we've got a 2003 outback that has just developed (in the past 5 days or so) two cracks that arise from somewhere below the bottom edge of the windshield, about equal distance from the sides. They are both turning towards the middle and will hopefully stay low and meet, but one of them has branched out and followed the wiper defroster almost the entire width of the windshield.

 

The fact that the cracks originate below the edge makes me believe this is an issue with improper assembly and should be covered by the warranty. Of course, the dealer told me that under no circumstances will Subaru warranty a windshield. But hey, the windshield is part of the car and the car is barely a year old so I say it's BS that the company won't consider doing anything for us.

 

Has anyone else had this happen to them? Did Subaru work with you on it or am I just screwed here?

It needs to be replaced, so when you take it to have it done, make sure to have those replacing it allow you to take pictures of it once they remove the bottom panel (cowling) covering the shield. It sounds like the shield either was set on top of the setting blocks, or they slipped off of them. Either way, it is a problem that was not a user-created problem. Back charge the dealer and let them settle with SOA.

We had the EXACT same thing several months ago. I posted here but it might have been the old BB.

Two curved cracks showed up on the bottom, about where the glass would rest (on two points maybe?) the cracks continued to get larger both traveling in the same direction towards the passenger side as I recall. The dealer claimed it was a stone, but we argued it was on two different spots...no help, we bit the bullet and had it replaced. $350.

Dont give up so easy on these things, send a certified letter to the dealer (return receipt) explain in detail what you said here and tell them that if they wont take care of it you will contact the District or Regional representative, I think you can get their address and phone number from your owners manual, if not find it on the web. I dont recall if they or called District or Regional but you can find out before you write dealer. I live in Tx. and had a problem with my local dealer and went through this process and it worked for me, except mine was a differnt problem. Most of the time just a certified letter will get good results with problems.