Comfort glass
 

Time for a new windshield on the X5. I’ve had several rock chips I’ve been living with but as of last week, I’ve now got a crack due to taking a piece of debris in the lips from a car going the other direction on a two lane road. I don’t know how that even happens.

At any rate, I’d like to do the OE comfort glass if guys who have it can recommend. I’ve read the few threads on it here which mostly have to do with locating the right PN and supplier. Looks like PWG makes it, but does it make a a difference?

Thanks all

Can't help about the glad question but I can answer how a stone gets you when it doesn't seem to make sense.

I was one lane over from a dump truck carrying (and slowly depositing some) stones and i watched time and time again as a stone would fall off the back.

As they fell they start at the same speed as the truck and upon contract with the ground forward inertia would slide the stone along the ground at 55 mph.

The stone would start to spin rather fast. Think of the RPM needed to go 55 when you have a radius less than a cm!

So it spins picking up more and more RPM, hopping each time it contacts the ground.

When the timing works out just right that a longer axis is about to hit the ground from the spin it'll hop 3-4' in the air.

They would typically bounce 4-6x before the big hop, typically bouncing less than 6 inches but about 10–20 % of them would do the big hop.

Saw maybe 20 stones hopping no more than a foot off the ground but 3-4 doing the big hop and it was right beside me one lane over was fascinating to watch.


–awr–

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If possible look about getting gulf edition glass. It's pretty amazing that mine only gets hot enough in the sun to bake bread and not charcoal...[emoji1787]

My glass is two layers with an extra thick middle membrane. I don't know if it's even available stateside but if it is, it's worth it. I'll attach a picture of the side window, but you'll get the idea.
The windshield from outside shows a greenish tint from dead on, but shows the slight purple tint at an angle outside. From inside it's definitely clearer.

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I’ll definitely see what I can dig up…sounds promising. I’m going to go down the PWG this am and I’ll ask them if they can find the gulf version too.

I suspect that is what happened to me Andrew. The rock came off the car somehow, or was kicked up and took a crazy hop.

I've had plenty of windshield hits, chips, and cracks (currently my two aged General Motors pick-ups have them; is it because they're old, or did GM use inferior glass?), but fortunately none so far on my '01 X5.

I've had road debris get two radiators, though. Both were large screwdrivers. On the same pickup ('86 Chevy S-10).

At first, I thought the first screwdriver was intentionally inserted at work, by a disgruntled co-worker (one if many), since I discovered it as I was leaving work for the day, and never noticed it when I had driven to work, or as I parked the truck. It was a large Klein screwdriver (I still have it, decades later), and I couldn't believe that anyone would abandon an expensive tool like that .

About a year later, driving home in the same S-10, I saw an object fly up from under the dual wheels of a dump truck, and it struck my radiator (at first, I ducked a bit, thinking it would hit the windshield). Again, it was a large screwdriver. Since bad things always happen in threes, I expected another incident, but the S-10 got T-boned and scrapped before a third screwdriver 🪛 headed it's way.

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Comfort glass meaning better sound insulation was never available on E53. "Clima comfort" is what EODguy is talking about meaning IR (=heat) reflecting foil in the glass which shows as different tint especially with polaroid glasses. That foil is metallic and therefore also reduces the the passage of RF waves like cell phone and GPS signals. (The reason why clima comfort glass was never available for E39 touring with navigation because the GPS antenna was on the dash.)

No luck at PWG. I stopped by the PWG warehouse in town and a rep was good enough to try to track down the “climate comfort windscreen” (no rain sensor on mine) for me. It was listed in his system as an available replacement for my e53, but there were none in the PWG system that the could order.

I assume thst I could get one from BMW since it was still in RealOEM, but it was over $800 at getbmwparts.com and local pickup only. And they are generally the cheapest I’ve found for OE parts.

Safelite will be in my driveway next Thursday with a standard windshield. $380.