Rear window shattered?

[GrannysRedSTS]

Update for y'all

Cadillac offered to make a payment for me to make up for all the heartache. Of course, they wanted a pile of paperwork first. Haven't seen a check yet for either the "payment" or the reimbursement for my insurance deductible.

Meanwhile, the thing has been in the shop twice for other warranty issues since I got it back from the body shop (January 23).

[rwbenson]

Rear window shattered - completely spidered - no outward damage point

I own a 2005 STS V-8 with all the options. We live in Northern California. We were on a trip to Santa Fe New Mexico on 12-30-05, when I woke up to drive the car and the window was completely spidered. There was no evidence of outward damage. Also, the window was intact except for the connection to the rubber at the trunk sealing point. Every point of the window was cracked. The temperature was around 25 F, but that should not have caused the problem. The defroster was not on.

I could not get the dealer to come out, and I was afraid to drive it as that would cause the window to fully disintegrate. There were no replacement units in Santa Fe. I taped it with package tape, and I was able to drive it to Phoenix to get a new rear window installed. I took digital pictures, but Cadillac would not accept that as evidence. Fortunately, I was able to find the dealer open in Santa Fe, and he confirmed that it was a warranty issue. I am still waiting for the payment. I am a mechanical engineer with a material science background, and I do not know the cause. No one at Cadillac can explain it.

If someone can tell me how to attach pictures I will put pictures into the Forum. If anyone needs pictures, email me at rwbenson@sbcglobal.net.

[CTSollecito]

holy shit the same thing happened to me today...i would assume its safe o say its not a coincidence anymore with this car..no problems yet up til this point. I have an 05 sts v6 with about 5600 miles...car was fine this morning and drove to work...went to go for lunch and my entire window was disintergrated just like many hof you have stated. However my cars are always tinted and thankfully this is what kept the window togther If it wasnt for the tint the glass would have been in my car and everywhere else. I had the car towed to the dealer and they said its the second car tht it happeend to this winter, and then tried to say it could have been the tint. of course i told them we both know the tint had nothing to do with it and the other car it happeend to this winter didnt have tint. I'm trying to get the glass replaced under warranty and they are going to call me monday...right now they gave me a cts as a rental. Now i'm worried if i get the window replaced whats to prevent this from happening again...this sux i really love this car.

[AllWheelEric]

If you've experienced this first-hand you should put a complaint to the NHTSA. I'd like to see a problem analysis and recall so this doesn't happen to me at the worst possible moment, e.g., in the middle of a road trip. 1-888-DASH-2-DOT or
http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/problems/defect/

[CTSollecito]

got my car back today..the rear window was relaced under warranty. I didnt have to pay for anything including the rental..they even washed my car inside and out...although inconvienient i cant complain about the service or outcome..hopefully is was just a batch of bad glass and wont happen again...are there any cases of it happening twice?

[ewill3rd]

Wow, this thread is sure an eye opener.
I lost count but it seems like a lot of broken back windows here.
And what I find really odd is that we have one in our service drive that has the same problem.
Not sure what's happening on it though.

Cabin pressure should not be an issue. For more years than I can count, manufacturers realized that if you don't vent the cabin that you can't shut the doors. There are several vents with little flaps in them to prevent excess pressure insde the car when the doors close.
If I were to speculate (and I really shouldn't) I'd say it's either a manufacturing problem or an installation problem.
Make sure your dealers report this problem to GM, possibly with something called a "field product report". This will bring the issue to GM's attention and they will start an internal investigation.

On a side note, as a dealership employee, I really wish people would quit bashing an entire corporation for the actions of one independently owned dealership.
I do what I can to make sure my customers are completely satisfied but I lose interest when I start being insulted for something some guy did in Detroit.
Just thought I'd mention that.
Thanks for listening.

[SoCadillac]

Originally Posted by ewill3rd

On a side note, as a dealership employee, I really wish people would quit bashing an entire corporation for the actions of one independently owned dealership. I do what I can to make sure my customers are completely satisfied but I lose interest when I start being insulted for something some guy did in Detroit. Just thought I'd mention that. Thanks for listening.

Just as with everything in life there is the good and the bad...so goes it with dealerships, people, etc. I've gone to a good dealership and had a visit go bad, and gone to a bad dealership and had a visit go well. Go figure. As far as GM I know people within who have commented that when there is line problem, that GM has all to often allowed that problem to simply move down the line to the dealerships, where the dealerships have the unpleasant task of keeping a customer happy for something that could have been avoided from the onset.

My concern is that although no one has reported having rear window burst out on a CTS, there have been postings of strange noises, such as snapping from the CTS rear windows. Since the CTS is too new to have enough time under its belt for long-term issues, I hope that as CTS's age they too do not befall any rear window issues.

