[perryo91]

Hey all,

I take the highway every day. It's really frustrating that I hear atleast one little (pin-sized) chip hit my windshield or some front part of my car (granted it could be just a creak from hitting a bump on the road).

I've made it a rule to make sure the car in front of me is about 3 car lengths ahead of me and honestly that seems like it's helped.

What do you all do to avoid chips?

Is it just me hearing those sounds every day?

Can it be the highway that sucks? Because I can't imagine taking normal roads to work everyday that would kill my mpg and travel time.

ALSO, as a solution would you all think it's ok to clay/polish my windshield to atleast reduce the amount of chips on there? I've got the HUD, but polishing off a tiny layer of glass shouldnt affect it right? There's a product from GTechniq that is used on the windshield - should I use that to protect it after?

Thanks for your help, it's annoying having the part of the car you look at the most have so many permanent little (pin-sized) nicks on it, and feel like every day more are being added.

[upsidedownfunnel]

Clay bar or off the shelf polishes aren't likely to be able to take anything off the windshield. All they'll do is get any gunk off that may be on there. There's really no way to fill in or reduce the size of small window chips.

Like you said, the best way is to drive with a lot of distance from the car in front of you. Tailgating is probably the leading cause of rock chips.

[435MSport6Speed]

Put Xpel on your windshield.

[perryo91]

Originally Posted by upsidedownfunnel

Clay bar or off the shelf polishes aren't likely to be able to take anything off the windshield. All they'll do is get any gunk off that may be on there. There's really no way to fill in or reduce the size of small window chips.

Like you said, the best way is to drive with a lot of distance from the car in front of you. Tailgating is probably the leading cause of rock chips.

Thats the thing man I've never tailgated a car, that's just not my personality. Only when merging into the lane I'll be relatively close to them, but that's for like 2 seconds.

So now I've increased my following distance to about 2-3 car lengths and it seems to help.

So I guess that is the only way of avoiding them just to keep my distance.

[perryo91]

Originally Posted by 435MSport6Speed

Put Xpel on your windshield.

Yeah, I know that's an option it's just a pricey solution. I've already got the inside tinted at 80% - having the outside would be a film-sandwich lol.


I'm starting to think the best option may be to clay/polish it to get as many little nicks out as I can, then applying a glass ceramic coat.

[upsidedownfunnel]

I'm in no way trying to criticize your driving, but 2-3 car lengths is not very much. It should be more like 2-3 seconds.

[perryo91]

Originally Posted by upsidedownfunnel

I'm in no way trying to criticize your driving, but 2-3 car lengths is not very much. It should be more like 2-3 seconds.

Oh for sure, I wish I could increase the distance! I think it's just were i live where it's not realistic to make more space than that. Either someone will merge in front of me and I need to slow down further to make it bigger, or I sit on the right lane and drive slower than 50 mph. Actually typing this out and looking at the numbers, I'm typically 3 car lengths, unless someone merges in front of me.

At most 2-3 car lengths is about 45 feet.

2-3 seconds (traveling 70mph) is about 205-308 feet.

In the city it'd be really hard to keep 205 feet between you and the car in front of you on the highway.

[otay]

It seems the F30 windshield is soft. I have a similar complaint. When driving into the sun, there are so many pin sized nicks/chips/whatever, it looks like the windshield is 30 years old.

Tried to polish it with Griot's glass polish (twice), and other than making it a bit cleaner, it didn't change the chips/nicks at all.

[upsidedownfunnel]

Originally Posted by perryo91

Oh for sure, I wish I could increase the distance! I think it's just were i live where it's not realistic to make more space than that. Either someone will merge in front of me and I need to slow down further to make it bigger, or I sit on the right lane and drive slower than 50 mph. Actually typing this out and looking at the numbers, I'm typically 3 car lengths, unless someone merges in front of me.

At most 2-3 car lengths is about 45 feet.

2-3 seconds (traveling 70mph) is about 205-308 feet.

In the city it'd be really hard to keep 205 feet between you and the car in front of you on the highway.

I remember what it's like in traffic, trust me. No judging here. I guess I'm just lucky that I almost never have to drive in rush hour traffic.

[BrettKA7]

Regarding following closely - you are following *very* closely at 2-3 car lengths. I know traffic sucks, I regularly drive Orange County and Los Angeles. 2-3 car lengths is going to give you many chips and multiple cracks. I always give myself enough room to know I can safely stop for the person who slams the brakes in front of me AND the person following 30 feet behind me.

The leading cause of cracks and large chips in my experience, however, is when someone cuts over to your lane closely in front of you. It disrupts all the loose gravel between lanes and it?s unfortunately totally uncontrollable; we all do it because it?s a necessary action.

I can typically go 20k+ miles on a soft brand new windshield before I can find any evidence whatsoever that it is not brand new by giving at *least* 10 feet per 10 mph. It?s also a great way to make sure these shoddy stock run flat tyres don?t cause me to rear end someone when the entire highway suddenly goes from 80 mph to zero.