Sunroof gone blown up

[XeroState]

Not mine, as I don't have one, but my fathers [ion sedan] sunroof 'blew up' this morning on the inner-city highway [didn't even get up to the limit of 62mph.. says he was around 50mph when it happened]. Wasn't super cold, wasn't super warm nor was there a temp change [happened at 930am].. just normal temp [see like 60F]. As far as he can tell nothing hit it and he didn't see any rocks or anything coming at him from the front [no overpasses where it happened.. no way anything could've been dropped] and it wasn't even open. From what he saw from the driver seat it just started to heave upwards then shattered fairly quickly... and who would've guessed that the glass shattering sounds like a gun shot by your ear...lol *Warning auto-focus failed on a couple pictures..lol*









Anyone ever hear or witness something like this happening?

[all4glh]

I've never heard of that, but WOW. It actually looks as if it was blown upward in the pictures you took, although they were a little blurry.

[XeroState]

Yah... I was too lazy to manual focus them so I put it in auto mode.. apparently it fails...lol

Yah, Saturn here nor the claims center have ever seen or heard of it happening.. but we are a small market here.

[all4glh]

Were his windows up or down?

[XeroState]

All windows were up, HVAC was on fan setting 2, cold air [not a/c], not in re-circ mode

[Big Knight]

There may have been a small defect in the glass that grew by the vibration of the car. This could have grown until it reached the instability point and BLAM. It is glass after all.

[XeroState]

Yah. That is what we have guessed. Took over 2 years to fail though.

I still feel sunroofs are nothing but problems. They are nice when they work, but will not work forever.

[Watts-Up]

Originally Posted by XeroState

Yah. That is what we have guessed. Took over 2 years to fail though.

I still feel sunroofs are nothing but problems. They are nice when they work, but will not work forever.

That's crazy, spontaneous combustion of a window! Maybe it was shut tight and had pressure bound up on it, then a little warmer tems and some chassis flex stress and kaboom. I don't like sunroofs either, just because they put extra weight in the worst place. All my previous cars had them, and they always did cause problems eventually. I do miss being able to look up and see what is above you though.

[XeroState]

Yah.. looking up through them is neat, specially at night out in the 'country'.

Oh well, glass coverage covers it [derr...lol] so its not a big problem.. just lucky it didn't blow when we were out of province with a long drive back with a broken sunroof...lol

I gotta say, the glass that is left in the window pane is surprisingly strong. Like you really have to put effort onto it to make it move.. I would've figured it would be pretty weak.

[jmuffe01]

i have seen some crazy flex on tempered glass in wrecked vehicles before and still have to hit it with something for it to brake. bad glass?idk