Over the last year, MotorBiscuit has reported on several Teslas with glass that explodes spontaneously. Mostly, it is happening to the Tesla Model 3 and especially the passenger side rear window is the most likely to blow out. Now, this latest exploding glass story was bad, but then it gets worse. 

Earlier this month a woman was driving on a freeway in Orange County, California when she heard a cracking sound. When she looked back her rear window was shattering. She slowed down to exit the freeway when she hit a slight bump. Then, with a whoosh of air, her rear window exploded out of her Tesla. 

She changed lanes slowing down from about 70 mph. Then, an SUV makes a quick squirt to avoid the glass now skating along the freeway. The glass remained in one piece because it had window tint holding it together. 

Tesla refused to replace the back window under warranty

It so happened that this occurred not too far from the Tesla Service Center in Santa Ana. She decided she needed it fixed before she could use her Tesla and so she headed off to the Service Center. Once there, the service department refused to replace the back window under warranty. They said some object must have hit it.

Then she remembered the Teslacam and found the footage of the glass blowing out. She told insideevs, “I showed them the videos and they could see nothing did in fact hit the window. Then they turned their blame on the tint.” At this point, they were blaming the glass shattering on something wrong with the tint film. “I had to become very vocal for them to agree to cover it under warranty,” she says. “It was an awful overall experience.”

She says she had to pressure them to fix the window that day since she lives over 40 miles away. “I showed up there at about 8:50 AM and they told me it would be about two hours to replace the window,” she said. “I ended up sitting there until 1:30 PM.”

Not the first time the owner had problems at this Tesla Service Center

This wasn’t the first time this owner had problems at this Tesla Service Center. She continues, “I have been there three times now. All three times were bad experiences. After the second time, my husband and I said we would never go there again. Still, this incident happened a few miles from there so they were the closest location to get to safely. There was still broken glass in the window sill even after most of it fell out.”

Both times before she was there for a constant humming noise that continues to this day. Replacing the rubber window trim next to the A-pillar corrected things for a time but the issue recurred. Her solution doesn’t seem like a solution at all. “I just turn up my music as loud as I can to drown out the noise. It’s really sad because overall, I love my car. But the service side of Tesla has been a disappointment. 

“They have no idea how to properly treat a customer at that location. Not once in this last interaction with them did anyone ask if I was okay or apologized for what I experienced. They were more focused on trying to point the blame anywhere but on themselves for the window shattering.”