That was weird! LR3 broken rear window.

[SpeedyJ]

Sunday was a little weird, the family and I were driving down a gravel road in our LR3 and the rear window just popped! There was not other traffic, no bump, no obvious cause, just a popping sound followed by the sound of breaking tempered glass.

The new glass has already been installed, I cheaped out and went with generic, so I hope it hold up. The shop arounfd the corner from my house was able to do it in a day for $450 all in. It could have been a lot more painful.

-Jeff

[binch]

not the first time I've heard of this.....stone bouncing back, small scratch, a random spark from a welder.....lots of reasons....  Bad luck though.

[SpeedyJ]

I know it's an old thread, but dammit, this happened again on the forestry trunk road on the way home from the BCOR.

We're working with two theories -

1. Rocks bouncing off of our bike rack.
2. Both time the rear latch had gotten dry and fussy, it seems possible that the upper and lower gates are binding against each other. This would allow the lower gate to transfer body flex into the upper gate, if the whole upper gate gets flexed enough the glued in window also gets flexed.

At $400 a pop it's a little annoying. I bought mudflaps for the truck, but the LR3 ones don't fit the rear. I'm assuming that it's because we have a 2009 (colour matched fender flares like an LR4). Does anyone know if LR4 mud flaps are a correct fit for '09's?

[Matt H]

I would think it's the bike rack. There isn't much body flex in these things. The rear departure angle is such that rock could easily be fired up at an angle that could ricochet back off a bike rack or trailer.
We have had an LR3 and currently an LR4 and drive gravel road every day without mud flaps. Not sure why your mud flaps don't fit, are they the molded type? Perhaps try the wide, flat, heavy rubber type? They work better anyway.

My 2c.

[SpeedyJ]

They were the molded, OEM type. The LR4 type flares are just a little different on the rear of the truck then the earlier LR3 ones. I choose them because they're a little more compact. The flat rubber ones would look a little out of place on our city slicker LR3.

I think I'll order up some of the molded LR4 mud flaps on eBay and hope the problem goes away.