Weather Strip at Top of Windshield

retmil46 · **Posted:** Fri Jun 08, 2007 12:06 am

The recent trip to TX was a little hard on the CRD. Had a guy in a Nissan Titan pickup throw a rock in my windshield (his rear tires, not him personally) hard enough to crater and crack both layers of glass on the way down just west of Texarkana. And on the day prior to my intended return, had an elderly lady in a '98 Lincoln Navigator pull out in front of me less than 2 car lengths away from a side street trying to make a left hand turn across 2 lanes of traffic on a rain slick street in San Marcos. Crumpled up the front edge of the hood, cracked up the plastic grille and bumper, and shoved back the bracket supporting the hood latch. Stopped short of shoving anything around in the radiator area or bending anything structural. ABS worked well enough slowing me down from 40 mph that no airbags deployed and that the contact was more of a jolt than a crash. Guess the critics were right about the stock Goodyears having poor wet weather traction.

Side of that Lincoln seemed to have gotten the worst of that encounter. As my friend, a longtime diesel and Dodge Cummins fan said, "If you had to hit something, at least it was a Ford!" :roll:

Anyway, today I got the CRD back from the body shop, the damage from the accident repaired, and a new windshield installed.

Wasn't until I got home and looked that I noticed something extra at the top of the windshield. A rubber weatherstrip along the top edge of the windshield. WTF? There wasn't anything there originally when I bought the CRD, it came from the factory with nothing more than a recessed gap between the top of the hood and the windshield. I thought this was just something peculiar to KJ's with the way the windshield was designed.

Now I'm wondering, was this CRD built on a Friday afternoon, and someone at the factory just simply forgot to install the weatherstrip at the top of the windshield (like they forgot to flush all the sand out of the cooling system and oil sump), or is this a running change since '05 to add this weatherstrip?

I tend to believe that the original windshield wasn't properly installed. Turn on the heat on a cold day, or the A/C on a hot day, and it audibly creaked and popped from the temp changes. And the way that the cracks from that rock kept growing straight up the middle of the glass, as if it was under stress and trying to split in two down the middle.

The new windshield is solid and quiet as a churchmouse.

Is this top weatherstrip a running change, or did someone at the factory just flat out screw up and forget to put it on?

AZScout · **Posted:** Fri Jun 08, 2007 3:11 am

I don't have it on my 2005 either. I did on my 2002. Bean counters...

Reflex · **Joined:** Mon Jan 29, 2007 8:48 pm **Posts:** 567

When my windshield was cracked top to bottom by a rock that hit right at the top where the weatherstripping should be the replacement came with a strip and I asked the same question. The guy told me that had the strip been there its unlikely the windshield would have cracked from a hit that high. He said the 05 and forward models seem to have gotten rid of it, but he had no idea why. Their policy was to install one on those models when they inevitably get the cracked windshield...

BVCRD · **Posted:** Fri Jun 08, 2007 9:25 am

Had my windshield replaced last summer and no weathstrip on mine before or after.

retmil46 · **Posted:** Fri Jun 08, 2007 9:37 am

Ahh yes, the bean counters again. After the saga of the torque converter, I can well believe that. Just bloody wonderful - for lack of a 10 cent rubber strip, it ends up costing $300 for a new windshield.

I know my friends in TX (the land of rock-chipped windshields from their own description) said it was unusual to see one cracked as bad as mine from the type of hit I received and thru both layers of glass - a dime-sized crater just below the drivers side windshield wiper. When it first happened, the cracks were only 6 inches long. By the time it was replaced, they were 2/3 of the way to the top of the windshield.

On the bright side, looks like I've ended up with a better vehicle because of it. And IMHO, it looks better as well with that rubber strip filling in the gap.

One other thing to note - after the accident, I was glad I had switched over to the V6 airbox and intake. If I'd still been running the original factory intake, I'd have been sucking pieces of broken plastic into my air filter. Pretty well lunched their little baffle arrangement behind the grille.

BVCRD · **Posted:** Fri Jun 08, 2007 9:57 am

I already have a nice dinger in the new one. We get pretty pitted out here from all the sand blowing around and the grit they used on the roads in the winter. I usually wait until it cracks out and then go in for a new one. I have free glass replacement on all my rigs.

vtdog · **Joined:** Fri Sep 30, 2005 11:27 am **Posts:** 640

I am on my 3rd windshield on my '05 due to rock hits.

