Electronics shorted by windshield tinting water?

[AppleIsSkynet]

Hello,

I recently got a 24 Expedition and took it to our tint shop and the owner said there’s an electronic device (I forget the name) that can short out if water from the windshield tinting process gets to it. He said it’s rare that this happens but it can happen, he’s had two of about a 100 vehicles that this happened to.

Has this happened to you and if so, do you know exactly what the electronic device is and did Ford cover it under warranty?

Thanks,

Michael

 

[Mr Big]

I've had several car windshields tinted. 4 were Expeditions, Explorers and Excursions.
You won't have to worry if you take it to a reputable tint shop. There are tint shops and then there are Tint Shops.

 

[AppleIsSkynet]

Thanks for the feedback. This shop, Tint Pro of Warner Robins, Ga is the “go to” shop of the area. Most, if not all of the dealerships use them, I’ve used them for 13 years now and the owner said he first saw it as a bolo in tint forums and had it happen to them twice out of dozens done. He said it was only the models released the past couple years.

 

[mwar99]

Highly unlikely it would be covered under warranty, especially if it is obvious there was water damage.

 

[AppleIsSkynet]

Highly unlikely it would be covered under warranty, especially if it is obvious there was water damage.

IDK, they said the dealership fixed them without issue.

 

[SyndicateZ]

Just make sure you dont say it was damaged because of the water from a tint install

 

[Mr Big]

I'm taking another car in this week for a windshield tint. So, I asked my company that does all the tinting about it. They said they had never heard of it, but it was possible if the installer sprayed too much liquid. , I also called a few other local top rate tint installers, and they said the same thing.
With that said, I'm still going to go with negligence, not with the company, but with the actual installer.

 

[Hellwig]

Just make sure you dont say it was damaged because of the water from a tint install

That's exactly what I don't understand. What the difference between the water brought by a heavy thunderstorm and the water from a windshield tinting process? The only difference I can think of is tinting water may be sprayed inside the cabin, and therefore may damage speakers?

 

[Mr Big]

That's exactly what I don't understand. What the difference between the water brought by a heavy thunderstorm and the water from a windshield tinting process? The only difference I can think of is tinting water may be sprayed inside the cabin, and therefore may damage speakers?

Tint is applied on the INSIDE of the windows and windshield.

 

[5280tunage]

I would agree that a good installer should be able to minimize the chances, but unfortunately, every new vehicle seems to be coming with 3-5 more modules and I know for a fact just having look at a bunch of the modules in this thing, they are not intrusion rated (IP ratings) or designed to resist moisture even, let alone full on intrusion. One would hope they properly cover the dash itself so that moisture doesn't go near say the sync module or the modules direction below the center channel, etc. I was a tint installer as a teenager at a local shop, it's a fine balance between using enough liquid to keep things clean and not using too much liquid.

For me, it reminds me of the part of Tommy Boy when the bag of candy pours into the dash, it's like one big gutter down there on the base of the windshield, there will be a lot of water regardless. No matter what, when you get it home, if you can open all the windows and let it air out overnight, you want the moisture to dry as quickly as possible so things don't corrode or rust.