Nik Posted January 7, 2019 Report Share Posted January 7, 2019 Hi all, HNY. So this morning i was cruising down the Motorway on my way to work, quietly sipping a coffee and listening to the radio, when all of a sudden there was an almighty BANG - sounded like a gun shot, thankfully it wasn’t, but to my surprise and total shock my sunroof had exploded. I initially thought that something had hit it, but when I cleaned the glass out of the car there was nothing inside to suggest that had happen and hardly any glass. Doing a bit of research on the internet it appears that it is not uncommon. In September 2017 a lady in the US filed a law suit against VW for the very same thing. I’m in discussions with VW UK who have raised a case, they have advised me to get the car recovered to my dealership, which is happening tomorrow for them to investigate. What scares me is the thought of my two young kids being in the car this morning. I was very very lucky that I didn’t lose control or get glass in my eyes etc... i’ll keep you posted with how this unfolds but thought it was worth letting you know all. The car is still under warranty so hopefully they will fix. It’s making me think about getting PPF fitted to my other car and this one once it’s sorted out, maybe that would limit the glass shattering all over me and any passengers. Has as anyone else experienced this? Will update further tomorrow. RGirl, Booth11, goodbadboy and 2 others 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brad7.5REST Posted January 7, 2019 Report Share Posted January 7, 2019 Wow... I've never seen that. Glad nobody was injured.I can only guess it wasn't installed correctly...Good luck with your claim... As you said it could've been so much worse.Sent from my CLT-L09 using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sootchucker Posted January 7, 2019 Report Share Posted January 7, 2019 holy sh1t, that's sounds scary - glad everyone was OK TBH, i heard a similar thing happened a couple of years ago, I think it ended up being something to do with torsional stress on the glass from constant body flexing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Booth11 Posted January 7, 2019 Report Share Posted January 7, 2019 Thank god your kids didn’t experience it. Must have been really scary. Glad no harm to you or anyone else. Good luck with getting it investigated and sorted out. I’ve read about it happening before too. I wonder what the cause was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nik Posted January 7, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 7, 2019 Thanks guys. The site below is the one I found when I did a simple google search. http://m.carcomplaints.com/news/2017/volkswagen-exploding-sunroof-lawsuit-glass.shtml alot of the VW range is listed, specifically golf’s between 2015 - 2017, which mine is. (2016) There was a recall of 7000 beetles in 2014 for the same thing too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
delboy01 Posted January 7, 2019 Report Share Posted January 7, 2019 Probably should be reported below. https://www.gov.uk/vehicle-recalls-and-faults/report-a-serious-safety-defect Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nik Posted January 7, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 7, 2019 3 minutes ago, delboy01 said: Probably should be reported below. https://www.gov.uk/vehicle-recalls-and-faults/report-a-serious-safety-defect Hi, Thank you for that, appreciate you sending that over, I will definitely report it in the morning. Depending on how VW deal with me and the issue, depends on whether or not I contact watch dog. They might be interested in this? The more I think about it and the consequences, the more I worry, just not worth thinking about the ‘what could of happened’. I drove my wife’s car this evening with my son in the car and the first thing I did was close the roof blind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tam Posted January 7, 2019 Report Share Posted January 7, 2019 The glass is safety glass so isn’t sharp, it’s unlikely you’d cut yourself on it unless you do so forcefully. And almost certainly a stone hit it... not necessarily a big stone that you’d find afterwards .. similar to how you crack your windscreen type stone. Except a windscreen is laminated so doesn’t shatter, but if it wasn’t it’d do the same as the sunroof has done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nik Posted January 7, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 7, 2019 14 minutes ago, Tam said: The glass is safety glass so isn’t sharp, it’s unlikely you’d cut yourself on it unless you do so forcefully. I agree it is and it’s shattered into thousands of pieces, what I did get from it was glass dust in my eyes, there was like a film of what looked like iron filings but glass all over me and the interior of the car. I’m not sure it was a stone hit to be honest. The way the glass has shattered is, its sort of pointing upwards? Almost like it’s been hit from the inside? That’s what I couldn’t figure out, when I cleaned the glass and only found a small amount or not as much as I was expecting to find for the size of the hole! I started looking at the hole in more detail. The cars tucked away in the garage now so will pull it out and take more photos before it gets taken down to the dealer tomorrow afternoon. All very strange and very scary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
67MK7.5R Posted January 7, 2019 Report Share Posted January 7, 2019 Wow that must have been a scary experience! Thankfully you're okay and nobody was hurt. Good luck with the VW claim and keep us updated Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GolfRWag Posted January 7, 2019 Report Share Posted January 7, 2019 Oh wow, scary event, good you are OK though. There's been reports on and off for years in various makes with big pano roofs occasionally going pop. Some people were arguing it was down to people getting them tinted (I dont think it is), others saying it was manufacture fault, glass as marked, scratched or bumped during install etc The most obvious reason is the stone strike, but it doesn't have to be at the time of the hit, can be an old one that finally triggers off the whole pane. Safety glass is under constant internal stress to enable it to shatter when struck hard enough, sometimes a trigger isn't obvious though. Great idea to get clear-film done in case it occurs again. Hopefully not with a new one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RGirl Posted January 7, 2019 Report Share Posted January 7, 2019 That sounds so scary! Thankfully no one got hurt, hope it goes well and it doesn’t take too long. All the best with the claim. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodbadboy Posted January 8, 2019 Report Share Posted January 8, 2019 6 hours ago, RGirl said: That sounds so scary! Thankfully no one got hurt, hope it goes well and it doesn’t take too long. All the best with the claim I second what RGirl said....Glad everyone is ok, and that you get it sorted to your satisfaction asap RGirl 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mustard Posted January 8, 2019 Report Share Posted January 8, 2019 Nickel Sulphide (NiS) inclusions are a known issue for toughened glass, resulting from the presence of nickel contaminants in the glass melt reacting with sulphur, most likely from the furnace fuel. During thermal toughening, these inclusions undergo a crystalline phase change to a smaller form and are fixed in place within the glass upon cooling. Over time the inclusions grow and can eventually impart enough stress in the glass to cause spontaneous failure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sootchucker Posted January 8, 2019 Report Share Posted January 8, 2019 Yeah..what he said 😂😂 RGirl 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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