Exploded Drivers Side Window

[CM SoCal]

Have a 2012 ct200h. One month old. Wife was heading east on Hwy 101 around Camarillo, CA driving 50mph beginning slight uphill climb. Weather was raining, windy, mid 50's. She was in far right lane in light-to-moderate traffic. Drivers side window "exploded" for no apparent reason. No impact sound, no object seen or found. Have looked around the web and have seen a number of postings where this has occurred, on various vehicles. Description is very similar with the "exploding" sound. Could this be a faulty piece of glass? There were some larger fragments, not just the glass pebbles normally seen with broken auto glass. Any info will be appreciated.

[Trexus]

_{Hopefully your wife is okay. I've never heard of the window exploding. I've had my CT 200h for over a year now and so far so good. Hopefully Lexus will replace the window as a warranty.}

[CM SoCal]

Wife and kids ok, thanks. I've done some searching and have found sporadic reports of similar occurrences across a range of vehicles. The best explanation I've seen is that sometimes the glass isn't properly annealed which could lead to weakness. It does appear to be rare. Since it is rare, Lexus doesn't really have a policy. They have been politely questioning my wife with an apparent tendency to assume something broke the window- that it didn't break on its own. My wife is adamant that she neither saw or heard anything hit the window. We'll see if they cover it.

[SMH196542]

I have Lexus CT200h and my rear passenger side window just exploded yesterday on my way home. I too was in the far right side lane driving near a field of grass. Lexus is also politely implicating that it was a road hazard, hence an insurance claim. However, I cannot even imagine the trajetory of something I would run over that would fly up and hit that window causing it to shatter. My insurance company suggested it may be a "pressure break", so I was curious if this had happened to anyone else.

CM So Cal - Did Lexus end up covering your replacement under warranty or did they make you file an insurance claim. If this is so rare, I find it odd that 2 new Lexus CT200h vehicles have had this happen in such a short period of time. My vehicle is 6 weeks old.

[denslexusgx470]

This seems to be a weird thing. The only "window explosions" I normally hear from other vehicles are the trunk windows because of the rear window defroster and having to do with the temperature difference between the heat from the defroster lines to the cold weather on the other side of the window.

I would suggest (for CT200H owners) to have your front windows tint so in the event that this happens to you, the glass won't be flying everywhere inside your vehicle. You don't necessarily have to get dark film on it, tint shops offer a very very light tint (its around 75%-80%) that the naked eye can't tell that the window has tint.

[artemis13]

This just happened to me in a subaru outback 2011, I was traveling on a two lane highway going about 70 mph passed a oncoming semi, felt the wind pressure and then Boom my window was being blown into my face. No rock sound, just sound of glass breaking... I believe it was the pressure change/wind force from the semi... Of coarse the dealership says it was a rock, I know It wasn't a rock, I know the sound of a rock hitting glass.

[BostonHBS]

This just happened to me on my CT200h. Passenger side (front) window exploded for no reason while on the highway.