To Repair or Replace Your Windshield

It's a very common event, you're driving down the highway when the auto in front of you throws some debris, which falls on your car's windshield just when you are driving at full speed. The event can result in a chip or crack, ranging anywhere in size from a bearly visible indent, smaller than a pea, to a crater with a diameter larger than a .half dollar, or else a crack several inches or longer.

In the majority of locales, driving a car with a chip or crack in the front windshield is against the law, and you run the risk of being pulled over by a traffic cop ,who will issue you a repair order. But even if you aren't caught, or if driving with a windshield, subject to the vibrations of driving and weather, might expand. So that a small chip or crack, may after a while become a major chip or crack.

Consequently, when you get to where you are going, you will want to contact a nearby auto glass repair shop. Now the big question is whether the windshield should be repaired or replaced. With modern technology, many damaged windshields that would have required replacement a few years ago, can be repaired instead, at a great savings to the automobile owner. Whether the auto glass can be repaired depends on whether it meets insurance guidelines.

Generally, if the crack is inside the driver's line of vision, which is usually considered to be 8 1/2 by 12 inches, the windshield has to be replaced. Even a superior chip repair can leave a small area that reflects light more than the rest of the windshield. The brightly reflected light will potentially impair the driver's concentration and is consequently an hazard to safe driving. Insurance companies also will not pay for windshield replacement if the diameter of the chip is greater than a 50 cent coin. While cracks 5 inches or more have been repaired by auto glass shops, the results are not uniformly satisfactory to all customers.

There are are some additional limitations on which windows can be repaired, for example heated windows must be replaced and not repaired.

Auto repair shops use resin that matches the appearance auto glass, and when the crack or chip repair is completed, the window looks as good as new. The repair job takes only hours, and can be accomplished in a shop or at the auto's location, by a mobile auto glass repair team.