Rear Window Exploded

CanuckinTX

CanuckinTX

New member
Hello, (Writing this on behalf of a friend)

This morning I was driving to work and my rear window broke. I had the defroster on and it just poped out of no where. I called my Toyota dealership and they said that the recall had expired in April of 2018.

Have any of you guys had luck with your Toyota dealers? And if so how?

Thanks
Sam
 
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There are several long threads on this issue and the consensus seems to be that no, Toyota is not venturing beyond any warranty periods, much as with the cracked dash and headgasket failures. They fear doing one out of the warranty period (extended or regular) will create a cascade of lawsuits from others that were denied. I understand their concern but wish there was some middle ground on these types of obvious problems - something like them paying for the parts and owners paying for labor. It's not ideal but it's better than fronting the entire costs of the rear window replacement. Many of us have pulled the rear defroster relay to prevent this from happening - an easy thing in Tucson, AZ, not so much in areas with snow and frost :(
 
It happens… I disabled my rear defrost because of reports like this… not interested in paying out of pocket for a repair or fix.
 
Join the club.Happened to us about two months ago.Same story we had the defroster on and boom. No Toyota won't do anything about it. We tried.Pull the defroster fuse instead of the relay and you can still use the heated mirrors. Haven't heard of those exploding. A non OEM glass should be in the $260 range depending on who does it. Actually they call it a OEM glass ,it's just not a Toyota glass which would cost a whole lot more. We used Glass America. We were happy with them.
 
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tom4416 said:
There are several long threads on this issue and the consensus seems to be that no, Toyota is not venturing beyond any warranty periods, much as with the cracked dash and headgasket failures. They fear doing one out of the warranty period (extended or regular) will create a cascade of lawsuits from others that were denied. I understand their concern but wish there was some middle ground on these types of obvious problems - something like them paying for the parts and owners paying for labor. It's not ideal but it's better than fronting the entire costs of the rear window replacement. Many of us have pulled the rear defroster relay to prevent this from happening - an easy thing in Tucson, AZ, not so much in areas with snow and frost :(
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As we have seen many times before Toyota will not on their own fix any problem, unless it’s a safety item and then only if the government forces them.:cheer2:
 
There was never a recall for this issue, there was a TSB and a limited Customer Support Program (CSP/Extension of Warranty) but nothing else.

The way I understand it, after the whole debacle with the unintended acceleration thing; they're really skittish to do anything regarding recalls/CSPs unless they absolutely have to because of the ambulance chasers chomping at the bit for an excuse for a class action against Toyota or any other company they feel they can take to court.

Post Note-

From what I remember of a lot of those threads (it's been a few years and I haven't been as active as I used to be for various reasons, so I apologize for being a bit rusty) a lot of the failures seemed to be due to excessive resistance at one of the solder points on the glass. Thinking on it, my rough guess is that the weather stripping on the rear glass wears out/dries up and allows corrosion to form on that and when you go to use it, POP! instant hot spot on a tempered glass causing it to shatter. :/
 
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Ralph Blake said:
As we have seen many times before Toyota will not on their own fix any problem, unless it’s a safety item and then only if the government forces them.:cheer2:
Click to expand...

Totally disagree with this statement. Toyota is the absolute best at taking care of their customers. Try Chrysler if you want a company that runs from their responsibility. No car company stands behind their vehicles better than Toyota. Try again.
 
So I saw something about this originally on Reddit. Does someone have a fuse layout that shows which fuse to pull to disable it?
 
Heffernan said:
So I saw something about this originally on Reddit. Does someone have a fuse layout that shows which fuse to pull to disable it?
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Lower the rear window about 3/4 the way down, then Pull the cover off the tailgate, peel back the vapor barrier back a bit and unplug the 2 defroster connectors from the glass. Cover and secure them to prevent future electrical problems. The connectors are on the passenger side of the glass.
This way your side mirror defrosters will still work.


What I did was every year or so, I’d clean out those connectors with battery terminal cleaner foam and compressed air. After reconnecting put a liberal dab of dielectric grease on them to help block out water and road salt.
 
Pulled the fuse on mine.
Engine bay.
After that spat of rear windows blowing up.
Never use it anyway.
 
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