Hi all, '93 Dakota owner here. This is my second Dakota, bought it used about three months ago. I was shopping Craigslist for a used truck and this 93 caught my eye and reminded me of the '89 Dakota Sport I bought new back in my Navy days. An odd turn of events brought me to this forum and reinforced my memories of my old Sport. Last week I got in the truck, pulled the door closed and got covered in a shower of bits of safety glass... the drivers window had a RUD (Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly) for no obvious reason. I have owned many vehicles in my life, way back in High School I would often have two or three at a time in some state of repair, I only have had one time prior to this where I had a window break, on my 89 Dakota! Well, I thought whats the odds of both Dakotas in my life blow up the driver window? Is this a thing? Are Dakotas frequently shattering windows? I don't recall seeing a lot of them with plastic over an empty hole... So, with Google as my friend, I opened a internet rabbit hole and dove in searching for answers. First thing I learned is that looking for door glass will be a frustration of misleading clicks on sites only selling "glass channels" or looking at glass for a different generation of Dakota despite having 1993 in the search terms. I finally today just called a wrecking yard over in Arizona hoping for some left side glass to go with the right side that was listed on the internet. Thank you ABC Auto Wrecking in Tucson for finding my window here in New Mexico in less than two minutes. I am hoping to get my glass delivered Friday. So, my big question is... lets have a show of hands... Who has had a broken drivers side window? Or two...

I am a member of Forums for electric bicycles and model trains and have enjoyed the helpful friendly nature of fellow souls sharing an interest so I am looking forward to getting to know this community. Here's to a bright future of getting help or helping others as we enjoy our beloved Dakota's, with or without windows!
Steve and Mr. Phred the cat

 

Welcome to DF!

 

The drivers window in my 72 Challenger blew out one summer day. Opened the door to grab something out of the car, closed the door, took two steps, and BOOM. Lots of little bits of glass in the drivers seat. And it wasn't even that warm out..... I have no clue why it blew.... Just got a replacement from a local wrecking yard, and called it a day.

 

One thought comes to mind of cab vents, but I cant imagine a 93 being that air tight anymore, much less even when it was new.

We've had a couple tractors unexpectedly shatter windows in the yard when not even around them.

My thoughts are rock chips that happen a certain way and thermal expansion/cooling causes a crack that subsequently shatters

 

welcome aboard.
I remember asking my Uncle about a broken window in one of his cars ..... He had a 2 acre nightmare for his kids when he passed away ..... just full of project cars.
One day I saw a side window broken, the week before, it was not.
So I told him about it and just replied back it was heat. .... He said he tries to leave the windows down a few inches for ventilation .... He had seen it several times .... he was 80+ years old.

So I have seen it before, never happened to me though.
Like others said, that door get the most use, vibration, shock .... possible rock ding that weakened it but not broke ..... last week was pretty hot next door in Texas.
I think it is just a coincidence that it happened to you twice on Dodge Dakotas.

 

Thanks for the welcomes and window tales! My new glass arrived yesterday... As the UPS driver was coming up I said yea, my new door glass and felt my heart sink as he came around from behind my truck asking in an OMG tone of voice this is a window? The box looked like a gorilla used it for a trampoline. The driver offered to wait while I opened it so I pulled the box apart between two rips and somehow the window was still in one piece just padded with some crumbled paper. I'm feeling lucky. I'm about ready to go put it in so I thought I should stop in and look through any glass replacement threads to see what tricks I should know. I got to thinking about all the search hits for the glass channels and wondered if I should be looking for wear on the channels. The window was 2/3rd down when it broke and I suspect that it had excess play and just banged around too hard. I will post later this evening how it went.
While I was waiting for UPS yesterday I replaced all four shocks, took a little over an hour and went smoothly. The test ride afterward was a joy when I realized how much smoother it was. The guy I bought the truck from had already offered me such a sweet deal that I was already a buyer in my mind but he offered the 4 new shocks as a bonus, I'm happy he did.

 

Tempered glass is constantly under "stress". It's usually something that was off during the manufacturing process. I had a ex girlfriends back window blow out for no reason. She was driving it when it happened, It really scarred the crap out of her. I had replacement sheet metal shipped by UPS, When i got it it was bent with a foot print in the middle of it. It was a floor panel so no big deal but they really need to be more careful with their packages.