[keat99]

Guys.

I'm not sure if this has been asked on here before now.

Over on the UK forum, wev'e had 4 new members in as many weeks reporting the glass roof has failed (imploded), leaving glass everywhere, with little or no evidence of road debris causing the failure.
At the moment, we are currently being lead to believe that these occurances are a random glass failure.

Have the US suffered anything similar. ??

 

[bluntman]

Thankfully, not by me.

 

[tom93r1]

I wouldn't imagine it gets hot enough in UK, but in summer when it gets really warm it is not difficult to shatter glass by spraying with water. Glass moon roofs in particular seem to be sensitive to this. I won't wash any car mid-day in the heat of summer as a precaution.

 

[cobra259]

Never seen one break on a Sportage.

 

[imay]

Tempered glass - shouldn't be shattering unless something (someone) has given it a decent whack with something solid . . . I would have thought.

 

[keat99]

It's not been warm in the UK since June last year. Please do keep the comments coming though guys. I'm intrigued to learn if there have been any reports of such events.

 

[GregsKia]

There have been over 10,000 sunroof failures in the United States in the past 2 years over ALL manufacturers. Panoramic and standard. It is caused by Bernoulli Effect happening to the glass. I have done quite a bit of research on this. Rapid altitude change seems to be the most common cause for explosion, whether it be 500 ft or 5000. <95% of cases were where the glass exploded outward.

 

[Censu]

i have a panoramic roof and live in Malta with summer temperatures sometimes exceeding 40deg cel. Up till now no real problems. i do normally leave the roof slightly ajar when parked in the sun.

 

[keat99]

There have been over 10,000 sunroof failures in the United States in the past 2 years over ALL manufacturers. Panoramic and standard. It is caused by Bernoulli Effect happening to the glass. I have done quite a bit of research on this. Rapid altitude change seems to be the most common cause for explosion, whether it be 500 ft or 5000. <95% of cases were where the glass exploded outward.

Hi GregsKia

I'm not sure if this would be the case regarding the ones here in the UK, if i'm being honest.
These people would have us believe they were travelling about thier normal duties.
There are not many places in the UK, you could perform a rapid descent legally.

 

[1saxman]

If they're talking about Bernoulli's Principle in relation to the failures, they're talking about lift, like the low pressure area on top of a curved aircraft wing. "and that a curved streamline will develop a pressure gradient perpendicular to the direction of flow, with the lower pressure on the inside of the curve". The only thing a descent would have to do with it is a possible increase in speed from simply going downhill which would increase the 'lift' on top of a vehicle with a curved top of the appropriate shape. Sounds like a rather unfortunate development. Possibly an airfoil placed on top at the leading edge of the glass could break the lift, or maybe they will redesign the glass top to be in smaller sections. If the shape of the roof of the car could generate 0.3 lb/sq. in. of lift at an air speed of 70 MPH (road speed plus or minus any wind depending on direction), it would be exerting a total of 180 lb of lift on a 600 sq. in. piece of glass. Maximum deformation would occur in the center of the piece, and combined with normal road turbulence could evidently quickly fatigue the glass to the point of failure. A smaller piece of glass would be more rigid and less likely to deform enough to fail in this fashion.
Many cars today have a roofline that looks like the top side of an aircraft wing if you think about it - maybe there really is something good about 'road-hugging weight'.

 

[imay]

Have just had mine in for its 45,000km service and asked the question of Service Manager whether he has heard of any of these "exploding roof" problems. Got a phone call back today (after he checked further for me) and there have been none reported in Australia that he has been able to find, only a couple of complete replacements for excessive rattling, where they suspected the vehicle had been in a collision and could have been "twist" or re-installation related.

Suggests it could be weather related with extreme variations in temps, and or freezing situations. Are panorama roofs freely available in countries that experience these conditions?

 

[Dclapper]

Sunroof Shattering

I've been searching the internet and have found several folks stating they have experienced their Kia sunroof exploding without cause. Last week mine did this very thing. My 2013 Sorento is only eight months old and while driving down the interstate at 75 mph my sunroof shatters. Covered in glass, I looked to see if something could have fallen or been thrown from another vehicle...but the closest one was 3 car lengths behind me. Dealership is sending a "Field Agent" to look at it. It's been 5 days and nothing yet. I'm terrified to get back in it...since most the glass fell into my kids car seats, thank goodness they weren't with me at the time.
Elevation may be part of it. I was at a high elevation, got out of the car, and returned to driving, then at the base of the mountain is when it shattered. Interesting as well, I experienced a nose bleed just moments after. I've never had a nose bleed before but know that pressure changes can cause these too. Worried and frustrated.:mellow:

 

[darklight]

If I recall correctly Hyundai has had problems with Veloster sunroofs exploding. I wonder if where they and KIA are sourcing their glass has anything to do with it.

 

[tom93r1]

Doesn't the Sportage have air vents under the rear bumper? You know how when you see cars driving around without the rear bumper there are those vents opening and closing like little shutters? They should relieve internal cabin pressure when you are running the climate control in the fresh air setting.

Keep us posted on what the agent says, my parents live up in the high mountain areas of Colorado and I just got home from about 1000 miles of driving over mountain passes.

 

[keat99]

The two or three complaints we had on the UK forum disappeared in to obscurity.

 

[SlovaKIA]

Frankly to me they sounded like made up stories by one unfortunate fella whos roof imploded.

 

[keat99]

I also thought that.
I also considered it might have been Bill causing a stir

 

[SlovaKIA]

I didn't get that far lol.

 

[twinscroll]

Glass is an imperfect material; small uniformity variations create weaknesses, and no two glass windows will be exactly the same regardless of manufacturing quality. Glass has inherent random internal stress, and can spontaneously shatter. That said, windows don't shatter constantly everywhere mysteriously.

Windshields/windscreens are usually laminated, while sunroofs/T-Tops/Targa are almost all tempered. I've no point here, just something I noted.

Physics confuses me terribly, but going on 1saxman's interpretation of how Bernoulli's principle is acting, I'd think an aerofoil would only decrease pressure further on the sunroof, but maybe keep it uniformly low? (In other words, put an air deflector over the sunroof, which could help or make it worse). All I remember from physics is that glass is a super-slow liquid.

I've seen tempered glass get cracks suddenly with only a temperature change, but it was very old glass with extra stress that could have had a chip. On the plus side, expect square pebbles to rain down from a shattered tempered sunroof, not decapitating-shards of glass knives.

 

[Steinberg99]

Glass failure/explode twice in 8 months

Driving to work in july 2013 i heard a loud pop sound and looked around and noticed nothing out of the ordinary about 10 seconds later my panoramic sunroof shattered. I thought maybe something was kicked up from a truck in front of me and hit the roof so i filed a claim with my insurance comany. Luckly it was taken care of. Now its march 2014 and i had the same think happen, i heard a loud pop looked around and saw nothing until the next day. My windshield was cracked and the panel of glass between the windshield and the panoramic sunroof shattered. I too called the dealer and they told me to call my insurance company that this was not their problem. Twice is one year...i think this is a manufacturing defect. I have filed a complaint directly with kia along with photos, lets see if anything is taken care of.