DRIVERS WINDOW about to BLOW a SECOND TIME!

[Linda]

I guess I am one of the lucky ones - It's been almost a year since the last explosion!The first time it happened I was driving and ended up with a lap and shirt full of glass shards. I brought it to an auto glass shop since I bought the car used and didn't have a warranty.This time I called a Newton, NJ dealership to see if there is a recall or other course of action that wouldn't cost me a fortune. The service department's response was "Gee... Never heard of that problem before..." Yeah..right. there's complaints on the NTHSA site, complaints on this forum and one day when I went through a fast food drive-thru the kid at the window says to me "My friend has a vibe too and the driver's window just shattered!" Obviously it's not a rare occurance.The only satisfaction I get is knowing that if Pontiac is too sleazy to even admit to the problem, I can eliminate them as an option when I buy my next vehicle!

[ColonelPanic]

I hate to hear that. I didn't have my windows shatter, fortunately, but the dealer couldn't fix the driver's window even though they had plenty of visits to make things right. I wasn't comfortable rolling my windows down as it was - mine were just making noise - I can't imagine how I'd feel if I had actually experienced the shattering! You're right, there's no recall on these but there sure needs to be!!! The only thing I can suggest is having your door checks replaced if they have not been yet. The parts are something like $75 each, if I'm remembering correctly. And file a complaint with NHTSA, the more Vibe owners we get that express a legitimate concern about this, the better of a chance someone will light a fire under GM and get something done... This is a legitimate safety concern, it's about time people realize that!Good luck, and if you need help, we're here. Welcome aboard!

[Mavrik]

2004 Vibe here and honestly no window concerns to date and have been driving this car since 2003. So the odds are pretty good that a dealership is telling the truth when they say "never heard of this problem" regardless of how many ppl may complain about it on a site... doesn't mean the dealerships are all informed. I used to work for a GM dealership until 2005 and we sold a lot of Vibes. No one I provided service work to ever complained about the windows of their Vibe to me either. Now maybe since 2005 GM has become more "aware" of a concern but who knows. Its not like they use Genvibe to formulate recalls or bulletins or anything like that. I know people have been complaining about it, but to who and how has a factor.The vibe is a great car and welcome to the site of vibe knowledge. It is perhaps unfortunate that the dealership you called can not help you. But until they can prove to GM that your window did indeed break due to a fault of its own and not by some other means... GM is in their right to not repair under warranty every window that breaks. Not everyone is truthful in regarding service to their dealer. Its those people that have made dealerships very cautious when handling anything now. We've all heard way to many "was just driving along when" BS that its hard to find the real cases. I work for subaru now and some of their legacy wagons have double sunroof glass pieces. Rocks can hit and break the front piece which has happened quite often. But how to tell those from any that break due to structure stress. impossible to. And no we don't warranty the glass either and have no bulletins or recalls.

[the1stacekiller]

Well to be perfectly blunt with you.. if you had a window shatter you should of fixed the problem.. there is a how to on this site.. its actually really easy.. I did it myself withing 30 mins...Unfortunately it scratched up my tint.. but I caught the problem before it got bad to the point of explosion..Sorry to hear of your problems but if you don't fix the problem in the first place your only going to have windows explode on you over and over again.

[ColonelPanic]

Quote, originally posted by Mavrik »2004 Vibe here and honestly no window concerns to date and have been driving this car since 2003.I could be imagining things, but I recall seeing your car not having power windows, am I correct? If so, you may never experience this particular problem...

[Vibe_dude]

Quote, originally posted by Linda »The only satisfaction I get is knowing that if Pontiac is too sleazy to even admit to the problem, I can eliminate them as an option when I buy my next vehicle!Yes u have to remeber that this car is NOT a full Pontiac.its a toyota.....the window and all its probs are toyota issues NOt Pontiacs.......so u are safe in buying a new Pontiac again and wont have this prob.if u dont buy a vibe.

[ColonelPanic]

And Toyota probably doesn't care enough to fix this problem, so it makes GM look worse because GM's hands are tied... It's their parts. GM is at the mercy of Toyota to come up with a fix, if Toyota doesn't feel like fixing it, then GM can't give Pontiac a proper fix. At least that's the way I always looked at it. Ahh, the beauty of a joint venture!Hopefully if NHTSA hears about this enough, Toyota will be forced to do something about it.

