Scratches In Left Rear Door Window!

Left rear door (side) window has many fine scratches in a large portion of the glass that are noticeable from the outside when in full sunlight. It looks like someone removed something stuck to the glass using a tool which left deep enough scratches they can be detected easily enough with the fingernail. A dirty rag or the like was then used in a circular like pattern that has added numerous fine scratches to the otherwise scratchless window.

I know some scratches of this sort are unavoidable in the life of a car but do I have to pay for them this way right off the bat?

Looks like I'll be driving back to the dealer tomorrow to register this warranty issue and seek a reasonable resolution.

 

Not before Toyota adamently turns down repairing or replacing the window themselves first. And if they do it will really leave me feeling rotten toward them. I will let you all know the resolution of this. If they make a good enough repair polishing most of it all away and documented under warranty I'll be happy enough and I honestly think they or a window specialty shop they contract will do that much. And while I"m under these grievances I expect to get a loaner vehicle out of it too if necessary. It's all in the line of doing good business you are proud of.

 

Really? I'm not surprised I missed them. It was the very fine buff-like pattern that led me to realize something happened in that area of the glass and I only saw that telltaile sign when the sun was on the glass just right. I could see all the very light scratches that you can't feel with a finger nail. THEN on close examination I found a number of them running deeper and in a different pattern from the lighter ones and those deeper ones I can just catch my fingernail in them. It's quite possible that the dealer could refinish the glass surface enough to plend with the rest of the glass and if only the few deeper ones are no longer as pronounced then I think we'll be okay. For all the world it looks like someone caused or found the scratches and then attempted to buff or polish them out but didn't have fine enough means to not cause the appearance that caught my eye. In the right light you can pan across the glass and easily see the differences between no scratches and the scratches but only when you catch the glass reflection just right.

 

Well, I had enough time today with a bright sun hitting the window and the sales and service people agreeing that the scratches are there and something would be done about it--no further questions asked. We all agreed that polishing out the window should be tried first before any consideration of replacing the window--which could lead into other problems (interior, etc.)--so they will get back to me with their plan of attack. I'm pretty certain there are some good glass shops in Bend or Redmond that can fix this window in an hour. The deepest scratch isn't deep enough to distort the view if it is blended out correctly. All warranty work of course.

 

Hardly any but some of the lightest scratches were polished out today after a couple applications of a glass polish and maybe 0.5 hrs of elbow grease with a hand polisher...no charge to me or the dealer since it was not effective.

Next I took the car by a 25 year professional in auto glass replacement/repair in my city and he in sort order said the window should be replaced. Even scratches where your fingernail barely sticks need to be ground out and then repolished. He added that because the window was tempered that there was a good chance once he started grinding the window would shatter. Further he explained that since the windows have the UV protection that this was an outer layer that is baked in during the manufacture and that some of the scratches would exceed through this UV layer and I'd end up with clear spots. I've given the dealer all this information including Mike's Auto Glass's phone number. They will mull it over and let me know.

Mike also confirmed what at least one person here suggested as to cause. A shipping strap in the area of this window probably loosened up causing the stractch. Someone saw this and attempted to clean up the window with a rag. The rag might have picked up some glass micro-chips from the scratches and rubbing that around the window caused the very small miroc scratches.

Apparently Toyota coats the body with a white protective film but nothing is used over the windows themselves. I guess straps loosening causing window scratches is rare enough that it doesn't warrant any protection.

 

It turns out that because my dealer missed seeing the damaged window when they took delivery Toyota won't directly pay for its replacement. The scratches proved way to deep to be simply polished out. The dealer will be paying for the window replacement and will likely do the work unless they choose another vendor. I have given them the name of an auto glass specialist I have talked to at length and trust. But all the same Toyota of Bend will likely do it on their terms and not mine since I'm not paying for it.

 

I called Toyota's Customer Service line this morning and opened a case about the window. I then talked to the dealer's customer service rep and asked her to look into it. I then showed up to pick up my new plates for the car and found my salesman who is a little higher up in the ranks then the other sales people there apparently. I gave him the auto glass shop's business card that I would like to use to give to the service manager. He told me to 'wait here' and disappeared. I made myself comfortable and in a few minutes he returned with everything worked out. And around the corner came the service manager and we also had a pleasant conversation setting up everything.

Full like new warranty on the window. It's on order and should be here in a couple days. They will ship it to the vendor who will do the work--all parts and labor under warranty. I thanked everyone for their help in resolving the problem and elected to take the plates and install them myself. On the way home I stopped by the glass shop and Mike, the owner, had just gotten of the phone with the dealer and was faxing in his estimate and order which included a package of door panel clips. He will then get the dealer's PO.

