Can washing your car be wrong???
 

After a week of stop and go driving, and snow I decided to go and give my baby a wash to get all the white from the snow off at one of the local car washes. All is fine and dandy except fot the 28degree temp outside. I have gotten washes before out this cold, a day or 2 after the snow, and im sure many of you have also. Bout 15 - 20 min after the wash I notice a crack in the windshield that was never there before and I just thought to my self "F***... now im down even more money i dont have at the moment". So i pull over and look at the crack. I was about 6 inches in going up at like a 60degree angle bout 7 or 8 inches long. This makes me nice and depressed. So I contomplate calling my girlfriend and a towtruck but I thought to my self "riiiiiite a tow truck for this, ive seen plenty of people with cracked windshields". I continue to drive and about 5 min later it runs across the length of the windshield rite before my eyes. WTF.
Please someone just tell me something other then its gonna cost me $1000 to fix. Im so friggin depressed. And after such a good week...

sounds like you live in a state requiring a safety inspection. i've been driving with a cracked windshield for over two years now.

Yea NY requires inspection.....but there are tons of people driving with cracked windshields. Tough break Joey :(

Im really not worried about the inspection as much as im just hurt, cause I know my baby is hurt. I dont know im just all paranoid now. I think the ice is gonna cause more damage it more. I dont know it just turns my stomache. A windshield is more then a friggin tranny man. I thought my major worry was needing a new tranny now a new windshield... Dont mind me im just venting...

I have a windshield on the parts car in PA. If you come remove it yourself, I'll sell it to ya cheap.

Actually theres an idea...cuz i have to go to steve so he can do my radio install....so we could go together if you want joey. I was gonna ask you and omar if you guys wanted to come along anyway..we could make it a little meet.

that sounds nice, now all i gotta do is figure out the how, when and the where...

Well the where is covered....just figure out the how and when...remember i gotta know a week in advance so i can book a day off. And of course steve has to be free too.

that just leaves the how (manuals anyone?) and how much

The parts car is in PA, about an hour and a half away from me, not sure about the distance from NY (Morgantown, PA if you wanna run a mapquest).

As far as how much...I think $250 sounds like a good price. The lowest I can remember seeing one sell for is $500.

I have the manuals ;) I think you'd probably be best off if you could come up with a truck rather than install it on the spot and hope it stays in on the drive home.

Rapid, localized temperature changes will crack glass. Water is a great medium for transfering lots of thermal energy. Ever try to defrost a window with a bucket of hot water? Don't. Instant death.

My favorite pressure wash place uses heated water. I don't use it in the winter. They turn the water temperature down anyway, but I don't risk it. If you already have a rock chip, that can be really risky.

If you want to experiment, find a piece of glass to destroy and play with a torch and some ice. Just wear safety goggles. :)

I would say this was my 8th wash this month. The only factor that differed from any other time, was I used a different car wash. Now im paranoid because I hear theres a storm coming this weekend and I dont know what to expect. I dont know if i should use the De-fog anymore, or the wipers or anything. It sucks sooooooo much.

I used to have 2 cracks going in opposite directions. I accidently cracked it while changing my wiper blades, I think? But, at the time I had subs and I guess the vibration caused it to crack that way. I was worried about the cost, who has 900+ dollars lying around? But, one day I let my sis-in-law use my car to go to class and she got in a little fender-bender. Note: never let girls drive your car in the snow, especially if they've never driven your car before. I told the insurance company that the crack was caused by the accident and I saved myself 900+ bucks.

that would work IF i had full coverage. me being under 25 full would cost $2500 a year UNDER MY MOTHER. So im stuck with just liability

You know, the windshield is really expensive to replace, but cracks severely compromise its integrity. I'd replace it.