The original windshield did not have a rubber strip at the top. The tech who installed the replacement said that his company's (not Jeep) national policy was to install a weather strip at the top when replacing the glass. He said that the lack of weather strip would cause premature failure of the sealant via UV degredation and that water penetration could actually cause the window to release from the frame in areas where it is cold as water will freeze/thaw in the slot and can get between glass and frame and move glass out.

He estimated that Jeep saved less than 5 cents per vehicle by not installing gasket at top.

Zonie · **Posted:** Fri Jun 08, 2007 11:16 am

The glass man who replaced my windshield also added the top weather stripping with the same explanation.

KJbob · **Posted:** Fri Jun 08, 2007 11:31 am

I haven't had to replace my windshield, but I do hear the "creaking and popping" noises on occasion. Sounds to me it's not the beancounters this time...more like some goofy engineer trying to reinvent the wheel! :roll:

GilaMonster · **Posted:** Fri Jun 08, 2007 2:10 pm

Just out of curiosity, those who have repalced their windshields, what type of glass did you get as a replacement?

I've had a nice star up at the top, in the wierd dotted black area, and you really can't feel or see it on the outside, but you can see the star from the inside.

Here in AZ, they do something call chip sealing where they dump layers of tar and gravel down instead of repaving a road. Lots of chipped up windshields.
Anyway, on my old BMW (famous for glass breakage from rocks), I finally broke down and had a PPG put in and did not experiance any problems after that, but the OEM was garbage.

retmil46 · **Posted:** Fri Jun 08, 2007 3:46 pm

OEM replacement on mine, $270 for the glass itself.

ATXKJ · **Posted:** Fri Jun 08, 2007 4:17 pm

We have a local business that buys the windshield from the dealer and then installs it in your driveway -
OEM for $150

Although I already have a couple of chips on the new one - same roads I've driven 5 other vehicles without every getting any chips..
There's something about the angle of the windshield that attracks rocks..

BVCRD · **Posted:** Fri Jun 08, 2007 4:23 pm

OEM for me but I went with the tinted bluish green stripe on the top. Could have gotten the plain one.

vtdog · **Joined:** Fri Sep 30, 2005 11:27 am **Posts:** 640

I have no idea what brand-whatever Safelite puts in

Sir Sam · **Posted:** Sat Jun 09, 2007 12:02 pm

vtdog wrote:

I have no idea what brand-whatever Safelite puts in

Second.....

And Mine got that strip at the top too from safelite.

When he installed the window I was looking at it thinking it was off, but I had torn so much off of that Jeep during the previous week that it gets a little hard to remember what used to be by the windshield when you tore off a roof panel.

cocojo · **Posted:** Sat Jun 09, 2007 1:46 pm

I had the same problem when my windshield cracked from a rock. No weather strip when I brought it in and it had one when I took it home. I took the vehicle back and asked about it and they told me that it was just done that way and if I didn't like it they would change it. I kept the weather strip on I think it seals the windshied better. Has factory glass installed on my CRD

Joe Romas · **Posted:** Sun Jun 10, 2007 8:28 am

vtdog wrote:

I have no idea what brand-whatever Safelite puts in

Safelite is big and have their own plant(s). I serviced a computer in a Safelite glass plant in a small town in north central Ohio somewhere. For lesser volume cars they buy them but for cars like our jeeps they make their own. The glass is recived in large sheets and is kind of pressed under heat into the correct shape for a specific vehicle. They have a big office facility with a installation training center in Columbus, Ohio. Windshields have been glued in for years now and actually add rigidy to the body. When they went to the trimless installation it required closer torerances in both the bodies and glass. Repairing computers has lots of testing time and you can find out a lot talking with friendly customers

Ranger1 · **Joined:** Mon Oct 17, 2005 7:40 pm **Posts:** 1137

I checked my 02 and sure enough, a nice rubber strip on the top of the windshield. Nothing on the 05 CRD. Nice work Chrysler.

Weather Strip at Top of Windshield

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