rev up your engines, today I'm gonna talk about something that most people don't
think about it until it breaks your car's windshield every year in the
United States over 15 million windshields are replaced cuz they're
broken yeah most people don't know that much about the windshields and how
important they are to the structure of the car and what a big deal it is
actually having it replaced correctly you windshield actually has three parts
there's an outer layer of glass an inner layer of glass and then a plastic inner
layer and it's made that way so that in case of an accident rather than you
flying out the windshield it bends what doesn't break you've seen the aftermath
and junkyards or movies where there's the windshield that's got a big bubble in
the front where somebody hit it with her head well at least they didn't fly out
and get shredded by all the broken glass it flexed and stayed there what a lot of
people don't understand is that the windshield is part of the structure of
the vehicle it keeps it solid especially if it's gonna roll over so you have to
replace your windshield you'll want some cheap piece of junk going in there now
here in the United States all the glass has to meet the federal motor vehicle
safety standards it's a mouthful and there lies the problem they have to meet a
certain standard but really the checking of these standards especially from some
of these chinese-made really cheaply priced windshields not that much checking
going in on that stuff it's kind of like people checking meat in the United States
the feds are supposed to check the meat right well I watch the program the other
day and they said less than one percent of that meat is ever checked in most
places maybe they have an inspection once a year I would not say go buy the
cheapest auto glass you can when you have you windshield replaced and I also
wouldn't advise you to call the cheapest place it's gonna come to your house or
office and throw a windshield in because it's a very involved process actually
replacing it you have to have a lot of good equipment to do it correctly the
guys I use use this urethane sealant it's called Sika and it's heated to 180F
before they put it on half the guys I've seen they just come they rip
out the old windshield and clean it up a little put the glue on and slap it in
and away they go put a little tape over it so suppose they hold it in place
while it dries that's not a good idea it has to cure it is part of the structure
of the car I actually had a customer once have one of these guys come over
put windshield in at their office they were driving home they're on a highway
there was almost a big wreck they had to slam on their brakes and a windshield
popped right out, have a pro do it in their shop where everything is
controlled you don't want to be outside or there's dust and whatever and if it's
raining they're still gonna be doing the job you know you don't want that you
want it done in a controlled environment and done by Pro knows what they're doing
it knows what they're buying too, you don't have to buy oem from the factory some of
those things will be seven eight hundred dollars right there are many companies
that make glass but the pros they know which companies make good glass which
make the cheaper glass now they're really cheap ones like some of the
Chinese units I've seen it's obvious to the naked eye you can look through the
glass you can see things are distorted it isn't the right thickness I mean you
can just tell and all those windshields man they're curved perfectly to fit the
shape if they're not made perfectly guess what they leak I have had quite a
few customers get those cheapies put in and what happens the first big rainstorm
the car leaks inside and once that occurs the only way to fix it correctly
is to pull a whole windshield out seal it and put it in you can't get silicone
sealer and just put it on the edges if there's a leak that doesn't work even if
it works for a short time it won't last the whole thing is supposed to be one
solid seal urethane it's a really good sealer I use it all the time my old
house the whole bricks together it stopped yeah my house is pretty much
glued together with urethane but the windshields they gotta be one solid
thing around that's why you got to do the whole thing and you got to do it
right the first time because when it's done right it can last 94 Celica
that's the original Toyota windshield it's still laughs doesn't really have
any big cracks got little tiny chips here and there but it didn't make it
through the first layer of glass so it doesn't break
now with 15 million windshields being replaced in United States every year can
you prevent it well you know you can get those giant bug deflectors most guys not
gonna do it cuz he look really ugly you see them a lot of trucks yeah those are
manly I try to stop bugs cuz bugs don't weigh much and that's more a wind
deflector it deflects the wind makes them fly over maybe light little grains
of sand and stuff but you got a big rock on my gravity's gonna take over it's
gonna hit your windshields gonna hit it now the only thing you can do there is
don't follow gravel trucks closely if you see somebody that's got a modified
vehicle with the big tire sticking outside the fenders or a truck that they
don't even have the mud flaps on the bottom anymore they keep rocks from
shooting up in the air just either pass them quickly or stay well behind them so
the rocks don't fly up in hitch and if you live up north any place where it's cold
I guess way south down in Antarctica don't shock you windshield when it's
cold don't come out with hot water and pour to melt ice that may share the
windshield and certainly don't use a hot hairdryer you don't want to shock the
temperature now to some extent you can prevent a small crack from getting big
by those sealers where they inject the resin into a crack but realize the
biggest thing that's ever gonna seal the something that's the size of a quarter
and you're even pushing it then maybe you got a little crack love these guys
claim out the cracks less than three inches long they can seal it but for my
experience that's a load of baloney once those cracks start the Sun gets to
it the cold in the winter the cracks just grow and grow and they go away
across realize the glass is a crystalline structure so once it starts
cracking it'll continue to crack and a little bit of resin really isn't gonna
stop it from cracking now there are ways to make your windshield more slippery so
things might have a better chance of sliding off and it's really great so
your wipers don't make noise and their silent and that's
using this stuff I've been using new finish for years basically what you're
doing is you're polishing your windshield the new finish isn't a wax
it's a Polish it really the windshield wipers go smoothly mine
used to go please please and I kept changing a wiper blades
thinking down to making these wiper blades like crap well after a few days
or sometimes immediately if it rained that day they still make the noise even
with new wipers on but once I polished it with this it went away and now I
polish and maybe once or twice a year the noise goes away and it actually
beads water up better too well let's face the facts it doesn't matter how
slippery you make your windshield if a big rock comes it's gonna make a hole
and if it makes a big enough hole you're gonna have to replace the windshield you
don't want it done right if you got a replace your weren't you and as I son to
have to use the right adhesive because for modern vehicle with side airbags the
federal governor United States requires that the adhesive for the windshield has
to be six times stronger than a normal one to take the extra force that the
side airbags can throw up so yelling have a god pulling up in an all van
using any kind of caulk that he's gotten a gun, gluing windshield back in
outside where there's all kinds of contaminants going on and even a pro
that does it for a living he's honest will tell you that nothing
beats the original windshield the way it's glued in so now you know the truth
about car windshields and lower quality when you have to have one changed out if
you're planning on keeping the car for any length of time and of course don't
be a stinker let's say you're selling a car and it's all smashed up and you just
want the cheapest one put on so you can sell it, it'll look okay but it's not a nice
thing to do to the next person that's gonna be buying that car, so if you never
want to miss another one of my new car repair videos, remember to ring that Bell