I am driving along on Interstate 26, smooth road, no weather going on, clear night, about 7:30 pm, and the rear window on the driver's side just exploded. BANG!!!!! Oblong hole in window, rest like a spider web. All fell out as I drove home. Nothing hit it, had not been raised or lowered for hours, there is NO reason that I know for it to have happened. Bought car in March, 2012. 12,000 miles on it. NO other damage to car, inside or out.
There have been others that have reported the same issue. Contact your dealer and see if they will replace... [edit] After a quick search, this was the only thread I found: Rear Window Broken - Is this common? | PriusChat I am pretty sure there are others though.
We had a 1995 full size dodge van going 35 mph on tar road no other cars around. Blew out side window for no reason. It just happens some times!
At least the car window was being vibrated at least a little. Glass can spontaneously shatter. I have had two houses, both with sun rooms. 25+ yrs ago, with the room closed up and probably very hot inside I came home and one piece of glass from a dual pane window (~4 yrs old) had totally shattered onto the floor. Last September the door (15 yrs old) in my sun room completely cracked (again one pane of a dual pane); it all stayed in place and it was a relatively cool day and it wasn't over 80F in the room (it can get to 110-120 F if we let it). Mike
.I have a 2013 Prius C and today I got into my very warm car shut the door push the power button and the entire back window exploded all over my driveway the car has been sitting for 14 plus hoursit has absolutely zero damage and less than 4000 miles on the odometer there doesn't seem to be any explanation other than maybe internal pressure from the heat which just doesn't seem feasible to me seems more like a safety issue
Sometimes toughened glass has tiny inclusions of Nickel Sulphide. These slowly expand putting the glass under tension until it bursts. Failures - Glass Breakage - Nickel Sulfide Inclusions I saw a sheet of glass about 12' x 25' enclosing a lift (elevator) in a shop go. Really scared everyone.
Same thing happened in my Ford Taurus a few years ago. I couldn't account for it either. Driving down a street, the passenger main window just shattered into a thousand pieces.
