I live in Europe and I am the owner of a new Mazda 3 (construction year April 2014, I bought the car in September). I have noticed from the beginning that when the sun is fairly low but bright on the horizon and in front of the windshield there are thousands of tiny specks visible in the windshield that are fairly evenly distributed. They are very small and almost look metallic (white/grey) and appear to be within the safety glass laminate. The dealer tried everything to get rid of the spots but without results. After a while he decided to replace the windshield.
Unfortunately, the replacement windshield has the same problem. I am surprised that nobody has noticed this with the new Mazda 3 cars. Any good advice is welcome.

 

Probably Chinese made. What is the manufacturer name on the windshield?

 

Lamipane GGN; DOT 23; Nippon Safety, AS1 NSG M31A; //E6 43R-000175

 

It was certified in Belgium, Nippon made it and is the oldest/biggest/best glass company in the world atm. It could be the new strengthened glass i guess. They are working on fogless glass also. It's a great glass company so it seems very odd. You could always set up an appointment with the area Mazda rep to see what they think. They visit each dealer once a month.

 

I looked into it a bit more and found that Nippon has factories in 29 countries. Since yours was certified in Belgium i assume it was manufactured there. Maybe they have a problem at that particular plant. I would still get a rep involved i think. It may take a month or two but you would likely get an answer or resolution to the problem,as in a glass manufactured elsewhere.

 

I live in the USA. I just bought my first Mazda. It's a CX-9 Touring. Driving into the bright sun today, I noticed lots of tiny sparkles in the windshield. It looks like the windshield has been sandblasted. The car is brand new and had 5 miles on the odometer when I bought it. It has 140 miles on it now. I am disappointed. It affects the view of the traffic approaching me. I am going to contact the dealer about this problem.

 

I would first determine that you do not have tree sap that can resemble and feel like sand blasted glass.

You may be covered under warranty.

If not and you need to replace your glass find a shop and someone that actually knows that there are more then just choices of brands instead of the sp[specification regarding glass choices. You would be surprised that some in the business for years don't have or know that you can get softer or harder glass for windshield replacements.

 

Thanks for replying. No it's definitely not sap. Whatever it is, it appears to be on the inside of the glass. I tried to clean the outside and inside of the glass with a microfiber cloth and it did not improve. Then I swiped the rag in different directions on the inside of the glass and I noticed tiny specks that shifted around on the glass. So then I used my dry finger to wipe the glass and voila, most of the specks/fibers came off. Apparently, the dealer prep people did not use a clean cloth to wipe-down the inside of the glass. Or dust from the autobody part of the dealers shop got onto my windshield. The specks are/were very fine....almost microscopic. But when the sun hit the windshield in the right angle, those little specks sparkled. I feel better that I have solved the problem.

 

Great that you found cured your concern!

Ya I think you are correct about how it got there. I know I will detail out the interior and the glass is last just for the reason that things like leather treatment and other conditions can be carried around in the air and end up on the glass.

I only use a very diluted premix 10 to1 Meguiars professional GLASS CLEANER CONCENTRATE that will not leave any streaks and will remove almost anything on the glass.