[csquared013]

I'm assuming the rubber flashing at the bottom of the windshield should be flush to the glass but on mine that was just replaced today, there is a sizeable gap. Any idea on how I should handle this? calk in some silicone or something?

This is the second replacement windshield the car has had in its life (if that makes anyone's answer or thought different).

Let me know if anyone wants a pic posted up.

[houbmw]

I would take it to a ahop that know what they are doing bro- i got my windshied changed a few times and there should be no gap between the windshield and the COWL. If there is, water and dirt/dust/leaves can accumalate and build up, causing your interior to be flooded. Ask me how I know. Please make sure that there is no gap.

[whyzee125]

Originally Posted by csquared013

I'm assuming the rubber flashing at the bottom of the windshield should be flush to the glass but on mine that was just replaced today, there is a sizeable gap. Any idea on how I should handle this? calk in some silicone or something?

This is the second replacement windshield the car has had in its life (if that makes anyone's answer or thought different).

Let me know if anyone wants a pic posted up.

Same thing happened to me--the replacement glass did not come with the strip on the bottom that clips to the cowl to hold it snug. Don't drive in the rain, water will leak inside the cabin and ruin your blower motor too.

I don't have the P/N on hand but a few mins of searching and it's not hard to find. Take it back and make them redo that ish't.

[csquared013]

Originally Posted by houbmw

I would take it to a ahop that know what they are doing bro- i got my windshied changed a few times and there should be no gap between the windshield and the COWL. If there is, water and dirt/dust/leaves can accumalate and build up, causing your interior to be flooded. Ask me how I know. Please make sure that there is no gap.

Originally Posted by whyzee125

Same thing happened to me--the replacement glass did not come with the strip on the bottom that clips to the cowl to hold it snug. Don't drive in the rain, water will leak inside the cabin and ruin your blower motor too.

I don't have the P/N on hand but a few mins of searching and it's not hard to find. Take it back and make them redo that ish't.

Welllll... shit...

Immense thanks to both of your for getting back to me, even though your posts confirmed my fears with the job lol.

Budget is tight to get the car right again since it's my second vehicle that I just don't want to part with but I suppose I need to pony up the cash and have it done right because water anywhere it shouldn't be isn't something I'm willing to tolerate or fix down the road.

It's doubtful dealing with the original installer will yield me any better of a result that I'm stuck with now so I'll go grab a quote from a well known shop this week and report back on the damage to my unemployed wallet.

Thanks again for both of your help!

[whyzee125]

Originally Posted by csquared013

Welllll... shit...

Immense thanks to both of your for getting back to me, even though your posts confirmed my fears with the job lol.

Budget is tight to get the car right again since it's my second vehicle that I just don't want to part with but I suppose I need to pony up the cash and have it done right because water anywhere it shouldn't be isn't something I'm willing to tolerate or fix down the road.

It's doubtful dealing with the original installer will yield me any better of a result that I'm stuck with now so I'll go grab a quote from a well known shop this week and report back on the damage to my unemployed wallet.

Thanks again for both of your help!

You're welcome!

You could always buy the part and just clip it to the bottom of the windshield and reinstall the cowl yourself.

Or what I did was bought the part myself from BMW (just a couple bucks) along with the OEM upper molding and took it back and made them redo it with the correct parts. They broke the glass removing it so they had to put another new windshield in for free lol.

[csquared013]

Looks like this will be a drawn out issue.

I removed the windshield wiper arms and the cowling below the windshield and found there to be an obscene overuse of sealant that was causing the cowl to not be able to seat against the base of the windshield. Unfortunately I didn't find any clips that would hold it down to the windshield or any remnants of where clips may have been and broken off.

Used an xacto blade to carve off the excess sealant flush with the base of the glass and reinstalled the cowling. Oddly, the rubber flashing still isn't flat against the window anywhere except the passenger side so I may just need to put sealant between the rubber and the windshield for now. It's as if the old windshield sat higher away from the body than the new one by around a quarter of an inch.

After picking around a bit more, I found the windshield doesn't appear to be set properly. The driver's side of the window has a very thin gap between the glass and the body colored flashing along the top 6 vertical inches of the windshield as if it was set too far towards the passenger side...

For now I'm going to keep an eye on it since i need to conserve money for a slew of other small problems. I'll be digging into some schematics to see if there's just a part missing that I'm not noticing though. Luckily I just moved to Santa Fe and we don't get a whole lot of rain so I may be able to get away with the shoddy job for now if I don't have any luck with the tech that installed it.

[BravoJohny33]

Originally Posted by csquared013

Looks like this will be a drawn out issue.

I removed the windshield wiper arms and the cowling below the windshield and found there to be an obscene overuse of sealant that was causing the cowl to not be able to seat against the base of the windshield. Unfortunately I didn't find any clips that would hold it down to the windshield or any remnants of where clips may have been and broken off.

