Any way a glass can get smashed by itself
 

I found the drivers glass of the 300CD smashed this Morning!!!! Any way it can get smashed by itself or someone did it??? Thanks

It's tempered glass, rarely but sometimes a piece of tempered glass will explode from a chip or stress point on an edge. I've not heard of it happening to a Mercedes, more of a Dodge thing.

If the glass is pretty much all below the window, some inside and some out, or all together but cracked/crazed, it could have done it itself. If the glass is spread out over the seat and console, it took a hit from the outside.

Glass
 

Most below the window, some inside some on back wondow seal!!! Where can one get a replacement window?

The energy of the window fracturing can throw glass only in the plane of the window, not perpendicular to the window. If more than a trace amount of glass went sideways into the car it would indicate it was hit from outside.

Replacements (aftermarket) can be had through auto-glass suppliers, probably have to order it. If it is insurance (comprehensive if smashed, less deductible), be sure they install OEM glass. Dealer, and if you're really lucky someone here or a junkyard will have it.

eagleco-94 has some CD/CE windows he might sell

If you're like me, you don't have comprehensive insurance on your $2k car... hit up a salvage yard.

Actually I have the car insured for $4K on a classic car INsurance. The questions remains to claim or not to claim!!!!!

I've seen a tempered house window shatter with no warning. No one was around to hit it with anything, but my sister was in the house and heard shatter, so I can imagine a car window could do it if the situation was JUST right. But it's a pretty unlikely occurance.

i have seen tempered glass shatter on temp change if it is tightly constrained by improper installation. It can shatter if it has a point load of concentrated stress. this generally needs a very large temp change though. my guess is a bored teenager or a poor equipped thief

Read your policy on that, a lot of those classic car insurance policies require the car to be stored inside. They may say your SOL.


But if you can get insurance to cover it I would, thats why you have it. In CT they cannot raise your rates for a glass break claim.

Agreed.
Good luck.

A used side glass from a wrecking yard or member is probably preferable. Same factory tint if any. Edges ground the same as your other windows.
Too much of a chance of differences with an aftermarket otherwise. I even have had fit problems to some extent with aftermarket occasionally on other than mercedes vehicles.
Or original new mercedes glass should do. Not hard to change if the channel is on the bottom already. Perhaps not pre installed on new original glass. Cleanup of all the glass inside is the challenge. I doubt if I ever get every last piece.

I wouldn't think tempered glass would break on its own without some "outside assistance." What neighborhood do you live in?

Granted this relates to the rear glass, but many years ago our 1961 190D sat out in the company parking lot all day on a very hot Okla summer day. At about 3:15 in the afternoon a surprise shower came up and really cooled things down. At a little after 5:00 as I approached the car, I noticed that there were tiny glass crystals all over the pavement and the trunk deck. Later found a great deal of it inside as well. Tempered glass. Thermal Shock!! Repair bill !!

Ive seen it happen in phoenix. Super hot outside, then the monsoon comes (rains) then shatters.

Or very cold at night, then heats up quickly (seen this once too). These were both windshields.

I have the worst luck selling vehicles. The last three I have sold, sometime between shaking hands with the buyer and getting the payment, something has gone wrong with the vehicle. Once, I was getting the last of my things out of an old VW bus, shut the sliding side door and broke the slide mechanism. Another time a brake line burst the day before I was going to hand over a Toyota truck and another time I woke up to discover that the passenger side door glass had been broken over night on a GMC truck I was about to deliver to the new owner. I called the police just to get it on record. The officer who came over poked around a bit and came up with a spark plug on the ground amidst the glass shards. Apparently, a spark plug thrown from a passing car makes a very effective missile for breaking tempered glass windows. Some bunch of hooligans had been joyriding and breaking car windows all over town, spark plugs being the weapon of choice.

On my 62 190c, once in very cold weather a friend slammed my door really hard and the glass just all came inside the car.

I also slammed my wifes's car door once in anger in very cold weather and did the same thing....'72 corolla.

Yuck!

Tom W

Heres an interesting thought. The new Cadillac DTS (and plenty of other makes) have heated washer fluid nozzles. The DTS heats to 140 degrees. Granted it probably cools off quiet a bit before hitting the windshield (for sake of argument lets say it hits at 80 degrees), it doesn't seem to be a problem with sub zero temp windshields.

Yeah, there are a few things that could make tempered glass break seemingly spontaneously. Tempered glass is put under enormous stress by the tempering process, and it is that stress that keeps it strong. Fully tempered glass has a surface compression of 10,000psi, and edge compression of 9,700psi or more. If the glass is slightly chipped on an edge or surface, most of the time the entire thing will go. But if the chip isn't deep enough to penetrate the stressed outside layer, it won't break until the chip propagates all the way through that outside layer.

Another cause, although very rare, is nickel sulfide inclusions in the glass. Pieces of glass that have one usually break during the tempering process, but sometimes they make it through. These expand over time and eventually cause the glass to break.

I looked all this stuff up a couple years ago when the rear window of the Volvo wagon seemingly spontaneously broke while driving. We're pretty sure it wasn't done by somebody on the side of the road because it was in an area where there weren't any houses, people, or cars.