Picked up my chili 2007 Chili Red MCS on 3/30 and 6 days later windshield got dinged by something. Just my luck. Boo hoo hoo!
I don't know how well they fix these dings but I will find out on Monday.

 

OUCH!!

 

I have a few of those too. One is right at eye level so it drives me batty. Can it be repaired?

 

I found out today that the ding in my windshield, about the size of a nickle can be fixed so it's barely noticable. That's what I was told. I will let you know how it comes out on Monday. I am so upset 'bout it I hardly slept last night.

 

Sorry to hear about your windshield There are some window-chip/repair experts out "there" who are really terrific. 2 days before AMVIV I took a big rock to my 2nd windshield (in 6 months). I was ready to cry. But upon arriving home we called several places and found a pro.

One thing to note - we were told to drop whatever we had going that day and to bring LilTiger (my baby) to him immediately to avoid ANY moisture (and we were having a sunny and 70 day in Cali that day) getting inside it.

I'm happy to say that for $45, the dime-size chip I had is now only visible by a very faint little "halo" or "ring" around where the chip used to be. Without someone actually going looking for it, no one even knows it's there.

$45 was a big relief since I'd already put $265 into rain sensor windshields twice in the 6 months since bringing her home.

Wishing you good luck!

 

Sorry bout that, when i got my windshield cracked, i had to get it completely replaced :| Good Luck

 

Hey, you have me beat!

Small chip today. 216 miles on the car. It's about the size of the tip of a dull pencil. Not reallt a ding and probably not worth filling (we'll see). Sounded like a shot when it hit, though. I thought it was a bad one, for sure.

 

Ding repair is fantastic. Catch them while they are small and before they start to spread. Most car insurers will waive the deductible and pay for the repair. Ask the workman; they usually have the paperwork to get it paid for.

 

I think you will find that many R56 owners have windshield dings. For some reason this design seems to be prone to them.

 

Good luck with the chip repair - we had it done on my wife's '05 and were very disappointed with it. The chip was probably dime sized and on the driver side. Although the repair lessened the visual appearance, to us it was still very noticeable and annoying. I had the windshield replaced two weeks later. If it had been on the passenger side, we probably could have lived with it.

 

Windshield cracks and dings seem to be a common problem on Minis. My 04MC had a stress crack which was replaced under warranty and my 06MCS has had two windshields replaced because of rocks. The last one I could see comimg right at my head and I thought a bomb went off when it hit.

06MCS/DS/B/Bbonnetstripes/Whalen8ballshiftmachine

 

May be because (1) they are low to the ground and catch a lot of tire spit from other cars/trucks and (2) the windshield is nearly vertical.

 

Me too! Got a crack in the windshield of my "07 MCS on the 8th day of motoring. So sad!! I'm going to wait a while to fix it, because it looks as though it is likely to happen again.

 

Well, add another one to the list. This is my first post and unfortunately it's about a windshield chip.

Yesterday was our 3rd day of ownership (MCS '07) and we were out for our first interstate ride. There was a very loud pop as something hit the windshield and it left a small 1/16" chip right in front of the driver. Can't decide whether to try having it fixed or leave it alone. Are there any national or well known chains recommended for windshield repair? I hate to just pick some unknown out of the yellow pages and let them at our new Mini.

Randy

 

That does suck, but I got you beat... I got a flat 4 days after I bought mine. To top it off the tire was unrepairable, no one in California had the tire I needed so I ended up buying 2 new tires.

At least I'm not worrying about my patched tire.

 

Finally got the nickle size ding fixed. It is still noticable. I am not too happy with it. I agree that the Mini being so low and for whatever other reason, it does get hit by road debris more than I'm used to.
Now I'm a wee bit nervous driving

 

But it's still a ton of fun!!!!

 

I got a windshield ding in my 2002 MINI Cooper, which was repaired via insurance (for free). The repair involved injecting epoxy into the ding and then curing it. The ding never spread after that, but it was always there, a little star in the windshield. To me, it wasn't worth $800 to replace the whole windshield. Hopefully this doesn't happen soon on my R56 MINI, the windshield isn't quite so upright, and I don't often drive on interstates.

 

^Wow! $800 to replace it. I think the last windshield I replaced was in my 2006 Subaru 3R and it was only like $300. Why is it so much?

 

Its not, that is the dealer blatantly ripping people off - I had the windsheild replaced with PPG (which has been great) for about $300 and it was all done very well in a shop.

The verticality of the windsheild will catch more stuff and thus be prone to chip more then cars with a more aerodynamic angle (also the OEM glass seems to be soft and dings up pretty easily). I just hope they have fixed the design/production flaw that caused all the stress cracks in the R53 so you guys don't go through that too.

 

Got our first big windshield ding this weekend onthe upper LH side--ouch. Went to the Auto Glass Center and they fixed it in 20 minutes. With a coupon it cost $11.00. Looks like a small chip now. Got it fixed immediately so it wouldn't spread They said a PPG replacemnt with the border is $325 installed.

 

Sorry to hear about your glass ding; very annoying. I boutght a 2003 Toyota MR2 Spyder. I flew up to Denver to pick it up from the dealer and then drove to Vail to spend some time with my daughter, who lives there. I arrived in Vail with three paint chips and one good-sized glass nick. Colorado puts cinders on their roads in the winter, and most winter-driven Colorado cars have loads of nicks and chips.

I think that part of the problem is the powerful trucking lobby and the excessive use of trucks to move long-haul freight that could be moved at lower cost and with less fuel on trains. It really gets me to see a sign on the back of a truck that says "stay back 200 feet, not responsible for damage." To me that simply says that the truck owner knows that their truck/s cause damage, but they are choosing to place the cost of looses on drivers. They could do more to reduce this kind of damage.

[sermon completed]

Joe

 

I hope that in the future Mini will look into replacing the windshield glass they use now with a harder type that can withstand the road debris without cracking as often.

 

I just got my first little ding this morning.. or maybe last night.. I bought my 04 cooper last night too... Does anyone happen to know if this stuff is legit?

http://www.alltvstuff.com/leat4.html

Seems to be perfect for the situation the windshield is in, but I don't want to spend $15 if it doesn't work to begin with. Anyone ever use this stuff or something simliar know if it works fine?

 

It's a general MINI flaw. My best advice is to get any chip filled immediately before it can crack.

MINI will charge around $800 for a replacement, and replace it with the same soft POS glass.

But if you find a good glass shop, you can get it done for $200-300, and they will use good PPG glass if you ask.

If it's just a star chip and doesn't need to be full-on replaced, the repair from a mobile service is around $50.