Chip or Crack: When a Windshield Can Be Repaired and When It Can't

Most windshield damage starts small. A pebble gets kicked up by a log truck on Highway 70, a bit of gravel spits off the shoulder, and suddenly there's a bright little star right where you look every day. The question we hear most at the shop is whether it can be fixed or whether the whole windshield has to come out. The answer depends on a few things you can check yourself in the driveway before you ever pick up the phone, so let's walk through them.

What a repairable chip looks like

Repair works best on damage that hasn't gone far. A bullseye, a star break, or a small combination of the two, about the size of a quarter or smaller, can usually be filled with resin. A single short crack of a few inches may also be a candidate if it hasn't reached the edge of the glass. The damage needs to be clean, too. If dirt and moisture have worked their way into the break, the resin has a harder time bonding, which is one reason we tell people to come in soon instead of waiting for a convenient week.

A windshield is two layers of glass with a tough plastic layer pressed between them. A chip usually only goes through the outer layer. Repair fills the break so it stops spreading and so light passes through it more evenly. It won't make the chip vanish, and any honest glass shop will tell you the same. What you should expect is a blemish that's much less noticeable and a break that holds.

How the repair is done

We clean out the damaged spot, set a bridge and injector over it, and use a vacuum and pressure cycle to pull the air out of the break and push clear resin in. The resin is then cured with UV light, and the surface is scraped flush and polished. Nothing gets removed from the car, and the job is quick compared with a replacement. That's why our in-shop chip repair special, advertised at $35, is such a good deal next to a new windshield. Call us for today's price, because specials change.

Because the repair keeps the factory glass and the factory seal around it, there's no adhesive to cure and no waiting around before you drive. You walk in with a chip and walk out with a windshield that's ready to go. For a commuter in Oroville who can't be without a car for a day, that matters.

When a crack means replacement

Some damage is past the point of repair. A crack longer than a dollar bill is generally too long to repair reliably, and a crack that runs to the edge of the glass keeps traveling, because the edge is where stress piles up. A chip sitting directly in the driver's line of sight is another one. Even a good repair leaves a little distortion, and we won't put a blemish where you'll be looking at it on every drive. Deep damage that reaches the inner layer, or several chips clustered close together, also points toward a new windshield.

Then there's the camera. On many newer cars the windshield holds a lane camera behind the glass near the mirror. Damage in that zone can affect what the camera sees, and a replacement means the camera has to be recalibrated afterward. We cover that in a separate article, and we do the recalibration here in our own shop.

Why waiting costs you

Glass is under constant stress. Temperature swings are the big one, and anyone who's parked in Butte County in July knows how hot a dashboard can get. Run the defroster on a frosty morning or hit one bad pothole and a tiny chip can run across the glass overnight. Dee Ann, one of our Google reviewers, said it this way: “They also fixed a rock chip in my windshield before it cracked across the whole thing for $40.” That's the outcome we hope for every time someone calls early.

Until you can get in, put a piece of clear tape over the chip to keep dirt and rain out, and go easy on the defroster. Don't press on the spot, and skip the high pressure wand at the car wash. We'd also steer you away from drugstore resin kits once the damage has fanned out, because resin that's already in a break can't always be cleaned back out by a professional.

Not sure which side of the line you're on

If you can't tell whether your damage is a repair or a replacement, just ask. Tell us how big it is, where it sits, and what you drive, and we can usually tell you which way it's going to go. If it needs a closer look, we'll do that too. We also do mobile service at no extra charge in Oroville and the surrounding area, so you don't have to rearrange your day around a rock chip.

The shop is at 2601 South 5th Avenue in Oroville, open Monday through Friday from 8 to 5 and Saturday from 9 to 1. Call (530) 538-8100 and tell us what you're looking at. With more than 25 years in auto glass behind us, we've seen the chip before, and we'll give you a straight answer.