The windshield cracked during a severe weather incident where outside temperature was -24 degrees. There were no stone chips or any other issues with the windshield. I drove the car for approximately 20 minutes with the defroster on, when I got home I pulled the car into the garage, when I got back into the vehicle the windshield was cracked from the bottom left of the driver’s side across the windshield toward the middle. I took the vehicle to safelite first, they said the sandwich piece of glass between the exterior section and interior section of the windshield had suffered a failure to to extreme temperature differential. They had seen a number of similar failures since from the prior weekend. They said it is a manufacture issue and said to take it to the dealer for a warranty issue. I took it the the Subaru dealer where I purchased the vehicle, they inspected the windshield and took a number of photographs to submit to Subaru. I was told their windshield experts would examine the photos and get back to them with an answer, that will be four weeks ago tomorrow, Friday the 27th. Meanwhile I’m driving a vehicle with a broken windshield which is not safe. I called Subaru customer care and they are trying to contact the dealership about the claim submission but haven’t been successful. I can certainly pay to replace the windshield, however, if it is a manufactured error I believe Subaru should honor the claim and replace it. I searched the Subaru Outback owners portal and found numerous similar incidents where owners claimed the windshield failed under similar circumstances. According to safelite, Subaru windshields are softer than most manufacturers in an effort to save weight and expense.
2022 Subaru Outback visibility complaints
Page 6 of 10: complaints 131 to 160 of 280, newest first, as owners wrote them.
I was driving to work, temps in the mid-thirties, and I heard a crack. It was confusing because there was nobody else on the roadway with me. That's when I looked and saw a 12" crack, beginning at the bottom-middle of the windshield and extending upward.
I woke up in the morning and my windshield crack with no apparent damage by an outside object. It started on the left side where the black meets the clear glass. Please look into this.
The windshield cracked on its own overnight (temperatures in the low 30s). The crack starts at the bottom of the window at the center and goes upward and towards the passenger side. The crack is roughly 14" long, but has extended another 2" since the initial crack started. It impairs the view for most drivers. The dealer confirmed that there was no impact mark and have submitted photos to Subaru of America. Subaru has come back with stating it was caused by 'external influence' even though there is no evidence of that. The dealer is doing their best to appeal this with Subaru.
A 6" crack appeared on the front windscreen at the passenger side at the bottom right corner extending towards the center.
Ive been through 2 windows already. They have cracked randomly and with no damage. It always happens in the winter when I turn my car on to pre heat before I drive it and the heat change cracks it. The OEM glass and the Safelite glass are inferior.
I woke up one morning to find a few cracks in my windshield that were not there the day/night before. The dealership says it was from impact, but I hadn't driven it yet that day, it was fine the night before, and I have covered parking at my apartment.
Windshield obtained significant crack for seemingly for no reason (parked in driveway; no trees/debris around). Crack continued to grow to 2-3 feet while remained parked.
The windshield suddenly cracked at the very edge of the windshield obscuring visibility on the passenger side. As I awaited for my appointment for a windshield replacement, the crack became longer, affecting my right-side visibility.
We are on our 3rd windshield for a 2022 Subaru Outback that currently has 7300 Miles on it. The first windshield cracked on it's own, completely unprovoked by anything. The second was actually a very small rock that hit us on the road and caused a small crack that just kept running until our field of vision was obstructed. The 3rd was a defect in the glass that caused a stress fracture, so it's possible that's what happened with the 1st one. All 3 incidents happend within a 5 week window. When I go online, there are cases and cases where these Subaru's have cracked windshields and it IS dangerous to have a massive run in the windshield when you are driving down the road. There are 100's of these complaints, it's just that no one is reporting them. Please look into this, it's NOT safe to have glass that cracks that easily.
3 months after purchase, in December 2021, my windscreen cracked for no apparent reason. I replaced it 4 months later with OEM glass from dealership waiting—due to no extra money. Now, 8 months after that, it cracked again. I woke up in the morning to a long crack coming from the edge of the seal that was not there when I parked for the evening.
1.) Our windshield has had to be repaired 3 times in the last six months. Anything that comes in contact with the windshield will cause a massive crack that takes up the entire windshield and marks the car unusable to drive 2) The can is unable to be driven during normal conditions as anything can cause the windshield to break. 3) It has happened 3 times in the last 6 months 4.) The first time we had it replaced, it was completed at the dealership. The next 2 were through our insurance company vendor that ensures the windshield is installed properly. 5.) No. Upon the last time, we researched and found that Subaru has outstanding lawsuits for faulty windshields pending and it looks as if nothing has changed.
My windshield cracked from the driver side to almost half of the whole thing without any impact being seen outside or inside at all. This is scary and can be a safety hazard. It can happen even when driving. I saw a lot of people complaining and experienced the same thing about the Subaru Outback's windshield and other models, which is scary. My car is only seven months old, and this is happening already. Some people have changed their windshield five times already. I bought the car because it's supposed to be safe and reliable, but now I don't feel safe with my windshield.
Faulty windshield that cracked overnight possibly due to weather. The Subaru McKenna dealer service manager says it is due to impact yet there is no clear indicator of an impact on the windshield, I took photos of the crack before they inspected it. Even some Subaru employees were telling me it’s not a crack made from impact and that they admitted Subaru makes faulty windshields. Yes, my vehicle is available for inspection upon request. I am looking to have it seen by my insurance to see if they agree with the Subaru dealer’s assessment of the damage. The safety issue is the possibility of the windshield spiderwebbing and decreasing all visibility of the road at any moment. No indicator of any windshield failures except the dealer recommending a separate windshield warranty which I wish they pushed more on it and were honest about the tendency of Subaru windshields to be faulty so I could have gotten that warranty. Or I wish too that I found out about Subaru’s class action lawsuit regarding the Outback models 2017-2020 regarding their windshields and how they have to pay $2.5 million because of their manufacturing defects. I have a 2022 Outback model but I feel that they windshield is still being made with poor craftmanship. My car is only a year old. And it literally cracked overnight. Perfectly fine one day and the next morning it split straight across the middle of the windshield.
