hiding in the nooks and crannies.

I also discovered that when the glass broke, chunks of it flew back and hit the trunk lid, causing numerous paint chips and scratches.

I have told Forrest, the service manager at Asheville Hyundai, "you da man!" several times now for being a mensch and doing the right thing, and he lived up to this moniker today.

When I pointed out the chips and scratches on the deck lid, he authorized the whole trunk to get repainted. I know many service writers/managers would have tried to get me to agree to just getting the paint touched up, but not Forrest.

So I'll be getting the work done next week.

 

[aircanuck]

For the record, the piece between my moonroof and windshield also spontaneously exploded too today. This had better be under warranty.

 

[Seejay]

Chalk another one down to the texas sun. I detailed the experience in the "sunroof rattle" thread. I think there are so many thermal cycles built into it, and then it breaks.

 

[kavisic]

I want to start a no sunroof revolution. NO MORE SUNROOFS! DOWN WITH SUNROOFS! I want to make it loud and clear to manufacturers that I will not purchase another car with one.

I'm with you. Its curious to me that with the Panoroof complaints that you still can't get an "ultimate" G80 without one!

 

[kavisic]

Chalk another one down to the texas sun. I detailed the experience in the "sunroof rattle" thread. I think there are so many thermal cycles built into it, and then it breaks.

This thread scares the "heck" out of me. Living in hot West Texas (200 miles from any big city) my wife and I have to do a lot of road travel in the heat. I've heard this loud "pop" once already, but haven't seen any damage yet. The thought of this "shattering" while on the road a long way from home is very scary!

 

[Seejay]

I am getting the panel replaced and I will be curious to see if it's the same stupid material that was used previously. If it is an improvement, you may want to ask your dealer if he can pre-emptively replace the panel for you. I did not say that.

 

[5 Timer]

I will be curious to see if it's the same stupid material that was used previously.

How would you be able to ascertain any difference after installation?

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[Seejay]

How would you be able to ascertain any difference after installation?

If it's still glass... (It does not need to be.)

 

[Seejay]

Short story: it's still glass.
But there seem to be some iterative improvements in the new panel to mitigate thermally induced failure. There seems to be a slightly larger gap between it and the sunroof with a larger rubber gasket to make up the space. It also appears to be thicker or at least denser, but I won't be certain of that until some debris hits it or, super unlikely, while stopped at a light, a big drop of water falling on it from an overpass. It used to make a terrible racket when something struck it.