Help with Autoglass

jonB

Forum user
Jan 4, 2013
12
3
Halesowen
Hi Guys and Gals,

Need some help, my car failed the MOT on a tiny crack in the windscreen, phoned esure who put me straight through to autoglass, "certainly sir we will be round sunday to put your new screen in".

Tony from autoglass came round sunday and unpacked his screen and said that the rear view mirror position was too high on the new screen and all I would see was the back of the instrument pane on the headlining, so he packed it back up and off he went.

I have phoned autoglass twice today and they have said the screen maybe manufactured wrong or labelled up wrong so now they have sent my vin to ford for more info, not really sure how that is going to help.

Has anybody used autoglass for a new screen, if so could you get the part number either from an invoice or I presume it will be on the screen in one of the corners, I am sure the screen he had was a different size and shape to mine.

Cheers for any help.

Jon
 
Hi mate slightly off topic but im not to far away from you im in Rubery.[/QUOTE

Looked more like Puma screen to me but not sure if the puma had a heated screen the one he bought was heated, not blaming autoglass it was a pilkington screen so I reckon it has been labelled up wrong, no news from them today so will pester again tomorrow.

Cougar1235 your comment is totally on topic mate, get your arse round here and lend me your windscreen :devilish: because I am freezing my nads off using my motorbike this time of year.

Cheers for all the posts so far.
 
I'll be needing to give them a call, after a lorry fired a stone at my screen tonight whilst I was doing about 70 down a dual carriageway. The bang it made scared the crap out of both of us, the damage is a small but fairly deep chip near the base of the screen, pretty much in line with the trailing end of the driver's side wiper blade.
 
I'll be needing to give them a call, after a lorry fired a stone at my screen tonight whilst I was doing about 70 down a dual carriageway. The bang it made scared the crap out of both of us, the damage is a small but fairly deep chip near the base of the screen, pretty much in line with the trailing end of the driver's side wiper blade.

If you think you may need a new screen get your order in soon.

I phoned autoglass today, and was told that my screen has to come directly from ford and there is the possibility of a 4-6 week wait, so its on backorder now, apparently ford have quite a shortage of screens at the moment, the have smax owners who have been waiting 6 weeks.

I suppose if there is nothing they can do there is nothing they can do.

Had to laugh under my helmet on the way to work today following a van with a completely shot rear wheel bearing, I do not know how that wheel stayed on wobbling the way it was, funny thing was my pretty much mint cougar is unroadworthy due to a 15mm crack in the screen ! yet you have a 3 tonne death machine with a wheel about to come off and kill whoever is unlucky enough to get in the way.

I am now looking for an inbetween car to get me through to my new screen arriving.
 
jonB said:
funny thing was my pretty much mint cougar is unroadworthy due to a 15mm crack in the screen ! yet you have a 3 tonne death machine with a wheel about to come off and kill whoever is unlucky enough to get in the way.

Thanked just for these two sentences.

Yes, the windscreen is a structual part in modern cars, but that's nothing compared to some of the faults I see in my 40 mile commute each day.

The MOT is what it is, and can only do so much. But where are the patrol vehicles that would catch this sort of malarkey? Spread properly thin. I'm not even sure anymore that the ACPO is to blame. It's higher than that.
 
I once knew a guy who had a Nissan Sunny coupe (remember those?) written off because the cost of a new rear screen - circa £800 - was worth more than the car was (n)
 
Thanked just for these two sentences.

Yes, the windscreen is a structual part in modern cars, but that's nothing compared to some of the faults I see in my 40 mile commute each day.

The MOT is what it is, and can only do so much. But where are the patrol vehicles that would catch this sort of malarkey? Spread properly thin. I'm not even sure anymore that the ACPO is to blame. It's higher than that.
I think, (and I'm sure any police officers or VOSA bods will clarify) but vehicle faults were sort of softly passed over to VOSA roadside officers a few years back. Similarly VED offences are now reported by the police to the DVLA rather than being directly dealt with by the 5-O. I'm sure the police retain all the powers that they had on the matter, but I think the idea was VOSA would start dealing with this directly? Might have dreamt all of this though.

This stuff fraustrates MOT testers too, from when I worked dealt with MOTs:

a) 'Bob-The-Builder' brings in his D plate Transit tipper, it's a 3.5tonne chassis but you know it only weighs less than this for MOT day. It's rotten-as-hell underneath, but due to some strategically placed underseal and seam sealer nothing that quite fits in a prescribed area. The brakes just make it through the RBT, after three runs.. It also smokes like a train, but with not quite enough density to fail the test. The reversing lamps don't work, door mirrors are held on with tape, one door is welded shut, wires hang out the dashboard and the windscreen has a huge crack under the swept area..... Not to mention the exhaust repaired with bean-cans and wire.

Given all the above, vehicle 1 passes... There are no solid reasons to reject the vehicle, it's about to snap in half, the brakes don't work and it hasn't been serviced since 1995... but..

2) Careful owner turns up with a little spot on windscreen in a RfR area.... Vehicle rejected.

It REALLY annoys testers too :(
 
I think, (and I'm sure any police officers or VOSA bods will clarify) but vehicle faults were sort of softly passed over to VOSA roadside officers a few years back. Similarly VED offences are now reported by the police to the DVLA rather than being directly dealt with by the 5-O. I'm sure the police retain all the powers that they had on the matter, but I think the idea was VOSA would start dealing with this directly? Might have dreamt all of this though.

This stuff fraustrates MOT testers too, from when I worked dealt with MOTs:

a) 'Bob-The-Builder' brings in his D plate Transit tipper, it's a 3.5tonne chassis but you know it only weighs less than this for MOT day. It's rotten-as-hell underneath, but due to some strategically placed underseal and seam sealer nothing that quite fits in a prescribed area. The brakes just make it through the RBT, after three runs.. It also smokes like a train, but with not quite enough density to fail the test. The reversing lamps don't work, door mirrors are held on with tape, one door is welded shut, wires hang out the dashboard and the windscreen has a huge crack under the swept area..... Not to mention the exhaust repaired with bean-cans and wire.

Given all the above, vehicle 1 passes... There are no solid reasons to reject the vehicle, it's about to snap in half, the brakes don't work and it hasn't been serviced since 1995... but..

2) Careful owner turns up with a little spot on windscreen in a RfR area.... Vehicle rejected.

It REALLY annoys testers too :(

Garages have their part to play in this though, I mean the average hourly rate of labour is crazy, I consider myself very lucky that my dad passed a lot of proper mechanical knowledge and problem solving on to me. Most people don't care about their cars and just want to maintain their basic work commuter to a legal standard.

You can spot these sort of people easily:p, they are the ones that look for the closet parking spot at shops regardless of how tight the spot is.
 
how much dose a windscreen cost?

I've seen heated Mondy screens retail for around £600-700 or so. Even a standard screen could be in the £350 range depending on the car. So when you think about it, the price of fully comp insurance (over 3rd Party only) starts to make sense.
 
My tally of windscreens is pretty high. The last and only Ford badged one I had was back in the last millennium (1999). All the others have been Pilkington ones and about 5 of them were when the Cougar was still in production. IMHO they're actually better as they don't suffer the ugly delamination problem (the ones that I've managed to keep for long enough!) and suffer from less dead lines in the heater element.
I'm doing pretty well at the moment as my current windscreen has been on the car for about 3 years which is a record for me. But I never had problems with availability, with them usually being in stock the next working day. One was from National windscreens, two from Ford (warranty jobs - one Ford bdge and the other Pilkington) and the other 12 or 13 from Autoglass.