Windscreen replacement across Sydney

When we finish. That is not a shortcut and it is not a claim about the adhesive: urethane has to reach a minimum strength before the windscreen can hold in a crash and support the passenger airbag, and that point is the safe drive away time. The difference is that we stay with the vehicle through the cure rather than leaving you to sit it out on your own, so the waiting happens inside the job instead of after it. Temperature and humidity change how long the adhesive needs, so we wait on the adhesive rather than on a figure printed on a tin.

If your vehicle has a camera mounted behind the windscreen, yes. That camera feeds systems such as lane keep assist, autonomous emergency braking, adaptive cruise control and traffic sign recognition, and it is aimed relative to the glass it sits behind. Replace the glass and the aim changes, so the camera has to be recalibrated to the manufacturer's procedure. Cameras behind the windscreen became common on Australian vehicles from around 2017 onwards.

No, and any business that says yes is cutting a corner. Urethane adhesive will not bond reliably to a wet surface, and the bond is what holds the windscreen in during a crash. If we cannot get the vehicle somewhere dry and sheltered, such as a garage or carport, we reschedule rather than fit it in poor conditions. Strong wind and extreme heat can cause the same decision.

Original equipment glass as standard, which means glass from the vehicle manufacturer's own supplier rather than a copy made to the same shape. All automotive glass legally fitted in Australia has to comply with Australian Design Rule 8/01 and carry an etched compliance mark, so aftermarket glass is not unsafe, but original equipment is what your vehicle was designed around, and on a car with a camera behind the screen the optical quality in that part of the glass is part of the specification. Where a vehicle is old or rare enough that original equipment glass is no longer made, we will tell you what the alternative is before booking rather than substituting quietly.

About two and a half hours on site for a plain replacement, and about three where your vehicle needs its camera recalibrated afterwards. That includes the time the adhesive spends curing, because we stay with the vehicle rather than leaving and asking you to wait, so the car is ready to drive when we finish. It is a long time to have a car occupied and it is worth knowing before you book. Most people leave it at home or in the work carpark and get on with the day.

It depends on your policy. Comprehensive policies commonly include glass cover, and many Australian insurers offer optional windscreen cover that reduces or removes the excess on a glass claim. Whether a glass claim affects your no claim discount, and whether you can choose your own repairer rather than use the insurer's network, varies between insurers. We work with all the major Australian insurers, though the claim is lodged by you as the vehicle owner rather than by us, and your product disclosure statement rather than your repairer decides what is actually covered.

That band is called the frit. It is a ceramic layer baked into the glass, and it does two jobs. It hides the urethane adhesive bead and the edge of the trim so the join looks finished, and more importantly it shields the adhesive from ultraviolet light, which would otherwise break the bond down over time. The dots that fade inwards from it spread the temperature change across the glass so the frit does not heat at a different rate to the clear area.