Used an xacto blade to carve off the excess sealant flush with the base of the glass and reinstalled the cowling. Oddly, the rubber flashing still isn't flat against the window anywhere except the passenger side so I may just need to put sealant between the rubber and the windshield for now. It's as if the old windshield sat higher away from the body than the new one by around a quarter of an inch.

After picking around a bit more, I found the windshield doesn't appear to be set properly. The driver's side of the window has a very thin gap between the glass and the body colored flashing along the top 6 vertical inches of the windshield as if it was set too far towards the passenger side...

For now I'm going to keep an eye on it since i need to conserve money for a slew of other small problems. I'll be digging into some schematics to see if there's just a part missing that I'm not noticing though. Luckily I just moved to Santa Fe and we don't get a whole lot of rain so I may be able to get away with the shoddy job for now if I don't have any luck with the tech that installed it.

Hello, I went through this and it was a complete nightmare trying to find someone to fix it. Most windshield shops don't understand it can cause a leak by letting water roll into the AC blower.

The only way to correctly fix this is to order the new molding top and bottom. Then have the windshield replaced again or maybe reinstall. But most place wont do reinstall. I highly suggest you do not let this problem go on. If it leaks it will rust out your blower or worse yet damage your FRM.

If you had a windshield shop recently do this they usually have multi year or lifetime warranties. I suggest you bug the hell out of them to fix this because if you don't you are looking at min 60 bucks in parts + windshield reinstall cost.

[csquared013]

Originally Posted by BravoJohny33

Hello, I went through this and it was a complete nightmare trying to find someone to fix it. Most windshield shops don't understand it can cause a leak by letting water roll into the AC blower.

The only way to correctly fix this is to order the new molding top and bottom. Then have the windshield replaced again or maybe reinstall. But most place wont do reinstall. I highly suggest you do not let this problem go on. If it leaks it will rust out your blower or worse yet damage your FRM.

If you had a windshield shop recently do this they usually have multi year or lifetime warranties. I suggest you bug the hell out of them to fix this because if you don't you are looking at min 60 bucks in parts + windshield reinstall cost.

Thanks for chiming in! The guy that did it is giving me a fight so I'm going to be taking it in to somewhere that will do OEM Pilkington on it the correct way. I have the car garages until I can get it out somewhere. I didn't expect so much could go wrong besides the obvious rust potential so a appreciate you bringing up more of what could happen!!

I checked out a couple videos on full installation of a new windshield to see what's missing on my car and what was done wrong by the prior installer. What did I glean? Well, Nothing was done right and I don't want to take it back to someone that has no idea what putting an E90 windshield on so I'm going to be stuck paying all over again but I guess it's a live and learn lesson for me. If I get pissed enough about it, I'll file a case with small claims court but idk if I want the headache...

[csquared013]

Originally Posted by Tyrion

I am in much of a similar situation. Windshield is very seriously cracked and I am not sure how to go about it. It was a rock or something I seriously cannot tell because it was dark but I heard it hit the bottom of the glass and at first there was nothing but now the crack is just going upwards slowly. I have read online about OEM and aftermarkets like here https://www.carwindshields.info/wind...something-else
but I still cannot say for sure. What do you guys think? The car has about 5000 miles on it if that makes any difference...

I would recommend going with a professional, trained, insured installer like Safelite (some people may crap on Safelite but I've had great experiences with them. The way I see it, you have two options depending on how gregarious you are and what you're willing to accept.

1.) you're not anal retentive and aren't keeping the car for life like I am. you're friendly and you are willing to go with aftermarket glass and "babysit" the installer a bit. If you're not trying to keep the car then save some money and go with an aftermarket and save some money but realize you may need to do some babysitting so you don't end up with a botched job like I did.

2.) you're anal retentive or plan to keep the car and want stuff original. if you don't want to deal with other human beings, pony up the full price and get proper legit glass from a dealer where they know how the cars are constructed and have access to the right parts.

If you want to go with #1, the following was recommended to me.
If you go through Safelite, kindly request a master tech (and don't budge on that request). find some common ground to spark up a conversation and watch/monitor what they're doing. I was told for these cars they should use a thin rope removal tool not the reciprocating metal plate thing they normally use. Watch a few videos and know what needs to be done so you can ask ahead of time if they have all the parts and you'll know if something isn't right.

If you're going with #2, you'll be broke but the work should be guaranteed to be perfect lol. I'd still recommend going over the car to make sure it's right though.

I went aftermarket glass on the BMW and the glass is great, the work just sucked so it needs to be redone. My 4runner was a different case, the mirror mount on the aftermarket glass is higher which causes my mirror to bump into my autopilot off road controls (frustrating but not a deal breaker).