Broken rear glass

it is likely a rock or something hit it while you were driving; your insurance company should cover some of the cost.
also this is the gen2 forum. you should have but this in the gen 3 forum.

 

I have to say, that's really too bad.
But I don't think it is something that is Toyota's fault. I've barely seen any threads where someone experienced this problem. Very rare.

If this was happening a lot? I have to think we'd have a lot more "what happened to my rear window" threads. And they aren't very common.

From the dealership and Toyota's perspective they have no idea how it happened. Glass can break. Unless you can "prove" it's the fault of a design flaw, they shouldn't cover it.

My only thoughts are since it's the hatch is it possible you slammed it down too hard?

Or a concern I have because I sometimes use a drive through car wash, are those top of the car brushes. Sometimes I worry about the pressure they put on the Prius's admittedly very horizontal hatch. I haven't had a problem yet, but whenever the brush reaches the back, I worry.

The problem is there are so many "Random Acts Of God" that could cause this problem, that it's really impossible to prove it's anything but something like that, that may of happened.

Good Luck, and hopefully once replaced it never happens again.

 

Heater wires are a factor too I think.

 

Window glass is actually stronger than steel roof. So no need to worry about brushes breaking the glass. Only thing in a Prius that I would worry more than on average car is the rear spoiler. Spoiler could be pushed by the brush and start leaking (or maybe even break).

Sometimes bad connection on wires that connect to rear window heater can cause the glass to break. Newer seen (or heard) it happening on a Prius though.

 

Yeah, I'm NOT really too worried, it's not that I think the brushes could/would break the glass, it's more just the pressure of the entire roller on both the glass and as you say the spoiler. Going through the drive through car wash it has made some "disturbing" sounds.

Even in this case, It could of been pressure applied to the spoiler pressing down on the insert glass beneath.

In any case, I think there's too many potential natural causes that could lead to broken glass in this case to blame Toyota or define it as a design flaw.

Does the insert glass below the spoiler even have "defrost" wires? I don't think mine does, only the big window above.

 

Welcome to the site.

That's just plain glass. Pouring hot water on cold glass is a good way to break it. May be worth filing a NHTSA complaint. If it was a design or installation problem I would expect a crack.

 

But if it was a design or even "factory" installation problem wouldn't you think we'd see many more of these type of threads?
This doesn't seem to be a very common problem, which would suggest to me that it isn't a design problem, and "probably" not an installation problem.

Looked closer at mine, guess it does have defrost wires.
I guess for me, it get's dirty so quickly that I don't really notice very often that it's fogged up.

 

Could OP's location (cold Chicago) have made glass more susceptible to breakage by flying debris?

 

Or maybe cold temperatures (still warmer than here) caused more usage of rear window heater. Bad connection on the heater caused one spot to heat and heat expansion caused stress in the window. Window then shattered, because it had too much internal stress.

 

Electric Me, I agree that if the factory was responsible there would have been a rash of complaints. Maybe some of those X-Men were visiting Chicago.

 

I hate to think this, but is it a possibility that you were the victim of some turkey with a pellet gun?

 

The same thing happened to my 2013 Plug-in. It was parked in 75 degree clear weather. I simply shut the rear gate and heard a strange "pop". It took a few minutes to notice that the black glass had shattered. It seemed as though the spoiler was somewhat moveable. I don't know if the broken glass caused the spoiler instability or the other way around.
Anyone with similar experience?

 

welcome!

not so far...