# How to protect windshield from rock chips?



## 2013Cruze (Aug 4, 2012)

Just keep a couple car lengths from the car in front of you don't ride other cars bumpers..


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## Hushero (May 31, 2012)

Cool...yes that could help for small sedans...but what trucks and long vehicles...usually I drive from the countryside to the city and vice versa..

I am thinking to put a very light 3M high quality tint film on the windshield from the outside...


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## Starks8 (Jul 20, 2011)

Try Clearplex. I want to get their clear protective film put on my car when I buy my cruze but its expensive and has to be replaced like every year. After calling around, it also seems like the closest one to me in in Pennsylvania somewhere. So if i do get the clearplex film, i would have to spend money to get to PA, then i would have to risk getting my windshield chipped or cracked on the way up there, then i would have to pay for it and its installation, and then pay for gas on the way back home! 

Are you located in the US?


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## Hushero (May 31, 2012)

Starks8 said:


> Try Clearplex. I want to get their clear protective film put on my car when I buy my cruze but its expensive and has to be replaced like every year. After calling around, it also seems like the closest one to me in in Pennsylvania somewhere. So if i do get the clearplex film, i would have to spend money to get to PA, then i would have to risk getting my windshield chipped or cracked on the way up there, then i would have to pay for it and its installation, and then pay for gas on the way back home!
> 
> Are you located in the US?


Thanks a lot for this tip, jeez... I just phoned the closer certified installer and he did say it's gonna cost me at least 350 bucks (without tip) :-/

The warranty is for one year only...after that I have to change it every year...not sure what will happen if I am gonna keep it on more than a year...

Is it really good and worth that much of money?

I'm in Colorado and I always take the freeways behind trucks and long vehicles :-(


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## Hoon (Mar 18, 2012)

$350/yr to protect a cheap windshield?

Lol


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## HisandHers (Aug 18, 2012)

Hoon said:


> $350/yr to protect a cheap windshield?
> 
> Lol


You could get a new windshield for that price.


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## Hushero (May 31, 2012)

True...you know what...I think am gonna go to my first idea to just install 3M tinting film from the outside...which it may cost around 60 bucks


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## Blue Angel (Feb 18, 2011)

Just guessing here, but window tint film will probably scratch really easily with the wipers running on it. Cheap experiment, though... let us know how it turns out.

Of all the hundreds of thousands of kms I've put on my vehicles over the years I've never had a stone chip in a windshield that needed repair. Until Friday. Figures... The first time I buy a brand new car, and with less than 5000 kms on the odo, a logging truck ends my winning streak.


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## GoldenCruze (Dec 18, 2011)

The best way is to keep a lot of from the vehicle in front of you. Somebody said a couple car lengths. That is insanely close at highway speeds. If you keep the proper distance for the speed our driving, then the rocks will fall before you get there to catch them.


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## HisandHers (Aug 18, 2012)

I tend to have more problems with stuff coming off of vehicles coming toward me from the opposite direction.I had the windshield and door on my Durango slapped by a shingle that came off of a trailer being pulled by a truck coming toward me,you would be amazed at the damage that a shingle can do to glass at 55mph.Last Friday on the way to work a small rock came off of a dump truck coming toward me and chipped the windshield on my Cruze.


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## 204cruze (Oct 25, 2012)

get a hood deflector for your car. It changes the aerodynamics of the car enough that a low rock may be deflected. 3m protective tape works great on the front of vehicles is virtually invisible from a few feet away and lasts a long time from what i have seen. after a few years of UV exposure it will yellow slightly but only enough to be slightly noticed on a white car. stone chips happen. its a fact of life with a low vehicle or a high truck. get them fixed early and it will help keep from developing into a crack.


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## Starks8 (Jul 20, 2011)

What is it about these cruzes with their cheap windshields? I drive a 1999 nissan altima gle with almost 200,000 miles on it and have exacly one small chip in my windshied. It has been hit many times after and has never gotten another chip or crack. The chip has not expanded and driving over bumps or using the wipers does nothing. Has chevy forgotten how ro make good quality windshields or something?!


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## 204cruze (Oct 25, 2012)

Starks8 said:


> What is it about these cruzes with their cheap windshields? I drive a 1999 nissan altima gle with almost 200,000 miles on it and have exacly one small chip in my windshied. It has been hit many times after and has never gotten another chip or crack. The chip has not expanded and driving over bumps or using the wipers does nothing. Has chevy forgotten how ro make good quality windshields or something?!


It seems weird that they would use a softer formulation of glass.... maybe try a aftermarket PPG OR LOF windshield for a replacement as the windshield in these are probably made in korea for the oem and maybe a made in america a/m may be better


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## Blue Angel (Feb 18, 2011)

204cruze said:


> It seems weird that they would use a softer formulation of glass.... maybe try a aftermarket PPG OR LOF windshield for a replacement as the windshield in these are probably made in korea for the oem and maybe a made in america a/m may be better


This is what I used to wonder until I worked for a PPG auto glass plant (Oshawa ON plant that was closed in 2009). We made tempered back and side lites, but I toured the Hawkesbury plant a couple of times where windshields were made (that plant was closed, too). There are very few places that actually make plate glass, and their recipe doesn't change much, just the thickness.

If the Cruze windhield is weaker than others it could just be that it's thinner. I've had lots of rocks and stuff hit my windshields over the years, and this is the first car that has required a repair.


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