johnnyderm

Poll to survey broken g-wagon windshields in what seems like a factory glass issue:

johnnyderm

For current 2019+ Gwagon owners (new models)

Sweuk

Oops. I accidentally clicked the wrong option. No way of changing?

johnnyderm

Did you mean YES OVER 5000 miles? Dont think there is a way to change it but once we are done we can post final counts and move your vote

Sweuk

No, I should have picked "Yes, more than once" but clicked yes under 5000 miles. So no biggie but still.

johnnyderm

ok noted. Sorry you had that happen twice or more now!

Festertester

What if we don’t have 5k miles yet? I’m at around 2.2k miles and no cracked windshield, have a small stone chip tho

johnnyderm

Fester - you are option 2 (under 5k miles :-)

Festertester

Duh..

pdeacon

Thanks for posting the survey JD. I'm really surprised at the limited number of responses based on the number of complaints in the original cracked windshield thread. Only fourteen! I thought the number would be much higher. Maybe it needs to "burn in" a little longer. We shall see.

johnnyderm

I'll let this ride for a while. Once we get most of our forums usual suspects voting, I will recap and share with MB as data on the issue. Hopefully it'll drive some recognition that there's an issue. Cheers,

johnnyderm

bump

dunderhi

My G has over 15kmi and no issues yet. Although the windshield issue is most likely larger than it should be, I won’t claim to be lucky, since I think it is still a small fraction of the G’s that have had windshield problems. I had a couple of things hit my G’s windshield and no cracks. My wife’s ‘19 X3 which has about 12kmi already developed a crack after a rock hit, so I know it can happen to any car.

LWSG550

All, for those of us that have suffered windshield cracks, this is just a friendly reminder to contact the MB USA Customer Assistance Center at 1-800-FOR-MERCEDES (1-800-367-6372) so that you can voice your concerns. After having spoken to my dealer, my understanding is that there have been numerous complaints expressed by owners about the fragility of the windshields, but unfortunately not all of those concerns are getting to corporate because some owners are relying on their auto insurance policies to facilitate replacement glass. The more vocal we are with corporate, the more likely we are to get an official recall / factory fix underway (and that is the same message conveyed to me by a MB customer service rep).

wanderlust

2019 G550 and windshield has cracked twice. It clearly is a problem of the manufacturer and should be corrected with a thicker glass, something like the double laminated glass of the side windows.

mercedesmax

Windshield glass is laminated already.

wanderlust

I did not realize that - thanks for letting me know.
I will ask dealer for update on any possible OEM changes to resolve this.

mercedesmax

The engineers will have a chuckle.
You have a flat, upright piece of glass getting hit by rocks @ highway speeds.
Unless Mercedes offers bulletproof glass for the windshield there is no fix.

wanderlust

I drove Land Rover Defenders 90 & 110 with similar vertical sloped windshields and did not have the same experience with the glass cracking so easily.
Perhaps the protective film would be helpful as others have found.

mercedesmax

A, a Defender can't reach G wagen speeds
B, Like the old G wagen the Defenders had their windshields put in the old fashioned way with a rubber gasket instead of being bonded directly to the frame.
I imagine the gasket allowed the glass to flex a little which probably diminished the impact force enough.
Out here in Arizona every windshield cracks, sooner rather than later.
Had a customer with a BMW i8. The windshield glass was $4000! His insurance co didn't want to pay it.

z168

wow nearly half of new G owners have replaced their windshields

ThreeGs

I replaced mine three times. I’m convinced it has something to do with the overpressurization issue ..... easier to crack that way. First two were insurance, last one was MBUSA because State Farm told me they’d drop me if they had to pay it.

the flat glass/high speed thing doesn’t really hold merit .... I had a 16 G550 and still have a 16 G63 and 17 4x4 and the total number of windshields replaced on those is zero.

streborx

I own a 25 year old Jeep YJ with a windshield as flat as one can be, and it's never been replaced in 70K miles. But unlike the G (and other ADAS-equipped vehicles), the YJ's glass is mounted in a rubber gasket that mechanically isolates it from the steel frame. My understanding is that the G's glass is urethane bonded into a pinch-weld surround that has close dimensional tolerances, and the glass needs to be precisely mounted (within a 1mm). If it's off-center, it can incur mechanical loading that it's not designed for, and spontaneously fail. All this is necessitated by the ADAS sensor cluster (the black-box behind the rear view mirror), and even with 1mm mounting precision, the G's ADAS has to be statically and dynamically re-calibrated subsequent to glass replacement. Insurance companies embrace and support these ADAS features as they believe these systems reduce the number and severity of accidents, and thus save them money. IMO, insurance companies have no right to refuse to pay for glass replacement, regardless of how often or how expensive the repair is, as they promote these safety features that have made windshields no longer a $250 / office parking lot / 45 minute repair performed out of the back of a small van. Given the cost, complexity and only MB OE glass available for the G, this is one repair that I would have done only at a MB dealership.

sprfrkr

That's not what those poll results mean.

places

I think I got most of this lol.

Seriously though, this is probably the best answer I've heard pertaining to the windshield issue. So is it an install issue? Are these windshield being installed incorrectly (outside the tolerance levels)?