Ice Scraper + Windshield = UhOh!!

[gECHO]

We had the first significant frost of the year here last night and I needed to scrape my windows this morning.

I was a bit paranoid about scratching the glass on my 3 month old 2005 hatchback so I made sure to scrape lightly. To my horror when I sat in the driver seat I saw a series of vertical scratches across the entire windshield, at least a dozen in total some up to 1.5 feet long. It if scratched that much after one day I can't imagine what it would look like by the end of the winter.

I can only think there must be something wrong with the windshield glass used in my car. On my previous cars I've scraped with considerably more force and have never put a noticable scratch in a window. The side and rear windows were not scratched at all.

I took the car to the dealership and the service technician said he had never seen anything like it before. He said he'd talk to the Toyota rep about it tomorrow and I'll have to see where it goes from there.

I haven't found any info concerning scratch prone windshields. My car was made in April 2005 so either this problem isn't widespread or none of the affected cars have had to deal with frost yet.

[MRQtwinturbo]

you should try to let the car warm up a little before you start scrapping....gives the ice a chance to melt a little so you won't have to use much force....

[blkRSgirl]

Ahh Canada, eh?

[Todd Soden]

Good Ol Canadian winters er I mean Falls!



I would suggest having an auto starter installed. Awsome in the winter time. Both My Echo and Camry have them (came with the cars when we bought them both used) and not sure I would want to go back.

[BenG]

Glass is fairly scratch resistant... I've hammered pretty hard on windshields with the scraper and never had an damage happen...you make me worry about my hatch now.

I hope you're right that it's just a faulty windshield.

I got my car in April and havn't had frost to deal with yet. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

[echo_hrs]

I used to have an 04, and my wife has an 05, the windshields were fine for scraping with plastic scrapers, with no ill-effects...What kind of scraper did you use? Was it metal or something?

[gECHO]

I used a normal plastic icescraper that we've used on other cars in the family for years without any problems.

The dealership wasn't any help, saying that window scratches from icescraping wouldn't be covered by warranty. Normally I would agree with this except for the ease in which the window scratches. The service manager suggested I go to Novus and have them take the scratches out, and also switch to a different icescraper. When I went back to talk to the service manager again he gave me a Toyota icescraper and repeated what he said on the phone.

I was out of town most of this week and got back last night. This morning there was frost again and I used the Toyota scraper, which 1: Did a poor job and 2: Scratched the window even more.

Since the dealership isn't being cooperative I'll contact Toyota directly. Maybe I'll have it resolved by next winter.

[BenG]

Do you have pictures of the scratches? The scraper?