Vision issues through windscreen glass.

Firstly if there is a topic on this subject please inform me.

I normally wear glasses for outdoor situations, including driving.

I recently found I have issues seeing out of my aveo after a recent eye test. Focus has become difficult.

An internet search took me to this page: https://www.specsavers.com.au/stores...-their-glasses

Edit: A later search found this: https://www.mivision.com.au/on-the-r...ind-the-wheel/

I then raised the question with my local optician and the company writing the article, "Do you do (supplementary) eye tests in the car?"

The answer from both was "NO!"

Later in the day a phone call from my optician advised me that I should NOT wear my glasses in the AVEO due to the optical effects of the windscreen glass.

I then sat in the car and tried looking out and to my amazement the windscreen makes a difference. I will be driving on Monday, more feedback then.

Edit: I just checked the front windscreen, its for a left hand drive car, this means I am looking through the passenger side when driving, we drive from the right in Australia. The 3 windows at the front are from a different factory (Dot Number) than the 3 windows at the rear.

Has anyone else had a similar experience? What did you do?

I wear glasses when driving cause i cant see **** day or night lol but i may follow your situation n see

Sent from my SM-G930P using Tapatalk

The windshield screen is about 1/4 inch think. It is made by laminated a plastic layer between two glass layers:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laminated_glass

There are two type of distortion 1) Internal reflection and 2) Refraction

Reflection issue cases double images. Your actually seeing an internal reflection of the image passed from the inside to the other.

Attachment 10863
Above shows what we see

This shows how it's done
Attachment 10864

I have issue with it and when I get glasses made I don't have the side polished. This causes internal reflection of the light inside my own glasses driving me crazy.


The other problem is refraction. That is bending the light through the glass. If there are manufacturing defects such as roller wave or bends it will cause distortion. It looks like the object moves or changes shape. Look at the video below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBWZrRczXHQ

So pretty much there is a lot to make our vision crappy with the windshield. Not to mention pitting too!

I have myopia and mild astigmatism, and do almost everything with my glasses on. I wouldn't feel comfortable driving without them and my license explicitly states I need to drive with them.

Apart from your eyes having some really different condition from mine, I don't know why you'd be advised to drive without specs if you normally need them.

Thank you to all who replied, much useful information.

Today was my driving day. I drove the 1.25km to the shops without the glasses,
WOW what a difference! Everything under 50 meters is now in focus! However, this limits my driving speed to under 50km/hr.

While at the shops, I booked an appointment to re-test my eye next week. I now need a lens that will work through the windscreen and give me focus to infinity.

I drove home without the glasses, it just gets better...

This is not a problem with with the windshield this is a problem with a bad eye glass prescription. My eyes need about -1 diopter correction. While I can drive without them, I really do need them read street sign and to spot cops. So during the day I often don't wear them and I night I have to wear them.

At night your dealing with the circle of confusion (fancy way of saying out of focus) and those overlapping circles will muddle your vision.

I tried the new glasses in the car today.

First impression, the windscreen does "de-tune" the long distance focus, however I can now see up to 150-200m ok.

I did some experimenting, and at low speeds, 30-40k, I see more with no glasses as the peripheral vision is much better without them. So its a trade off, peripheral or distance, I can't have both.

Walking with the new glasses is interesting, I have to keep my head still as left/right, up/down motion effects balance. Best to walk with no glasses now.

I am off to the dentist in Morley on Thursday and will probably use the bus as its a local aesthetic visit.
More on 60-70k roads when I get to go on one.

While at my Dentist yesterday, I mentioned my glasses/driving issue. She said many windscreens are Astigmatic and consequently she was not able to wear her glasses when driving.

Its time the people in the know, the car windscreen makers and the optical dispensers got together and addressed this issue!

I found this page: glassBYTEs.com | AGRR and Insurance Industry News it has many windshield horror stories in the Forum.

