Bob,

I'm glad to see you chimed in on this issue!

Yes, please!, let's do an update on this subject as there seems to be quite limited accurate information, and even more disturbing, much misinformation out there concerning recalibration.

I also would like to see regular updates as more experience and better information becomes available. You wouldn't believe the variety of misinformation some service managers and techs at dealerships are telling both customers and glass shops.

Exotic Windscreens with ADAS should be replaced with OE/Genuine Glass and calibrated at the dealer if you want any support, or to preserve a new car warranty.

This is not a new idea. If you take your new iPhone to have the screen replaced to a bloke you found in the Yellow Pages you can't expect Apple to back it up with support when it fails.

Bob raised an interesting point about the possibility of dealer technicians not being qualified to perform calibrations correctly and most are probably reading from the manual for the first time when performing them. So there could be a problem here too, but this is out of our control.

Bottom line is if a calibration fails, or a vehicles tech will not function as it should, then the generic part in the loop will always be blamed. And rightly so in my opinion. It's not that I believe that generic glass is not up to standard, but you can't expect a dealer to inherit any problems a generic part may have caused. If its OE then there can be not complaints.

I personally installed a late model VW Golf with Rain/light/cruise/lane assist last week and we insisted the glass had to be OE to prevent liability problems should any arise. Even though the install went well and all systems were running as they should, we still insisted the owner should take the vehicle back for calibration. Much to the customers distaste, as the dealer wanted $170 per hour and said it could take 1 to 4 hours. Ridicules I know...

Perhaps when these vehicles are on their second/third owners out of warranty and the value has dropped. Motorists will be ok taking a chance with the generic glass being installed and disabling the ADAS. However, even in these circumstances I would only offer a warranty on the tech if the windscreen was genuine.

Belron may be performing their own calibrations and using generic glass, but this voids the dealer warranty. No exceptions. I guess its a numbers game here and its more profitable to take a chance Vs the possible problems that may occur. That said, it could be a different story if someone has a collision.

We are all still trying to find our feet here. It's interesting none the less and im happy for the most part. Happy because it means network contractors are having to perform tricky exotic installs for flat rates of pay. What ever makes life more difficult for the businesses that are dragging the industry price/quality down is fine by me.

Michael Smedley
Service 8® Auto Glass