2004 G35 Sunroof explosion.

[timmer]

Hi folks, the other night my wife was driving home from work in her 04 G35.Dark, raining.( typical Vancouver weather) Driving on Hwy #1 - 80-90Km/hrSuddenly, the sunroof explodes. Glass all over her. Luckily she kept control and drove the short distance home, and called me very upset. I initially thought that someone had thrown something off an overpass, but she had passed the closest overpass when the incident happened. When I arrived home to comfort her and inspect the damage. I noticed that the glass was pushed outward,(interior cabin pressure) but there were no objects inside. I taped up the opening, took pictures( shards of glass, not tiny pieces) and had my wife contact the dealer . Now, let me say that we have been very happy with the dealer, the initial experience when we bought the car was excellent, we purchased the service package, giving the free oil changes, washes, etc. Very friendly staff. We noted this when filling out the endless satisfaction surveys, sent to us. We forwarded the photo's of the incident to the service dept. and assumed that this would be covered under warranty, nothing had hit the glass, ( I have seen a recall on the 04 Nissan Maxima, warning of possible injury. This is fixed roof glass). The dealer informed us that something MUST have hit the sunroof (we must be lying)and we would have to claim this on our insurance. The service manager also apparently sent the pics to the Infinity engineers, they said that they could find nothing in their database indicating any other problems, so no warranty. Know what folks? We don't have such a warm and fuzzy feeling anymore.It's not the $300 deductable, we'll be paying. My concern is that , first, my wife could have been killed or injured, if she had not kept control. Second,if this is a mechanical problem that has caused this, (they have not even inspected the mechanism) and it happens again, my wife may not be around. The same could happen to any of the other thousands of happy G35 owners like you.Could this be a tempering problem?Has anyone else experienced a similar problem?We love our Infinity, not loving this experience.
Modified by timmer at 10:33 AM 1/13/2006

[elwesso]

Im almost leaning toward something hitting the glass... I dont see any way that glass will spontaneously combust like that... SInce it was dark and rainy, its very possible that she didnt see anything...

Ive never heard of this happening, the cabin is not that sealed that it would cause too much pressure.....

[timmer]

Thanks for your response, thats what the dealer and Infinity are saying, but why did it happen with the Maxima, and now the Cadillac STS ?With the Maxima, the Recall notice says it was a problem with the cooling process after the glass was tempered. I'm also wondering if the mechanism used to open, and close the sunroof may be not adjusted properly. When the sunroof is closing, it sounds like the motor runs longer than necessary.make any sense?

[elwesso]

Im just saying that I've never heard of it happening, im not saying that its not possible.

[C-Kwik]

I'm a bit confused as you stated the glass when all over her, yet the glass was pushed outwards. Perhaps you can describe it a little more clearly.

[rydwhite]

Hmmm, I have never heard of this. It is of course possible that it could break if it were under some kind of strain. If there was a manufacturing flaw in the glass it could excaerbate the situation. If it were to break, I can't imagine break out as if there was some kind of pressure on it that caused it to explode. I would think that it would basically shatter and fall in the car and depending on the driving conditions it would be possible that there could be some glass on the roof of the car, but it would seem to be a bit unlikely. There would have to be tremendous pressure inside the car to cause the glass to explode outward I would think. If that were the case, I think that there would also be some other serious issues with the car which would cause it to build up that kind of pressure.

[elwesso]

I was thinking that if there was THAT much pressure that the side/rear windows would break sooner, mainly because they have larger surface area and are much thinner...

[miata007]

If I remember correctly, several weeks ago, Ford had a recall about exploiding moonroofs. You might want to find out more about that to see if it applies to your case.

007

[Infinti G35 Guy]

I have a 2007 Infiniti G35 Sport that also experienced a sunroof problem. I was cruising on I35 in Arkansas and had a sunroof explosion. I was traveling about 80 MPH with no other cars and no overpasses in the area when my sunroof gave way. It sounded like a shotgun discharging right next to my ear. My first thought was that I must have blown a tire but the car was handling way to well for that. Then I noticed that small pieces of my sunroof were raining down on me. I examined the roof and found that the glass was raised in a bubble fashion. The Infiniti dealer in Little Rock refused my arguement that nothing hit it and made me pay over $800.00 for the repair. I took the car to my dealer in St. Louis to have the paint repaired on the roof and rear trunk deck at an additional cost of just over $1000.

I filed a claim with Infiniti who agreed to binding arbitration through the BBB and I filled out the BBB claim report. About four weeks later I was contacted by an Infiniti Engineer who informed me that Infiniti would pay the claim and binding arbitration would not be necessary.

Now a friend of mine has had the same issue with a Nissan and is getting the same runaround that I experienced. My suggestion is don't give up! File a claim and document your issues and you will get paid for the repairs.