This testing site would be useful, if it was local: https://www.tuv.com/world/en/automot...h-ece-r43.html

See also: Windshield distortion; replaced 3 times and they're all distorted. Losing it! - Toyota RAV4 Forums

We do have quality glass in our cars:

DOT #: 184 MFR: Hankuk Sekurit Ltd.

www.hansekurit.en.ec21.com HANGLAS

I now have a photo of the details on my windscreen:
Attachment 11177

After spending time today with (personally, not on the phone) an Optician, an Insurance Co person and a GM Holden Service Advisor, I have reached the conclusion that vision is personal and what radically effects one person may have no effect on another. I have now seen many windscreens with what I see as glass issues, however, no one else experiences the effects of these issues to the extent where they can't drive. I have now been supplied with a letter from GM Holdens saying the car is OK!

My advice to anyone buying a car, if you have any vision issues, make sure your driving ability is not effected by the glass in car you buy. Most cars I have seen in car yards today has some degree of glass distortion and is considered acceptable by the manufacturer and the insurer. Optical dispensers may assist, however they cannot perform miracles with a set of glasses. I guess its like a cold morning, some people are ok in a T-Shirt, while others require a hat, coat and scarf before venturing out.

I will update the topic when I decide what to do with the car

Time to move on. This wind shield will not be an issue for 99.5% of the population. I will contact a few dealers over the next couple of weeks and see what is on offer, both for outright sale and trade-in.

I will consider the new Astra Wagon, UK built by Vauxhall, also the new Suzuki Swift, Japanese built, and the new UK built Honda Jazz, if it arrives in my country this year.

As mentioned in the post above, it must work for me, no vision compromises, or, its all over for driving. 8,800km in 6 years was, indeed, a fail!

Edit: An update: After a call and suggestion from the Auto Club Technical Advisor at RAC WA, I contacted Australia's leading auto glass company, O'Brien Glass. They are sending an experienced assessor to look at the car and diagnose the true issues with the windscreen glass. More later!!

Later: In preparation for the inspection, I decided to clean the windscreen. First I used Glass Cleaner, this produced black residue on the paper towel, so I went for something stronger and used Gum Turpentine, this produced much more black residue. Once the black stopped coming off, a clean with Methylated Spirit removed the oily turps residue. The next morning I noticed the blue stripe across the top had changed to black and the ripple in the stripe was no longer visible. On closer inspection the other ripples has almost disappeared. After a couple of days, all the ripples have returned, but to a much lesser extent. I then found the car to be drivable without any major problems.

I then took the car to O'Brien Glass for their inspection, it passed, the manager identified some minor glass distortion, but not enough to be concerned. What a difference a good clean makes! (I chamois all the glass before every drive)

Edit, Update: A couple of weeks back I fuelled the car and tried to return home on a 90km/hr road, however I was not able to see any distance and focus to drive much above 70km/hr. The ripples just return.

The wish-list has also been changed.
The new Astra Wagon and the new Suzuki Swift are off the list, similar glass distortion issues for me.
Also the Honda Jazz is also out, too many interruptions in the visual field.

However new additions to the short list: Volvo V40, Subaru Forester, Toyota HiLux, Honda City.
More later.... Edit: The Volvo will need individual evaluation as they are now fitted with Left Hand Drive windshields.

Time for a little update:

One of the mistakes I made in and from the 1990's was to buy glasses with plastic lenses.

This has now changed, my distance glasses and my sunglasses now have new Seiss Glass Lenses.
The sunglasses are not suitable for driving as the windscreen is tinted, however I had my best drive home in a long time with the new distance glasses. Quality glass and no tint and Seiss's grinding technique makes a difference. If only Zeiss made windshields...

New addition to the short list: Suzuki Jimny 2019, right-hand-drive, yellow, with auto trans!
I have posted the glass question on their forum: Considering a Jimny, help required. - BigJimny Forum


30 Jan 2019, Now for a big edit:

One of those days of reflection again, use it or loose it?

