Signs It’s Time to Replace Your Windshield
Unexpected repairs on your vehicle are far from ideal, but a majority of the repairs that need to be made are the difference between driving safely on the roadways or putting yourself in harms way. Though this may seem dramatic, the truth is that cars are extremely dangerous vehicles, and when there’s something not working as it’s intended to, the chances of an accident or injury increase.
Here at Autobahn Collision Center in Torrance, we work diligently to ensure your car looks great, but also that it’s safe to drive. In today’s blog post, our team is going to go over one of the most common repairs that we tackle: windshields. This large piece of glass is designed to provide you with a clear view of the road, but when it’s cracked, chipped, or shattered, that’s simply not the case.
It doesn’t take much for a windshield to crack. One car passes you and hits a pebble that flies towards your windshield at just the right angle, and you could find yourself with a spiderweb of a windshield. The unfortunate thing about a cracked windshield is that it can greatly affect how well you’re able to see while drying. With that being said, let’s go over a few of the signs that it’s time to replace your windshield.
It’s Affecting Your View
Your windshield needs to provide you with a clear view of the road at all times, and when you’re not able to see clearly, you know it’s time to invest in a windshield replacement. As if a crack right in your line of vision wasn’t bad enough, the sun can get into the damaged parts of your windshield and create a glare that goes right into your eyes. So, regardless of whether it’s a chip or a full on crack, any damage on the driver’s side of the windshield is going to warrant a windshield replacement.
White Haze Around the Edges
Every windshield is treated with a special type of plastic called PolyVinyl Butyral (PVB). Windshields are treated with PVB because of its ability to break down glass in the case that it shatters. Rather than break into large chunks that can puncture the skin and create even more hazardous within an accident, PVB treatments make it so that if a windshield were to shatter, it the glass would break down into small, round pieces that can’t cut. You can understand why this is an important treatment for windshields to go through.
The white haze around the edges of your windshield is a sign that the plastic and glass are beginning to separate. Though this might not cause damage to your visibility while driving, this is still a way that your windshield can put you at risk.
Pitting in the Windshield
When you spend the majority of your time driving on major highways, you’re going to wind up with pits in your windshield — it’s inevitable. These tiny pits may seem harmless because they haven’t caused a full-blown crack yet, but they truly are the start to a bigger problem. If you look at your windshield and you see a handful of pits within the window, it’s time to schedule a windshield replacement. Not only because it’s only a matter of time before the windshield cracks, either.
A majority of insurance companies are willing to cover a handful of pit fills for windshields because they view that as preventative care. Unfortunately, there is often a limit to the number that they fill. If the number of pits that you have in your windshield exceeds that number, it’s wiser to invest in a new windshield than to throw money towards pits that could still develop into larger cracks.
Visit Autobahn Collision Center for Your Windshield Repair
If your windshield came to mind throughout this blog post, chances are that it’s time to get it replaced. Autobahn Collision Center in Torrance offers high-quality auto glass replacement, and that includes windshield replacements. Contact our team today and we would be more than happy to provide you with a fast estimate on the variety of services that you’re interested in so that we can get your car back into a condition that’s safe to drive.
