I just put the roof down on my spider and heard 2 massive cracks. Thought it was just the frame creaking, put the roof back up and the rear window is split and cracked all over the place, totally destroyed.
Is it common knowledge to not put the roof down when the weather is cold?
Had loads of cabriolets in the past and never had this happen before. Pissed right off about it. Got to get a new window now. Anyone know where to get one from?
Yes, i thought this was common knowledge. In convertible vehicles where the rear window is the folding variety you should only use it within its working temperatures ie. normal/warm.
I've also got an E36 M3 vert and I put the roof down on that last week when the weather was colder and there was ice on the car. Had no problems with that, and it's 2 years older than my Spider. My Alfa hasn't left the garage all winter so it can't be as cold as the BMW is with snow all over it. Been searching on the forums and seems it happened to a few people. Seems Alfa Romeo haven't chosen the best quality rear windows.
had the same thing a couple of years ago , carhoods direct do the rear window but comes with the material at the bottom costs something like 140 quid , not to hard to fit just a zip a few allen bolts at the bottom and velcro down the sides , but i have heard some people sewing in the plastic on its own , not sure where they got that from though
OMG:wow: I've had my roof down (see topless thread!) but no probs so far There is a really great guy-Neil Catlow, an alfa nut with a garage and he breaks too; I know he's on here somewhere and on facebook if you're on there too? If not and you want his details PM me??
Cheers m8 Jill
There are two aspects to the cracking. Summertime UV exposure will degrade the plastic over time and make it inherently more brittle, increasing the chances of it shattering during cold spells.
I am sure that it has been mentioned on this forum that users of Renovo to polish out scratches reported a much more flexible screen as a side effect.
Limited UV exposure and use of Renovo might explain why some get away with it...whilst others don't.
Happened to me too. Managed to score a whole new hood on ebay for £90 with a slightly spotty back window & the local sailmaker has replaced it for £20. now I've gotta get up the courage to fit it..
I think this is standard for all cars with plastic windows. If I want to put roof down when cold, I stop the motor just before the window folds and make sure that it will fold manually - get a nice crease half way across.
Think i've got a decent ending to this. Found a company in Newport who will replace the rear screen for £40 providing I bring them the rear window section. Just taken it out now.
I'm glad i'm not alone here. The excact same thing happened to me on Tuesday. Got home from work early, the sun was out (bit cold still) so thought i'd run the spider down to the shops. Put the roof down and the plastic screen just cracked! It's not all bad because I needed to get a new surround as it had started to come away from the frame where you put the allen bolts through and was starting to look untidy, so it's made me go out and get a complete new rear. Being fitted tomorrow which is good except for the £295 it's gonna cost. Still saves me having to bother and braking something else.
An alternative to Renovo is Greygate plastic polish, it's sold on Ebay and the saddo's who bought the wrong cars (MGF forum) swear by it. It was used by the old GPO for polishing the old bakerlite phones.
I tried it and it did clear the "fuzz" and seemed to soft up the window.
I saw those, I was going to buy one but I wasn't too clear with the "comes with both parts of the zip". Put me off.
I found a local interior trimmer that replaced the screen for me. I removed the rear panel and he fitted a new one in for £40.
Removing and refitting the panel is easy enough, lift up the rear section of the roof and you'll see a row of torx screws on the bottom of the roof frame. Be careful as they are easily rounded off. Then you pull it from the velcro and unzip it at the top, remove 2 elastic straps (held on with a popper thingy) and it's out. Pretty easy job to do.
The thing is, if the screen supplied on ebay doesn't mesh with the zip on the car, what do you do then, mess about sewing in a new zip? Might fit fine though.
Thats the reason why I had mine fitted. Apparently there are 3 different types of zip depending on when your spyder was built. I was going to fit mine myself but because the zip on the new rear screen was different to the one the old screen, I had the bloke fit it as I didn't have the time/confidence to sew a new zip in myself. Dropped it off this morning and he phoned me at 12 to tell me it was all done. Cost a bit but the fabric on the back was getting tatty anyway so its tidied it up a treat. If your fabric on the rear that holds the screen is in good condition you can just get a new plastic screen sewn in. The bloke i went to qouted about £160 all in i think. Hope this helps.:thumbs:
Winter can catch us out, last year ive read of rear screens cracking on the mgf forums so im mindfull not to open my spider roof when its very cold . How many of us with 147s have cleaned our front screen in the snowy conditions switched the wipers on to clear the last of the de-icer, plonked it in reverse to get out of the parking space to find the rear wiper starting automatically and getting upset/suicidal with the workload of ice on the rear screen.Fortunately its not blown the motor but ive read on these forums where the front wiper motor can easily be burnt out. The central locking can also go out of sink at below freezing.
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