How Weather Puts Extra Stress on Your Windshield and Makes It More Prone to Crack

The summer heat can get so warm that is drives just about anyone crazy.  In Arizona, the summer heat can easily and quickly become downright dangerous. But, it is not just your health that needs extra attention during the hot summer months, your car does too!  If you have a cracked or chipped windshield, the heat from the elevated summer temperatures can actually cause your car’s windows to split and crack so significantly that it becomes unrepairable.

Hot and cold temperatures cause expansion and contraction.  If you have ever tried to put a hot drink in a cold glass, or the reverse, and had the glass crack, you have experienced the basic science we are discussing about windshields. When you have an existing crack or chip in your windshield and the temperatures heat up (or dramatically cool down in the winter), it puts extra stress on the glass and the windshield may expand or contract.  And, that movement and change can cause an existing chip or crack to grow a little – or worse, a lot.

Many small chips and cracks can be easily and quickly repaired at minimal expense.  But, if left unattended and the chip or crack grows too significantly, it may not be repairable and then the windshield will have to be completely replaced at a much higher expense.  Fox 10 News reports on one woman’s experience with cracked auto glass becoming a problem in the hot Arizona summer, “A Valley driver found out, in a hard way, that the Valley’s summer heat can take a toll on car windows, and even the tiniest chip or crack can spell disaster. For Jasmine Berthold, her car’s rear window basically exploded. “We heard a loud pop, and i looked in my mirrors and my windshield was shattered,” said Berthold…”When your car is just sitting there and all your windows are rolled up, the guy who replaced it told me to roll my windows down,” said Berthold. While the heat itself is not going to shatter a windshield, Michelle Donati with AAA said it can cause havoc for a piece of glass that may already have some damage. “If you do have existing damage to any glass on the vehicle, it can further damage that, cause chips or cracks to spread or potentially even worse,” said Donati.”  If you have a small chip or crack in your windshield, don’t let it become a major problem as temperatures climb, get it repaired as soon as possible to avoid needing a total windshield replacement.