Less than a year old. Front Windshield cracked on the passenger side near the defrost vent.
The windshield started to have a stress crack when we were driving on a highway at a high altitude. There was no impact and no impact noise, the windshield suddenly cracked around 6 inches and then progressed from there. It started around the middle passenger side and progressed to the middle of the windshield.
Windshield cracked lower left to center while not moving parked in a garage. Went into the garage with no crack and was cracked the following morning. Nothing hit the windshield. Temperatures were neither high nor low.
My outback was parked in my locked garage over night temp got below 40 degrees that night. Got into the outback and noticed a large crack in the center of windshield that started at lower end of windshield. Called dealership and made an appointment saw service manager and took his pen to show me where he thought a stone had chipped windshield but I just saw the crack no chip. I explained there was never any incident of stone hitting windshield. He stated he would notify Subaru manufacturer of my concern of breakage. Since appointment windshield has continued to crack still waiting to hear back from dealership.
Windshield cracked while parked in garage. No object impacted the windshield. No temperature extremes. Approximately 12 to 14 inches in length starting from passenger side.
While driving the vehicle at night with auto diming feature there is a line across the top of the windshield, and it is exceedingly difficult to see through the windshield above that line. When the lights are automatically dimmed the line is extended downward about a third of the windshield. It is difficult to see thru the windshield above this line. Extremely dangerous.
I walked into my garage and found that I have a massive crack across my windshield. It never got hit by a rock or anything, there haven’t been extreme temperature changes, it just doesn’t make sense. It has seemingly cracked for no reason.
The contact owns a 2022 Subaru Outback. The contact stated the vehicle was parked outside his driveway for four days; however, while approaching the vehicle, he noticed that the front windshield was cracked. The contact stated that no object had struck the windshield to cause the crack. The vehicle was taken to the dealer and photos were taken and sent to the manufacturer. The manufacturer was contacted and stated that the complaint was reviewed and the replacement might not be covered under warranty. The failure mileage was 7,000. The contact stated that both the glass shop and the Subaru dealer said that there was a microscopic chip that may have caused the crack.
Unknown. A large Crack appeared on the front windshield starting from the bottom to the middle and then branching off to the left and right of the windshield. There is no evidence of any impact to the windshield. Crack is much to large for me to continue to drive safely. The Subaru car dealership inspected the windshield and submitted a claim to the car manufacturer for possible replacement.
Windshield cracked in the lower middle about 6 inches from bottom . The defrost had been on because the window was fogging up. Went in to store and when I restated car noticed the crack. I am concerned about the crack getting larger and also that it is illegal to drive with a vehicle in that condition in my state. This just happened and I have not looked into how it will be fixed and at what cost to me. there was no warning before or after it happened. Crack is dead center about 2 feet horizontally.
Windshield cracks from pressure from initial installation.
The contact owns a 2022 Subaru Outback. The contact stated while reversing out of his residence garage at approximately 2 MPH, he had noticed a long crack in the front windshield which had started on the passenger’s side of the windshield and extended across, moving upwards and stopped underneath the rearview mirror. The contact had not noticed any strike marks on the windshield that could have caused the failure. The contact had taken the vehicle to a local dealer where it was determined that the windshield needed to be replaced. The contact was directed to a third-party windshield repair shop. The vehicle had been repaired. The manufacturer had not been informed of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 3,000.
Cracked windshield from no impact
The windshield cracked without any noticeable impact. I noticed a crack 12-15 inches when I got into the vehicle the next day. The day prior I had not noticed the crack, not noticed any impact sound, no incident happened. I’d not been driving on the highway and I maintained more than 3 car lengths of following distance. I was driving under 40mph the day prior to noticing the crack. The vehicle is just over a month old and has 3000 miles on the odometer when the incident happened. Dealership inspected and found a impact point which is invisible to the naked eye. Such small debris cracking the windshield suggests the windshield is too weak and is a possible safety hazard. Manufacturer and dealer are not able to replace it under warranty. They are offering a one time good will replacement, but if such small specks of debris(not noticeable to the naked eye) can crack the windshield It’s very likely the windshield will st the minimum crack again or worse could lead to a safety hazard if the debris was a noticeable and more substantial. I’ve been finding a number of complaints of the exact same issue and similar response from the dealerships/customer service on online forums and youtube.
18" crack in the windshield was noted originating from passenger side pillar extending toward the middle of window. Crack occurred while car was parked in an insulated and locked garage. No crack when parked and large crack the following morning. No known trauma or known rocks striking the windshield. On close inspection there was no star pattern, bubble pattern or palpable concave defect that would suggest a previous rock chip.
The windshield cracked during normal operation of the car. This is the 4th windshield since purchasing the 2022 Subaru OBW. The first crack, with no visible impact to the windshield, occurred at 13K, the second, with no visible impact, occurred at 20K, and this third occurred at 41K. They have occurred in different areas of the windshield (from each side and the bottom). Each replacement has been OEM and the 3rd windshield (which lasted the longest) had an additional ceramic coating. I reported the 3rd windshield to the federal safety agency and when I reviewed the federal safety agency's assessment, it was incorrect. I emailed the federal safety agency requesting the assessment be corrected, but never received a reply and believe the report is still incorrect.
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