I am visiting my sister in Florida this month and this morning I found the right rear passenger window broken into a million pieces. The Prius is a 2005 with 6K miles on the odometer. There was no rock or anything indicating what might of broken the window and I was wondering if it could of been due to heat/cold contraction and a defective window. Has anyone heard of this happening on any other Prius? I found on the way down here from MA on the interstate the car performed very well with the cruise control set at 75 mph. Held the speed on the steepest hill and was a very comfortable ride. At 75 mph the mileage drops from 51-54 mpg to 43 mpg. Still not bad.
I have heard of two unexplained rear windows breaking before in Prius. In a non-Prius I had the driver's side window like this in a parking lot, and assumed that someone had hit it accidentally or on purpose. Was your car parked in a place where a car door might have hit it?
No, no car door could of hit it. It was in my sisters drive way and there was no car that could get close enough to do this. They have never had any vandilism in the neighborhood in the 30 years they have lived here and with no rock inside the car I have no evidence this was vandilism. Do you have any more information you could give me on these two Prius wndiow breaks? Anything you might be able to add might help me in convincing my dealer that Toyota should pay the $259 repair bill.
I had a window shatter like that in a non-Prius car a while back. I was astounded but when I told people about it, they just wrote it off.
I will relate this story. I was sitting in a parking lot with a gravel service with my son waiting for the school bus when a back side window shattered explosively just after my son got on the bus. I hit the floor and called 911. I was sure it was a gun shot. The truckers were not totally happy with us parking there even if the school paid to pick up in the lot by the truck stop. When the police arrived he looked high and low, as did I, it was his opinion that a passing 18 wheeler had shot a pebble out from under a tire that had gone through the window and shattered on impact. Clearly there was no bullet. I accepted his explanation and got the window fixed. I can see how a tire could catch a stone on the edge and shoot it out just like a steelie from your thumb and forefinger.
I had the right rear passenger window replaced in my 05 Prius at a cost of $259. This was done at Tropical glass that does all of the Toyota broken glass repair work for the Toyota dealer in Ft Myers FL. I asked the repair tech if this window could of borken on it's own and he said a big yes! He said the windows are under stress even after the manufacturing process, some more than others. They can break with no outside force for no apparent reasons due to this stress. They are relatively strong when hit in the center of the window but any stress or hit at the edge of the window can cause a break for no apparent reason.
