2004 LX470 Windshield Replacement in San Jose (1 Viewer)

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Aug 29, 2017
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SF Bay Area
Yeah. It happened. Huge rock came and chipped my windshield. Was going to repair it today, but it was cold last night and that chip turned into a huge crack (spanning over 12 inches...). Damn.

Geico wants me to use Safelite. I looked up the invoice. It's OEM glass (FW02520 GGYOEM) with "fleximold" -- whatever that is. I'm wondering if I should use Safelite or not. Reviews on Yelp are terrible, but mostly about terrible clean up. Spider Auto has great reviews.


Has anyone had experience with Safelite in San Jose or if someone has a better suggestion... I'll go to that shop instead. My appointment is tomorrow morning. Any advice would be appreciated.
 
I ended up just doing Lexus of Pleasanton with OEM glass on my 2004 LX470.... Around $1,000. Whats the cost they're looking at with OEM glass? With the work involved, I enjoyed the peace of mind that Lexus did it in case I have any issues with leaking. It's not your normal install.
 
I just called Lexus of Santa Clara. They quoted me similar with all the proper fittings. I'm canceling my Safelite appointment now. It really helped that I couldn't even reach a real person at Safelite. That made it easier. Maybe I'll call Pleasanton and get their quote as well. Santa Clara quoted me around $1300... the Safelite invoice was about $1200. Both with OEM Glass.
 
This is fun. I cancelled Safelite appointment and decided to use the dealership. I get an email requesting an inspection, by... you guessed it... Safelite.

Interesting game. Geico sure doesn't make it easy to use a shop of your choice... even though, by law, they're required to do so.
 
This is fun. I cancelled Safelite appointment and decided to use the dealership. I get an email requesting an inspection, by... you guessed it... Safelite.

Interesting game. Geico sure doesn't make it easy to use a shop of your choice... even though, by law, they're required to do so.

Dealerships don’t do glass. They sub it out.
 
Yeah. Both guys (dealerships) told me they'd sub out the work. That said, Safelite's invoice did not have the proper side and top moldings included in the quote. I tried to reach out to them so we could talk through the actual parts they were going to use. I ended up wasting 45 minutes. At one point, I had a customer service representative put me on hold to call the shop (apparently we can't actually have the number).... and then just hung up on me when it was 5:00. I mean I literally called at 4:50... and then at 5:00 while on the call, they just hung up.

It's more expensive with the dealer, but at least I know I'm getting all the right parts. I'll take some before and after pictures.
 
My sister had the windshield in his 07’ replaced and it was wind noise afterwards! He had to get it redone twice! I’ve never read of so many issues with such appears to be a straight forward installation
 
I know it's not SJ but I've had much better experiences with Lexus of Redwood City. I would call them just to see what they say for a quote. If anything, it might help with your quote from Santa Clara?

My windshield just cracked and I will unfortunately be dealing with the same thing you are over the next few days.
 
I just got 3 quotes. Pleasanton Lexus had all the same parts and was around $1350 with OEM glass and fittings. Santa Clara was over $1600 (final quote). Safelite was $1300 with OEM glass, strange "fleximold" fittings, and zero communication. Labor was $250 (Pleasanton), $350 (Santa Clara), and $150 (Safelite), respectively. The weirdest part was that Safelite had the highest quote for the glass by over $300.
 
Also interested (in SF), as I've got a 9" crack or so from some road debris at some point. I think AAA will reimburse $50 (I swear I only paid $100 deductible before, but maybe I'm just getting old), so would be looking for something reasonably priced but willing to pay more to not deal with a crappy install. Or maybe I'll let it go through another snow season since that's probably what caused it to begin with.
 
Also interested (in SF), as I've got a 9" crack or so from some road debris at some point. I think AAA will reimburse $50 (I swear I only paid $100 deductible before, but maybe I'm just getting old), so would be looking for something reasonably priced but willing to pay more to not deal with a crappy install. Or maybe I'll let it go through another snow season since that's probably what caused it to begin with.
Another snow season might make it spiderweb into something much worse than now.
 
When they remove the rivets for the side moldings make sure they use the right size drill bit. Sloppy installers tend to oversize, which makes it hard to put in the correct rivet AFTER the glass is repaired.

Had this issue with my car and the installer ended up using silicone to glue the side moldings back on.
 
When I talked to Santa Clara, they said the guys do rivets. Its my last question before I approve the work. I don't know how Pleasanton does it, but LEXUS of Santa Clara has it on the invoice. I'll keep everyone posted. I'd really like to keep my cruiser for a while, so it's important to me that it's done right. I just want to note that Pleasanton was almost $300 cheaper.
 
So... just got my windshield installed yesterday. The installation looks awesome, but the glass has some distortion in it. I called Santa Clara Lexus and I was pretty pleased with the response. They said they'd order a new windshield to get the ball rolling and call me in the morning to drop the car off.

So far, I'd say I've been really impressed with the parts department at this Lexus dealership. It's basically nothing like my experiences in town at other (non-Lexus) dealerships.

The difference in installation between the the previous windshield and this one was pretty significant. The moldings fit perfect. When they uninstalled the moldings and rubber covering they immediately noticed Safelite used the wrong rivets which made the fittings not flush with the vehicle. I'm positive the buzzing I'd hear at around 50+ mph was directly related.
 
Geico said the OEM glass was covered, but I'm in the middle of submitting a claim for it. They made me pay out of pocket first. Pretty sure that's a scare tactic. I think Lexus is going to file their own claim for the bad windshield they installed. More on that later.

I was pretty surprised how much the distorted windshield hurt my eyes. I only drove a short 30 minutes today, but it's really uncomfortable to drive with someone else's bifocals...
 
I'll spare everyone the full story, but I'd stay away from Lexus of Steven's Creek and Silicon Valley Auto Glass. If you want the lengthy story you can PM me. Bottom line, these guys could really care less about doing the job right. It was way more hassle than necessary. If I had known, I would have just kept driving until the windshield had fallen out.

I'd go with anyone else.
 

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