Trotting back from Manchester the middle of last month the windscreen was hit by a stone about an inch and a bit from the bottom and pretty much under the parked position of the driver wiper blade close to the drive shaft. Crack started out about 6 inches long on the outer screen and spread steadily. By now it's pretty much all the way across the screen on both sides of the glass. Presumably the recent freezing weather didn't help.

So it needed fixing pronto.

Doing the usual insurance company route AXA directed me to the Autoglass portal and I got an appointment for January 25th at Tonbridge around 13 miles away. Was about 10 day wait which is annoying but I guess acceptable.

Half way to the appointment I got a phone call saying they couldn't do the job then and that they would be back in touch to re-arrange.

Total silence from Autoglass since.

Managed to dig out the semi-secret phone number to speak to a human but two calls haven't gotten me much beyond "An e-mail has been set to our technical help desk." So far as I can see the semi-secret phone number goes to a trained petting and feather smoothing person who isn't really authorised to do anything. First time round I did get the pleasure of 20 minutes on hold listening to "music!" that was crappy even before being wrecked by the on hold filters. Small reward was being able to tease out a suggestion that the issues were due to some of the external trim being obsolete and no longer available from Land Rover. Second call was less helpful.

So tell me something I didn't know.

Looks like that as of now the lower trim is un-obtanium new, pattern upper trims can be got and trim clips for both can be found but it's unclear whether or not they are factory or pattern. So whats the next move given that I've already started the insurance company route.

Ultimate fall back is I buy a screen, find trims, accepting used but good for the lower, and pay an independent fitter to do the deed. Approaching £1,000 I fear. Ouch!

Last time round Direct Line got National Windscreens on the job. Fitted a pattern, un-tinted screen with iffy heating, re-used the old trim and dislodged the rubber finisher between screen and dashboard. Also managed to damage the bottom trim and, I suspect, some of the clips. Not going there again.

Clive

I had to have a new screen 3 or 4 years ago (or maybe more, doesn't time fly?). Call me a control freak if you like but I worked on the principle that a windscreen fitter may be perfectly skilled at fitting windscreens but maybe not so skilled at removing old, quite possibly brittle, plastic trims in one piece. So before the guy arrived I took the side trims off so I could slide the bottom trim off (so it doesn't break the clips). Between us we got the top trim off but some of the clips still broke. After he had fitted the screen, he helped me refit the trims. There was enough clips in one piece to hold the top one on but I bought a pack of new ones, and subsequently fitted it properly.

Gilbertd wrote:

so I could slide the bottom trim off (so it doesn't break the clips). Between us we got the top trim off but some of the clips still broke.

The bottom clips that look like this (BTR4428)?

I'm suprised that you found them fragile. I've had my bottom trim off about four times this year looking for leaks in the pollen filter area and haven't broken any yet. I just pull the trim up. Some of the clips come out of the bottom trim but they can be slid back into the rail. Unfortunately I am missing one that someone must have lost in the past. They appear to be unavailable.

The top trim clips are readily available for cheap which is nice. It's handy to have a sunroof to fit/remove them.

All my bottom clips survived but rather than pull the trim straight off, I slid it sideways and it came off easily once the side trims were off.

Good point about sliding the bottom trim off. Might take a look when it stops raining and warms up a bit to see how many clips are actually broken on both trims. Like pretty much everything to do with ageing plastic clips I reckon third time is the charm. First couple of goes odds are one or more gets broken.
Another skill to learn.
Guess next step is to bike over to Autoglass next week and talk to the fitter direct.

Far as bottom clips are concerned I found a couple of places claiming to have them a week or so back but everyone says no longer available. Heritage claim 8 to 12 weeks delivery tho'. At £ 6 a pop. Yikes!

Clive

Over the years, whenever I was at a breakers yard, I would grab as many of the windshield clips I could
successfully remove.
When It came time to replace my windshield, (Frozen branch at 60mph) I first insisted to my local shop that I wanted a genuine heated, tinted Pilkington part, which they got from RR. I then printed the section of RAVE
describing the procedure and gave that along with a bunch of clips, and a set of good used top and bottom
trim pieces to the installer.
With all of that, they nearly got it right, and I only needed to re fit the top trim to stop it vibrating at above 80 mph.
Nice to know the top clips are still available.

I also did as Richard did when I had mine replaced last year. I disassembled everything other than removing the wind screen. I was very happy that I did that. IIRC the man hours allowed by the insurance company was 3.5. There’s no way the installer could have taken as much care as I did with all the plastic bits. This way he had lots of time to do a nice job of the wind screen R&R.

New screen finally fitted this afternoon. Only took 5 phone calls and lots of discussion to get a new appointment.

Another pattern one unfortunately so it's not going to last. Fitter was chatty and agreed that an original one was far thicker and far stronger but insurance jobs don't get factory screens unless the car is under three years old. Top trim had been bodged on by fitter of previous screen and was unusable so he fitted a universal soft trim they keep for such jobs. Which actually looks good. Paying for wiper blades on the original booking was a big mistake. The Bosch ones Autoglass keep are too stiff to follow the screen. Reckon the chances of a refund are zilch.

The fitter told me that the original cancellation notice was issued by Autoglass central after he asked where the trims were as only the screen had been delivered. Autoglass central told him that they would contact me and sort things out.

What interesting news!

With 20/20 hindsight I should have ignored the cancellation notice and just turned up. Fitter said that he'd have been perfectly happy to fit the screen with the old trims if I'd personally given the go-ahead there and then. Fitter completely unsurprised that Autoglass central didn't have a clue about trims not being available from Land Rover.

Got well and truly rained on wandering around Tonbridge whilst job was being done to see what had changed in the 30 odd years since I last went there. Horrified to see they still have a Wimpy Bar in the High Street. I thought Wimpy went extinct last century!

Clive

I have to replace another one (only got 2 years on my last one). They “sand” our winter highways here in British Columbia with rocks! I live near the west coast, and there wasn’t a replacement to be found in Western Canada. The new one had to be ordered from Land Rover in Toronto (4000 km away). At least the insurance company pays for most of it.