Distorted Replacement Rear Window Glass

[dwreed3rd]

Originally Posted by shimadog

Thanks for your support, especially dwreed's. Yesterday the Redwood City California Safelite shop installed a third hatch window, the second "OEM" Toyota unit.

Earlier I visited my Toyota dealer and sat in eight Priuii, both new and used. No new Prius had any distortion. Perhaps one of the used cars had some distortion below the bottom defroster inlay.

The short of it? Even after a thorough pre-installation inspection, the final result was the same as Toyota panel #1!

I give up, and will live with this. It is more of an annoyance than a safety issue. I bet Toyota manufactures replacement glass in a different Japanese factory than new car glass. Thank you.

First, thank you for the thank you! And I'm sorry you didn't get better results. It dosen't make sense.

[Bryan5]

Originally Posted by shimadog

Safelite replaced the terribly distorted PPG glass with an OEM Toyota product today. I notice that the very bottom of the clear area is slightly distorted, almost beveled. The installer said he thought that this might be a byproduct of baking the black area to the clear pane. Otherwise, objects in the mirror don't look like the funhouse. Frankly, after three at bats with this replacement I'm almost ready to just accept the job as is. Any thoughts? Thanks.

My 2008 has the same problem, if you could call it that. Just the very bottom part of the glass distorts objects.

[shimadog]

Hi. Here's an update on this rear window saga. Yes, I insisted that Safelite replace the first Toyota pane with a second. This OEM piece shared the same rear edge distortion as the first so I told those poor boys at Redwood City Safelite that I was going to live with it. However, driving home I saw that the moulding between the upper and lower windows was not seated right and I could see inside the hatch frame! So I told Farmers/Safelite that the trim piece needed replacement after being pulled and twisted over three glass installations. Yesterday they swapped the part and this repair is now almost factory perfect. Am I a pain in the a** or what?

[Shawn Clark]

Because of issues I've seen raised here and elsewhere on Priuschat I added an $18 rider to the Prius policy for OEM parts (rather than "equivalent".)