New Urban Myth: Exploding Mercedes' Windows

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Birdman

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..or at least more especially on Mercedes because they're so well sealed and carefully put together.;)

A serious-minded Scot, friend of mine, who has just taken delivery of a new Mercedes, parks it on the shady part of the drive and cracks a window because he has been told that during a heatwave the greenhouse effect pressurizes the cabin air such that this can blow out a window.

Any one heard this one before?

It isn't 1st April but it may just be his little wind-up! :)
 
that used to be a thing with Volvo estates as well - dealers recommended leaving a window open in really hot weather and also never to slam the rear door as it could pop the glass.

Could also have been a myth perpetuated by Volvo dealers
 
because the air vents are that well sealed... and the gearbox gaitor. and the steering gaitor... and the little first aid shelf that someone took out to break into their own car is really well sealed to the boot..


c'mon............ :rolleyes:
 
Maybe if you turned the ventillation fans on high, in hot weather whilst driving the windows may blow. After all, where does all that additional air go? I'm with guydewdney on this.............c'mon:D :D
 
andy_k said:
that used to be a thing with Volvo estates as well - dealers recommended leaving a window open in really hot weather and also never to slam the rear door as it could pop the glass.

Could also have been a myth perpetuated by Volvo dealers


I don't know about the heat issue, but the slamming I have personally seen. I managed to destroy (and I mean shatter into really tiny little pieces) the passenger window on the Lada issued by my mothers company a couple of years back when we lived in Africa... and all I did was close the door....

Michele
 
This is true of most cars. We were standing outside a friends car saying goodbyes one afternoon. At the time he had an escort. All off a sudden without any warning the rear glass on the hatchback just shattered outwards in tiny pieces. Made a loud bang too. It was quite an amazing thing to witness.

Had we not of been there at the time, than we would have been pretty sure the car was vandalised by someone.
 
Faulty Glass ?
 
Birdman said:
..or at least more especially on Mercedes because they're so well sealed and carefully put together.;)

A serious-minded Scot, friend of mine, who has just taken delivery of a new Mercedes, parks it on the shady part of the drive and cracks a window because he has been told that during a heatwave the greenhouse effect pressurizes the cabin air such that this can blow out a window.

Any one heard this one before?

It isn't 1st April but it may just be his little wind-up! :)

I left mine out in the sun in the previous heatwave (May) and managed to crack the windscreen. Now do think if I'd cracked a window I wouldn't have cracked the windscreen? :D :D
 
DieselE said:
I left mine out in the sun in the previous heatwave (May) and managed to crack the windscreen. Now do think if I'd cracked a window I wouldn't have cracked the windscreen? :D :D

:D Well, the entire threads a bit Irish, so mebbe someone's crack-brained enough to try the idea!
 
- The old Smart Cars had a faulty window and caused the rear ones to shatter when the heated strips were being used...
 
In the words of Victor Meldrew, " I dont beleive it!"
There must have been a fault in the glass before it broke, the heat / pressure just hastened ( I was going to say excacerbated, but I cant spell it) the process.
I used to have an old VW Beetle, when you shut the doors in that, your ears popped, but I never broke a window.

Allan
 
Me thinks urban myth. Surely with all the tests they do on cars these days, especially in simulated extreme conditions, they would have got this one right.
 
No car is that well sealed. Even if all the vents were closed there will still be some seepage, and don't forget there is an exterior vent at the rear of the car that is always venting.
 
On mine, in the offside well in the boot there is a one-way valve that allows air out, but not in. It is a simple diaghram...difr...diag...dia...FLAP valve with no restriction at all.

OK, the boot is a separate airspace, but it's not airtight.
 
Having had a windscreen break right in front of my eyes I can and do obviously believe htat windscreens do break. However, I am of the opinion that perhaps there might be a flaw, or weakness already there.

To prove that cars are NOT air tight, just think back to when to drive up a hill. If this hill is high enough and if you have driven fast enough, your ears will pop! surely this is caused by the variation of the outside air pressure? It happens regularly when we drive up Telegraph Hill which is the A380 just after the split from the A38. Stick to the 70mph speed limit and your ears will 'pop'. Crawl up it and no 'pop'

John the Pop
 
Great, something else to worry about!

When things get cold they contract and when hot they expand, this must apply to glass, at some point something has to give. I’m a believer.
 
Never had a car widow go ( touch large piece of wood ), but i have had 2 of my double glazed window units go.
Both in different windows, in February, when heating on and cold outside.
 
Simon said:
When things get cold they contract and when hot they expand, this must apply to glass, at some point something has to give. I’m a believer.

I had a large stress crack appear from the corner of the windscreen on my VW Sharan.

The old bat who lived opposite me at my previous house used to come out with a kettle full of boiling water every frosty morning and pour it over the windscreen of her Fiesta to de-ice it :eek:. Never figured out why that didn't just shatter, or at least crack/craze.

Oh yeah, she (intentionally) never paid for road tax either. She got caught several times but mostly got away with the 'absent minded old woman' act. She was only done once in 12 or so years, small fine plus tax disc came to a LOT less than she'd have paid otherwise. New system presumably put a stop to that game :)
 

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