Windshields are of great importance when it comes to the safety of your car. It protects driver and passengers in the car from dust, dirt, wind, pebbles, rain and snow. On the other side, windshields also support the roof of your car, providing protection in case of roll over. Keeping your windshield in a good condition is extremely important. Noticing every scratch, chip or crack can save you life without exaggeration.
What is a chip?
Chips are damages done to your windshield by pebbles, rocks, branches or any other objects you encounter while driving. They are damaged glass that can lead to bigger problems in time, depending on the conditions such as weather, road condition you drive on, other debris, etc.
Are chips repairable and how?
Unlike long cracks, chips can be repaired. The sooner you notice it, the better you can fix it. Repairing chips on time will save you money and it will save you trouble of replacing the whole windshield once the chip turns into a longer crack. There is a whole process of repairing a chip. It is highly recommended to take your car to the car shop and leave this to professionals. They will further inspect the chip and determine if it is repairable or not, since some chips cannot be cleaned from debris and cleaning is crucial for the process of fixing your windshield damage. If the chip can be repaired, after cleaning process, it will be sealed with special resin material. Using ultraviolet light this resin material will become harder and glass-like.
- From chip to not cheap
Chip repair is nothing in comparison to windshield replacement. Why are we bringing this up? Because if you don’t prevent a chip from becoming a crack, it is inevitable you will have to change whole windshield in some time. Don’t wait until it’s too late.
Whether a chip turns into a crack depends on various conditions, like mentioned before, such as weather. Low temperature will increase chances of chip spreading into a crack by 80%. Remember the school experiment with bottle of water which turns into ice? Same happens here. Water can get stuck in the chip during the day, for example, and during the night when the temperature falls under 0°C, water will turn into ice, and the ice will spread, causing the chip to spread into a crack.
High temperatures can contribute to cracking as well. Chip is more likely to spread into vertical crack on high temperatures, since high temperatures causes windshield shape distort. This distortion might not catch our sight, but trust us, it can catch your chip and make you pay for whole windshield.
Driving on bumpy roads will definitely speed up the cracking, no need to explain this. More stress on the windshield, more the chip tends to become a windshield replace.
- What to do?
Try not to drive too fast off road and not to drive behind trucks loaded with building material such as gravel. Avoid parking under trees as much as you can. If you notice a chip on your windshield and you are not able to take your car to the shop right away, put clear packing tape over the chip and prevent the debris from contaminating it.
Don’t leave it hanging on the windshield. You’ll have to replace it later – the windshield, not the chip.
