Apparently 5 Maxima owners have complained to Nissan about their Skyviews shattering....any news about this?

 

I first heard about this maybe three weeks ago and the word was that the NHTSA was investagating this issue. You would like to think that this would be a major concern to them, parts flying off of the car and such. Hopefully we will here something from them soon.

 

What!!!!!???

How did you find out about this. Where can I get more info.

 

Here is the body of the article from Automotive News date May 17,2004

"Five owners of 2004 Nissan Maximas have complained to federal safety officials that the glass panels in their cars' roofs shattered while they were driving, in some cases injuring occupants.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened a preliminary investigation to determine whether the cars have a defect that constitutes a safety hazard.

The agency says that four of the five complaints involved injuries. About 70,000 of the cars were in service in the United States when NHTSA began its investigation last month. "

Nissan North America Inc. calls the roof window SkyView. It is a narrow, fixed rectangular panel installed lengthwise in the roof. The feature is standard unless a buyer orders a traditional, opening sunroof over the front seat.

 

Correction the data was May 25, 2004

 

Was just on the NHTSA web site and there are complaints for shattering skyview roofs and there is a sunroof shattering as well......hope this is nothing major

 

Five occurances represent less than one half of one-hundredth of one percent of the 120,000 '04s built so far, although one wonders whether there were cases not reported to Nissan.

But the question is, why even five? Were these cars put in a torsional stress situation greater than the skyroof could handle? Nissan advertised the '04 as having 40% greater body rigidity, but all cars have some torsional flexibility, and the size and shape of the skyroof allows very little leeway in this area.

Had some skyroofs perhaps been hit by a rock or something unbeknownst to the driver? There has been a recent spate of cases of vandals dropping things from freeway bridges in some areas of the country.

If the power sunroof incident is limited to one instance, then I don't consider that to be a problem (other than for that one driver). But five skyroofs is sort of worrisome.

 

Anyone know the range of VINs affected? Maybe an early build issue...however...

A friend had a Quest around 7 or 8 years ago and the rear window imploded in the summer. Maybe a heat stress thing?

 

I doubt it is heat stress, or we would hear a lot more about that here in Phoenix