Passion Coupe Owners - Is your roof crazing?

[Kermit]

Now that many of us have had our cars for a year now and I haven't really noticed this question posted except a few remarks buried here and there I'm wanting to know how many other Passion Coupe owners have their roof crazing.

I've had my car a year now and do not garage it, it has spent maybe 2-3 weeks total in my garage over total ownership time. The panoramic roof is now spiderwebbing or "crazing". "Dave S" described it as spiderwebbing at the Orlando meet a few months ago but also noted he didn't know too much about it as he hadn't seen it. I had wanted to walk him over to my car as he was not 35 feet away from it and show him. Well, it is getting much worse BUT even though my car is only a year old it does have 26k miles on it so I'm now on my own.

I would call it crazing:

Definition:
Crazing is a network of fine cracks inside a surface or glaze of a surface.Crazing is a phenomenon that frequently precedes fracture in some glassy thermoplastic polymers. Crazing occurs in regions of high hydrostatic tension, or in regions of very localized yielding, which leads to the formation of interpenetrating microvoids and small fibrils. If an applied tensile load is sufficient, these bridges elongate and break, causing the microvoids to grow and coalesce; as microvoids coalesce, cracks begin to form.

My car has SERIOUS crazing now, it's quite disturbing to point I am now considering painting it silver to match the tridion. There are positive points and negative points about it.

+ is it would be cooler in the summer with lighter cooler and I would also add a headliner.

- is I love the open airy feeling of the interior when I open that sunshade, painting the roof I'd loose that.

Just wondering if any others out there are starting to have this problem? I've had it for some time but it is now getting bad.

[Orphan-Beggar]

BbB-What is your theory on the causes?
-sun
-elements/rain
Would garaging really help?
Did you apply cleaners?
What replacement options are there? $?

[Kermit]

Honestly, I'm thinking UV rays is the cause of it. I don't think cleaners would make a difference as the hairline cracks are INSIDE the roof. Not on the inside or the outside. My dad's Passion is always kept in the shade or carport and the roof still looks like new. We picked his up last July 4th. My roof had started crazing after about 8 months.

[forestacademy]

I sure would be interested to hear from other in the sun belt who don't garage their cars how common this is as oposed to those that keep it in the shade or under a Cal Pop top when in the sun.
I think you should spend the bucks on one of those tops as a preventitive measue just in case, especialy if you might need to sell one of those cars.
http://www.capoptop.com/purchase.htm

Oh, and for those that may be putting a shade between the sunscreen and the roof, You may be adding heat to the Bayer Policarb and potentialy making the issue worse.

[fpage77]

If that is a manufacturer defect I don't know what is as they the roof shouldn't be cracking in a year. I will raise hell to smart if mine does this as I put my money in the car expecting quality.

[mvaldes]

FWIW, mine still looks like new but I'm up here in NJ. The car is not garaged except for occasional weekends but is covered at night. During the day, it sits in the full sun at work. (I picked it up May 1st and it's been my daily driver since then.)

[RussBarnes]

Crazing is indeed a small series of flaws in the chemical soup that makes the clear roof. Since the roof is part of the structural integrity of the car for passenger safety I would certainly be challenging smart (MB) about your future wellbeing.

To be sure, it would require independent testing (read expensive) to be positive, but since this is "just" out of warranty I would be threatening them that IF they don't replace it and you have an accident, your lawyer will be advising your estate that the weakened roof was the cause of your demise...... squeeky wheels and lawyer threats are the best way to get action these days with the diarrhea of law school grads being puked out today.

[jetfuel]

...aircraft windows are exposed to heavy doses of UV rays at altitude, carbon residues from other jets just sitting on the tarmac and the condition you describe only had but one solution...replacement...today this windows made out of many materials like Monolithic acrylic ,Laminated acrylic ,Acrylic/Glass laminates and Glass/Glass laminates can be restored/recondition to like new conditions by many processes....the company we use, Perkins Aircraft Windows, does a hell of a job for us and if you ever see this work being done you'll tell yourself "it will never be the same"...the whole process start with sanding up from 180 grit, which makes the plastic totally milky white, using a jitter bug sander, working your way up to 6k and even 10k grit, finish the whole thing with an anti-static coating and protective wax..
...can it be done on the smart?...I don't see why not...my 1c

jetfuel

[Kermit]

Originally Posted by RussBarnes

Crazing is indeed a small series of flaws in the chemical soup that makes the clear roof. Since the roof is part of the structural integrity of the car for passenger safety I would certainly be challenging smart (MB) about your future wellbeing.

To be sure, it would require independent testing (read expensive) to be positive, but since this is "just" out of warranty I would be threatening them that IF they don't replace it and you have an accident, your lawyer will be advising your estate that the weakened roof was the cause of your demise...... squeeky wheels and lawyer threats are the best way to get action these days with the diarrhea of law school grads being puked out today.

You do make a good point Russ........good food for thought. We're heading down to the Old Town meet in a few weeks and I have to get the 2.0 upgrade so I may show it to them then. Other than that, I haven't complained about it at all to anyone....until I mentioned it in this thread.

[forestacademy]

Largest Roof Module Made of Polycarbonate - ATZ online

Info on the roof. ^^^

The 450's had a glas roof that came with a diferent set of problems and added weight.