Cooler Weather Can Cause An Issue For Your Windshield Chip Or Crack
As summer comes to an end and fall arrives, conditions outside will start to cool off and perhaps things are already getting chilly in your neck of the woods. If you've been driving with a small chip or crack on your auto glass this summer, this is a situation that can't continue any longer. To be clear, you should really never drive with damaged auto glass during any time of year, but the fall and winter seasons can bring conditions that could make the situation even worse. Here's why you need to get your vehicle to an auto glass repair shop as soon as possible.
Glass Contracts in Cold Weather
The auto glass in your car is known to slightly expand during warm weather and contract during cold weather. That's simply what glass does, but it normally would never swing in either direction enough to cause an issue. But if you have a crack on your windshield, the next time your glass contracts, you could be in for trouble. That's because the contracting glass will put additional pressure around the area with the crack, making it much more likely that the cracked area will cave to the pressure and expand further.
You Are More Likely to Need Your Defroster During Cold Weather and That's a Bad Idea If You Have Cracked Auto Glass
If you are already starting to find a thin coating of ice on your windshield in the morning or simply some fog or mist that you get rid of with your wipers and defroster, you should not go forward one more day without getting your cracked windshield looked at by a repair professional. Blowing the warm air from the defroster onto one side of a cracked windshield while the other side is still cold is another way to cause a reaction that could cause the windshield to crack even further.
Cold Weather Visibility Can Be Bad Enough On Its Own, Don't Make Things Worse With a Cracked Windshield
Maybe you go through the summer by just ignoring the small little crack in your windshield and it was no problem because most of your auto glass was crystal clear. This might not be the case anymore once fall and winter return. If it starts getting icy in the morning or evening or you even get some early snow, you are going to have more visual obstacles to deal with or road conditions you'll have to pay closer attention to. Getting rid of the crack now will make sure you aren't adding yet another possible issue to worry about when driving during cold weather.