In my quest for a car with better, flatter, glass I was researching the new Suzuki Jimny 4x4.
Part of the process was to check out the price for insurance. There I found a problem, no one would give me Insurance so I decided to phone the Auto Club and ask why.
The nice lady there did her homework and called me back with the news that the car only achieved 3 Stars in the NCAP crash tests and most Insurance Companys will only cover 4 and 5 Star Cars.
As she was aware of my glass/windsield/vision issues and my age (soon to be 70) she said it would be useful for me to check out the ANCAP 5 star list and choose my next car from that list. Good advice!!

Now, a week later, this got me thinking about my Barina/Aveo, built in Korea in Feb 2011, how many stars did it achieve in the crash tests? Well the only relevant test I could find gave a 2 Star rating!! Horror of horrors! Where did the 5 star rating the Car Dealers rave about come from? Answer, probably the NCAP test done later in the year on the Sonic/TM Barina Hatch. See:https://www.euroncap.com/en/results/...let/aveo/10959

After searching Google, I found there are several not so successful tests done in later years on the Mexican and Chinese built Sedans by Latin NCAP.

Now back to the 2 star test done in in 2006, https://www.euroncap.com/en/results/...let/aveo/15689 to read the full test results you will need to download the PDF of the report, the section that attracted my attention talked about 'tearing spot welds' and 'moving A pillars'!

This now highlights the problem I have had in my car since the test drive, windshield glass distortion, see:https://www.aveoforum.com/forum/f83/...n-glass-21694/.

Thinking time now needed

Edit: I have sent Customer Care a 'final' email with the above 2 Star Test result for their comments.

15 February 2019, "AV30 WA" has gone for adoption and will soon have her new forever home.

She got a New Windscreen, a Service, a really good polish and made the dealer a load of $$!

See Garage (left) for full car details.

Update time: A new topic from a Honda forum is similar and worth the read:
https://www.odyclub.com/threads/2014...riving.208057/

I have returned the Suzuki, not for glass issues. I just didn't get on with the Maruti Computer (Operator)!

I am now considering a ten year Volvo C30. I am finding most of these cars have been fitted with After-Market LHD Chinese Windscreens, Dot459, Dot593 (3) and Dot825 for example, however no issues of glass distortion have been reported with any of these windscreens.

Some "Genuine" C30 windscreens have the Dot27 and Dot32 marks. However, since the big car makers ceased assembly in Australia, I would expect to see replacement windscreens coming from S-G Securit in Thailand and not the EU: https://www.saint-gobain.co.th/en/about_thailand However, information today from Volvo USA on the wind-shield part number 3139 5424 indicated that these are made in China.

I did find this topic: https://beranek.agrrmag.com/2015/04/...bonding-issue/ it describes some bonding issues with Genuine windscreens in new cars.

20 Feb 2021, update: I bought a ten year old Volvo C30 2.4i. It is a most suitable replacement for the Barina/AVEO. I have ordered a Genuine Windscreen from the local Volvo Dealer. The glass in the car is fine for now as the imperfections don't effect the field of view. More later when the new windscreen arrives.

The new windscreen arrived and was duly installed at the Local Volvo Dealer. I left the car there overnight for the seal to cure before driving.

On inspection it is a Genuine Volvo Windscreen, Left hand drive, DOT459 made by FUYAO in China.
The local cost $660, Rain/Mirror Covers $20 and Fitting $195 = AUD$875

Glass quality is good, however it is thinner than the European windscreens I have seen. It has developed a minor ripple parallel to the left hand "A" pillar, this does not effect my driving. I will be checking periodically with Volvo to see if the source has changed.

This brings up another vision issue, both headlights degrading. This is due to the 2009 plastic lenses breaking down under UV, mine were replaced yesterday. (AUD$1150)

You may ask, was it worth the expense? Yes, it makes a nice old car better and safer to drive!