Wavy Windshield - warranty?

chaos · Aug 23, 2021

New guy here - just picked up my AT4 today - love the truck so far - found one spec'd like I wanted it after looking for a couple months. Drove 3.5 hours to get it - long day but happy with the truck.

One thing I noticed on the drive home (didn't notice on the admittedly short test drive) is a distortion in the windshield right in the middle of field of driver view. Almost looks like waves and I"m sure it's something from the manufacturing process. Primarily noticed during highway driving, and before buying this truck we had test drove 3 other similar and were just waiting on what we wanted - so I wasn't really focused on that and only drove around town. Dealer being 3+ hours away means I can't easily take it back to them - so I'll be going by my local place tomorrow.

In the meantime - I was curious if anyone else had seen similar on their trucks or maybe I got unlucky? After driving for several hours home - I found if I slouched low enough in the seat - it wasn't in the middle of my field of view - but that's not easy to do (I'm 6'4") and not a long term solution. I found it gave me a headache after a little while (hence the need to slouch).

I'll try to get a photo of the distortion - but it almost looks like heat waves with the windshield moving on bumpy roads.

And photo of the truck at the dealership prior to pickup (just because):

LamboTexas · Aug 24, 2021

Congrats! Great looking truck! Yep, definitely a defect in windshield. Take it to your local dealership and should be free replacement. Enjoy the truck!

chaos · Aug 25, 2021

Took to dealership this evening - new windshield will be on order tomorrow - no idea when it will be in though. I kind of hate having to put a new windshield in a new truck, but it is what it is. If the original dealer had found it they probably would have done it and no one would have been the wiser.

LamboTexas · Aug 25, 2021

chaos said:
Took to dealership this evening - new windshield will be on order tomorrow - no idea when it will be in though. I kind of hate having to put a new windshield in a new truck, but it is what it is. If the original dealer had found it they probably would have done it and no one would have been the wiser.

Yep- but it’s always good to get it fixed and taken care of so that it doesn’t drive you crazy. Hopefully the delivery time won’t be bad and you can move on.

Regular Cab Duallies · Aug 25, 2021

Darn, too bad this was a problem. On the positive side, at least it isn't a windshield recall...

...for it not being properly adhered. That's a Ford problem.

Will it be covered under warranty?

chaos · Aug 25, 2021

Regular Cab Duallies said:
Darn, too bad this was a problem. On the positive side, at least it isn't a windshield recall...

...for it not being properly adhered. That's a Ford problem.

Will it be covered under warranty?

Yea - it's annoying. Luckily covered under warranty.

However - while getting a photo of the stake pocket hole to design a plug/cover for it (I am not paying $25 for a 3d printed part when I can do it myself) I also noticed a little gouge/ding in my bed tonight near the handle for the step. There's some dirt in it currently (left over from the dealer) so I'll clean it out tomorrow to make sure that there isn't bare metal showing under. I'll bring this up to them when I go to get the windshield replaced and they better be fixing this too. However I'm not sure how they fix bed defects with the factory applied bedliner. I don't want to be that guy but a new 60K truck should be better than this.

chaos · Sep 3, 2021

Heard back from the dealer - 1 month leadtime on the windshield. Haven't brought up the ding in the truck bed yet. May stop out there to see what they can do.

chaos · Oct 11, 2021

Reporting back. Windshield finally arrived and installed on Sept 20. No more wavy windshield. Had that and a driver front window trim piece replaced. Took them 2 days and they left the truck dirty (dirty/dusty footprints on running boards and inside on floor mats) with bug guts on the new windshield and front grill. I know because I washed the truck before dropping it off with them.

Decided to not do anything with the ding in the bed as it is prior to the liner installation and no metal is showing so it's still sealed. Also I frankly don't have faith in their ability to fix. They said they would have to strip the entire bed liner out, fix the dent in the bed, repaint the bed, and then re-bedline it. My concern would be that it wouldn't be as good as factory after all that work.

Also the calibration on the lane departure warning and the keep assist seems less sensitive now than it was before, but that may just be in my head. Just seems like it doesn't detect lanes where it used to before. They also put 10-15 miles for what I assume is windshield calibration.

Riverdog · Oct 12, 2021

That doesn't sound like a very good experience overall, considering what you spent. Sorry to hear this.

LamboTexas · Oct 12, 2021

chaos said:
Reporting back. Windshield finally arrived and installed on Sept 20. No more wavy windshield. Had that and a driver front window trim piece replaced. Took them 2 days and they left the truck dirty (dirty/dusty footprints on running boards and inside on floor mats) with bug guts on the new windshield and front grill. I know because I washed the truck before dropping it off with them.

Decided to not do anything with the ding in the bed as it is prior to the liner installation and no metal is showing so it's still sealed. Also I frankly don't have faith in their ability to fix. They said they would have to strip the entire bed liner out, fix the dent in the bed, repaint the bed, and then re-bedline it. My concern would be that it wouldn't be as good as factory after all that work.

Also the calibration on the lane departure warning and the keep assist seems less sensitive now than it was before, but that may just be in my head. Just seems like it doesn't detect lanes where it used to before. They also put 10-15 miles for what I assume is windshield calibration.

Glad it is fixed. If it was me, I’d never return to that dealership again. I’d drive as far as I had too for another one.

chaos · Oct 14, 2021

LamboTexas said:
Glad it is fixed. If it was me, I’d never return to that dealership again. I’d drive as far as I had too for another one.

I don't plan to - the next closest GMC dealer to me is right at half an hour, vs about 15 minutes for the one I took it to. Not sure how good their service will be, but I'll be taking it to them to re-calibrate the windshield and lane departure warning and lane keep assist. I'm convinced it doesn't work as well now as it did - it doesn't work at all at night now, and I think it worked before on roads with just a center line and no right line - but now it doesn't.

Anyone have a tech or safety package who could confirm their lane departure works on two way roads without a white line on the shoulder side?