[SoCadillac]

Originally Posted by AllWheelEric

If you've experienced this first-hand you should put a complaint to the NHTSA. I'd like to see a problem analysis and recall so this doesn't happen to me at the worst possible moment, e.g., in the middle of a road trip. 1-888-DASH-2-DOT or
http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/problems/defect/

This is not only wise, it is the best way to resolve what might become a major recall, either voluntary by GM or mandatory by the findings of the NHTSA. It is simple to do and your taxpayer dollars payoff with the NHTSA.

[BarryNS]

I wonder if anybody knows of or has had a rear shattered window occur twice in the same car

[rwbenson]

Originally Posted by rwbenson

Rear window shattered - completely spidered - no outward damage point

I own a 2005 STS V-8 with all the options. We live in Northern California. We were on a trip to Santa Fe New Mexico on 12-30-05, when I woke up to drive the car and the window was completely spidered. There was no evidence of outward damage. Also, the window was intact except for the connection to the rubber at the trunk sealing point. Every point of the window was cracked. The temperature was around 25 F, but that should not have caused the problem. The defroster was not on.

I could not get the dealer to come out, and I was afraid to drive it as that would cause the window to fully disintegrate. There were no replacement units in Santa Fe. I taped it with package tape, and I was able to drive it to Phoenix to get a new rear window installed. I took digital pictures, but Cadillac would not accept that as evidence. Fortunately, I was able to find the dealer open in Santa Fe, and he confirmed that it was a warranty issue. I am still waiting for the payment. I am a mechanical engineer with a material science background, and I do not know the cause. No one at Cadillac can explain it.

If someone can tell me how to attach pictures I will put pictures into the Forum. If anyone needs pictures, email me at rwbenson@sbcglobal.net.

I have posted pictures of the shattered rear windshield. I believe you have to go to the photo gallery and look under my name: rwbenson. These may be useful in proving your point to a dealer who is unbelieving.

[whiteseville]

Wow this is crazy, I think that the window defroster is at fault to this. On my last car an E30 BMW the same thing has happend. The cause for the E30 rear window blow out was that when you shut the car off the defroster still stayed on. people went to get in the car the next day and as soon as they shut the door they blew out.

Still people should not get screwed over for this. Its not any of the owners fault for this problem, and even if you have no warrenty or its up this should be a recall item. Or if this happens that it will be replaced free of charge.

as for the guy who's sts has a bent frame from being in the dealer ship it can and has happend. I remember reading and seeing pictures on a web sight about the same thing happening in a Land Rover dealer ship. two employes were raceing around the lot in a freelander and whiped it around a corner to fast, they ended up meeting the nose of a brand new Range Rover and rom the pictures I saw it was F#%KED. Needless to say those employees were on the unemployed list after the incident.

This thread dissaponts me. I really liked these cars alot untill I started reading these problems they are starting to have. Even worse the damage they encounter being towed and from being serviced. Hopefully there will be some thing done to solve all these problems, I was hopeing to get one later on some time. I will probly just get a 04 sts now.

[ewill3rd]

I just want to reiterate that you should let your service department know that you have heard this is a larger problem.
It is quite uncommon for windows to break like this and this does seem to be happening quite a bit.
We have our 2nd one in as many weeks.
Please tell them to involve as many folks at GM as possible.
Tell them to call TAC and file a field product report at minimum.

[STS Bob]

I just happened to see this thread. I am the proud owner of my second 2005 STS (GM bought my first one back -- REAL LONG STORY). The backlite in my second STS shattered while on a trip to the in-laws in South Carolina in January. It was about 45 degrees there. The glass shattered sometime during the night while sitting in the driveway. There was no impact mark and obviously no freezing involved. The real kicker was that there was no glass anywhere in the GM parts system (including dealerships) and none of the independent glass shops in SC had one either. I got Cadillac customer service involved. They weren't able to get me a glass, so I had to cover the opening with clear vinyl and drive it home to Michigan (850 miles in COLD weather with flapping noises in my ears all the way, even with a quite elaborate and innovative "wrap" job!).

My home dealer found the glass at a local PPG store. The somewhat happy ending was that GM made my lease payment for the month as "compensation" for the aggravation. I'm not sure that I came out ahead, but it was better than nothing.

[edstockunas]

Since mine was replace i have not had any problems or heard of that many new occurrences since the winter has been over. Does anybody know if Cadillac took responsibility for this with it being possible defrost malfunction? Hate to get into the winter and see them popping up again.

[Cajonkev]

Nothing has been posted on the boards (at least as far as I have noticed) about GM issuing any bulletins or advisories on this. They have however generally handled this as a warranty repair with a few exceptions where folks had to go at it with them.

Previous comments have shown that it has occurred with and without defrost operation and most during overnight hours both garaged and not.

It wouldn't be surprising if GM changed the install on current builds but handles the old ones under warranty service only.

Time will tell.