Window Cracking Spontaneously?
 

So I was driving on the freeway and I hear the window just make a sudden loud crack. But nothing hit it and there are no signs of anything bouncing off the window hitting anything else.

Has this happened to anybody else?

https://scontent-sjc3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...f5&oe=5CDFC028

Here's an explanation of it: https://www.constructionspecifier.co...o-do-about-it/

Nope, never happened to me.

I suggest that you will never know why it broke.


humfrz

Yes. On my oven.

I thought it was "user" error... OP's issue looks like impact damage.

I think a rock hit it from traffic and it was so quick and unexpected you could not have noticed. my 2 cents.
22R

Snipers

Wait, San Jose?....stray bullet.

I have had a few just break, usually on a hot day in the sun. The back window of a station wagon went and the bang was so loud I thought it was a shot. Side window put little pieces of glass all over the inside of the car. I was finding them for several years.

It could have been hit weeks or even months ago and just the right set of temperature, pressure and vibration set it off now. The brand new replacement windshield in my 58 Chev exploded the day after it was installed. They had installed it with a bit of a twist. Wasn't viable due to the wrap around nature of the glass but a bit a bump and BOOM.
Exploding windows can be a fairly common thing where the temperatures get really low.

Honestly I wouldn't say it was particularly low (compared to around the world), it was probably around 50*ish degrees F?

Here's a couple pics from the outside.

I just replaced a messed up windshield because of a rock and I'm familiar with various small pebbles and things hitting the car/windows. I really didn't hear anything along the lines of stuff hitting it.

Oh well.

https://scontent-sjc3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...8c&oe=5CDE89C5

https://scontent-sjc3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...32&oe=5CEB95E7

Might have been something stupid like a scratch where the glass is clamped to the bracket.

I'll go with this theory (that was lifted from @Impureclient 's reference, a few posts back).

"Frame-related breakage
Expansion and contraction of glass framing members may also lead to frame-related breakage—another common form of seemingly spontaneous failure. Such incidents occur when the gaskets, setting blocks, or edge blocks in a metal window or curtain wall frame are missing or do not sufficiently cushion the glass against glass-to-metal contact caused by temperature or wind-related movement. This can cause edge and surface damage to the glass as it comes in contact with the metal frame’s perimeter, producing stresses that eventually lead it to fail for no apparent reason."


humfrz