[Mavrik]

Quote, originally posted by ColonelPanic »I could be imagining things, but I recall seeing your car not having power windows, am I correct? If so, you may never experience this particular problem... true but I still have a window and door assy, and regulator. All I'm missing is the motor to drive the window up or down.

[ColonelPanic]

Quote, originally posted by Mavrik »true but I still have a window and door assy, and regulator. All I'm missing is the motor to drive the window up or down.Yes, but for some reason you manual window crankers don't have this problem! Do some digging, it's ALWAYS the power window people...

[Mavrik]

Quote, originally posted by ColonelPanic »Yes, but for some reason you manual window crankers don't have this problem! Do some digging, it's ALWAYS the power window people...and now I know why I thought ahead and decided I didn't want power windows... However I'm one of the few who never got power windows and never had any complaints from those who did. What is causing a window with a motor to shatter that a window without a motor isn't?

[ColonelPanic]

Simplicity is good.The only thing I can think of, perhaps you aren't applying anywhere near the force on the window rolling it up and down yourself as you are when you put a motor behind it. Maybe the motor adds more crap inside the door for things to get into contact with. Who knows...If a manual window ends up with the same problem, you're still in a favorable position... If you're cranking your window yourself and something goes SNAP! you're more likely to react quicker and stop cranking immediately. A power driver's window in auto down mode can't be stopped as quick. Things can happen so fast, you won't be able to react in time. Then BOOM!

[Mavrik]

have they figured out though what caused the window to "catch" and then break?

[ColonelPanic]

As far as I know, they just keep replacing door checks... *shrug*

[cbrf1wr]

Did you ever get this resolved? What has happened since your initial post.

[VforVIBE]

So, is it when you rollin up your window? And is it only the drivers side?

[damronjr]

Mine did the same, was only the driver's side, and has since quite for some reason. It used to make a loud snapping sound about half way up when rolling up, but nothing on the way down. if it wasn't all the way up or all the way down I would have a lot of window rattle as well. I finally took my door panel off, peeled away the sound-proofing material I knew would keep Pontiac from doing anything under warranty, and looked at the window tracks. I wouldn't see anything wrong, played with the tracks and window supports and couldn't see anything. Tried it a few times and it seemed to stop clicking. Don't know why, but it doesn't do it anymore since then (only a few days ago, maybe a week, haven't driven it much either ), but who knows. I also have power windows ('04 Vibe here), and I would not be surprised if the rails and tracks are different from power to manual, thus causing it to be a power only issue. MANY people have had this problem, some with shattered windows, more with windows falling off the track. It is an issue whether some would like to see it or not.

[Linda]

Ok, Here is an update on my original post about my window about to do the exploding trick again.... (it was just past the "clunking" stage and just into the "misalignment" stage).My husband took the door apart and noticed that there was a loose screw laying inside the door. He found the place it went (bottom window track) and used Lock-Tite to make sure it didn't come out again. So far - 2 weeks and it's better than ever!As a bonus, he replaced the blown speaker too! Thanks!

[Mavrik]

Quote, originally posted by Linda »Ok, Here is an update on my original post about my window about to do the exploding trick again.... (it was just past the "clunking" stage and just into the "misalignment" stage).My husband took the door apart and noticed that there was a loose screw laying inside the door. He found the place it went (bottom window track) and used Lock-Tite to make sure it didn't come out again. So far - 2 weeks and it's better than ever!As a bonus, he replaced the blown speaker too! Thanks!Good to hear and you also got two birds with one stone.

[ToolGuy]

Quote, originally posted by Linda »Ok, Here is an update on my original post about my window about to do the exploding trick again.... (it was just past the "clunking" stage and just into the "misalignment" stage).My husband took the door apart and noticed that there was a loose screw laying inside the door. He found the place it went (bottom window track) and used Lock-Tite to make sure it didn't come out again. So far - 2 weeks and it's better than ever!As a bonus, he replaced the blown speaker too! Thanks!Sounds great! Good for you and your husband! I always check fasteners whenever I am working on something. Even all the nuts and bolts around the doors were checked one day.My 2003 has not had this issue and the windows are very quiet. If one started to make noise or broke for sure, I would have heard about it from my wife, I mean program management! Not sure if what I stated above and the nut and bolt tightening helped or what.