Should You Repair or Replace a Broken Windshield?
The windshield makes up 70 percent of the interior of a vehicle. For safety’s sake, it’s important to take good care of it.
Indeed, a cracked windshield can impede the driver’s vision and possibly cause injuries to vehicle occupant in the event of a crash.
Replacing vs. Repairing
According to CAA, it’s important to assess the nick, crack or chip on your windshield. Is the circumference bigger than a loonie? Is the crack in the ceramic strip or within 3 cm of the visible edge of the windshield? Is it located in the driver’s field of vision? Did it go through the outer layer of the glass? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, you’ll likely need to replace the windshield.
Once you’ve assessed the severity of the impact, you’ll be able to determine if a simple repair will do the trick.
Repairing a windshield is a simple and affordable solution that requires less than an hour of work. Short on time? Some retailers offer a mobile service that can come to your home or workplace to repair your windshield.
Specialists will start by cleaning the windshield to remove the shards of glass and properly prepare the surface. They will then remove the air in the chip and inject a transparent liquid resin that will fill the crack. Lastly, they will polish the area once the resin has dried. The crack will become almost invisible, but remember this: the windshield will always be slightly more fragile than one that has never experienced an impact.
How Much Does it Cost?
The cost of repairing a broken windshield may vary depending on the nature of the damage and your car insurance policy, but it’s certainly cheaper than replacing an entire windshield.
If your insurance policy includes All Perils Other than Collision and Upset coverage, which is frequently the case, you’ll have no deductible to pay to repair your vehicle’s windshield. In addition, if the windshield can be repaired with resin, the repair won’t affect your insurance premium or have a negative impact on your record.
In terms of a windshield replacement, which is much more expensive, a deductible is usually required. That’s why it’s important to avoid putting off small repairs, CAA says. Otherwise you could end up with a cracked windshield and having to spend more money than necessary at first.