Did you know that the clips holding in one rear door panel are a one-time only clip that breaks and must be replaced each thime a panel is removed? The clip package from Toyota costs around $90. They are actually made by some company in Los Angeles and ship in bulk to Japan where they are packaged.

 

Re: Scratches In Left Rear Door Window! Plus Other Things...

[Chapter 4,326 ]
The dealer delivered the replacement left passenger door window to the auto glass shop that will do the replacement today. It was the wrong window--it was the triangluar piece that goes just aft of the door window. The glass shop noted a scratch in it too.

Other things that suck but may never be resolved:
1. Gray fog light covers--really cheap Toyota! I'm in the first stage of trying to get something better out of Toyota for this.
2. Red color in HSI display really weak and poor.
3. Occasional but obvious rattle around or forward of front passenger door/dash mouldings. Can't describe as vibration.
4. Fuel gauge pips 10, 9, and 8 behave erratically. 8 and below seem to be steady.
5. Passenger air bag status light s/b located other then in passenger's face on dash. the drive. Why not extinguish light after 1 minute into drive?

 

Let's get one thing straight right off the bat. The dealer, after my buying into a $25K car isn't doing me any favors. This is all warranty work so I can start off with a car that doesn't have a scratched window and I expect a nice looking car where I don't get comments like what are those funny gray things on the front bumper or what is the rattle. No one puts their list together all at once at one time. Sorry if you do or don't like it. I may be prolific on these forums now--it won't last forever. A lot of Toyota owners aren't even here. I think it is a shame for someone to purchase a car and over the course of the first month or so feel intimidated not to mention concerns and get things fixed right which a good dealer is always prepared to do and expects. Maybe I just shouldn't bother mentioning any of this here on PriusChat?

No, you don't understand the window complaint at all. Around the second day after I took delivery the light was such that I noticed the window scratch damage. The dealer at first didn't know what to do because they had already accepted delivery from Toyota. They agreed to fully warranty the replacement. So today the replacement window turned out to be the wrong one. The order got messed up somewhere. They didn't notice this until the auto glass comany pointed it out to the dealer that it was the wrong window. The new wrong window also had some scratch damage on it. The dealer is now re-ordering the correct window.

I was prepared to get use to and overlook the gray plastic covers where fog lights would otherwise go until a friend focussed on them immediately. I'm certain Toyota has its reasons for not painting them all a flat black for instance or the car body's color but I still think it is 'cheap' that they do nothing until someone creates a fuss--and they still may do nothing because in the end it will always cost someone some money.

Rattles/vibrations in the front passenger side are already noted as an issue. They will be worked out under warranty with some persistance on my part no doubt. I doubt Toyota is going to replace the HSI with ones that offer a more reasonable 'red' color in the screen--maybe 2011. But it won't stop me from questioning what they thought they were engineering. Maybe someone will come up with a solution for the jumpy fuel gauge when near full? One thing for sure, nobody will do anything if Toyota thinks everything is great because owners don't point out problems.

 

The clips are by design not suppose to be reused. When you carefully pull the panel off the door the clips break in some fashion or I guess are somehow weakened so that if you reuse them they may not hold the panel well again. Yes, these are for tha fabric door panels. I would only be assuming that the same clips are used for the front door fabric panels too. The guy that is replacing my scratched left rear door window was in the same Toyota class with a couple Toyota dealer technicians where they learned how to properly remove the panels so you don't wreck them and were told to replace all the plastic clips. This was one of the things I was particular about learning because I didn't want the window replaced by the dealer or by an auto glass specialty shop and be left with a messed up door panel and/or water leaks into the interior. The only other thing that was learned was that a package of clips for a rear door panel cost around $70. The clip is actually made in the U.S. and packaged in Japan for Toyota. Rather then deplete his stock of clips he's including the package of clips in his order.

Yes, the clips can't be the same but Toyota uses another one-time clip to secure the rear seat bench too. Two of those cost $7 from the dealer.

I'm sure there was some significant cost savings during assembly to go with a one-time clip in these areas at least. Maybe over the years there was no discovery of how to design a good reliable reusable clip?

 

Look through the list of 2010 Prius Problems. You'll find one there concerning rattles which would be more appropriate then here even though we've gone off topic discussing door panels and clips. Hopefully the next post here will just be me saying the new window is in place, looks and works great, and the side panel looks like it was never touched.

 

Don't know. Here is a panel thread showing how to remove the passenger front door panel. http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii...s/67089-removing-front-door-6x9-speakers.html
Please don't continue door panel discussions here unless it relates to replacing the left rear passenger door window.