Had my windscreen replaced today by Autoglass, via my insurance policy, due to chip/crack right in the middle of the critical zone - enough to have made it fail the forthcoming MOT.
The Autoglass engineer was really good. He hadn't much experience of V70s the same age as mine, and I didn't tell him anything about known issues with leaking. So it was interesting when he showed me the old windscreen where the sealant hadn't ever bonded to the glass along the top section. He said is was odd as it had bonded properly elsewhere and was surprised to see such poor quality on a Volvo. I didn't say any more, but it was reassuring to hear a professional give his opinion on faulty installation/manufacturing - and completely confirmed the issue that in my opinion should have led to a safety recall.
With the windscreen removed, I had a chance to look around the top of the dash. I had expected to see a gap with some kind of deep channel or cross-member full of water, and had hoped to be able to extract all the water I hear sloshing around. There was no gap at all. The edge of the black rubber top section of the dash extends all the way, and slightly beyond the top of the firewall body-panel. The dash edge actually chamfers down to a taper that fits snuggly against the inside of the windscreen. I was able to prise the dash upwards slightly, but not enough to see underneath, and certainly not enough to reach inside to extract water. So I'm not even sure the water is sitting directly below that front section of the dash.
The very edge of top dash section exposes the foam base under the black rubber coating. This felt damp, which wasn't a surprise as I know water has dripped down there. What I'm not sure about is how much water this foam panel soaks up, and if it has been slowly dripping water somewhere further inside the dash. I rather suspect it's a combination of water soaking into this foam, and also water dripping under it, and falling in to a cavity immediately below - and this is the part I couldn't look into, or access. So I can only hope this water eventually evaporates away, and I'll never have to experience this again. We might have a warm few days coming up, so I'll leave the car out in the sun with the windows down all weekend.
Also, I pointed out the paint-chip damage on the front edge of the roof panel to the screen fitter, and he again acknowledged surprisingly poor design/installation [for a Volvo]. He decided to install the new windscreen about 3 to 4mm higher than the previous one, and it certainly looks a better fit. I clearly saw the difference this made, as the top rubber seal now goes right up to the curve of the roof panel, and means the parallel 'plane' of the windscreen (if viewed from the side) is now almost level with the roof edge, which may help eliminate any future damage as stones should bounce over the edge of the roof, and not into it. So perhaps one reason some of us have had paint chip damage there was because Volvo installed some windscreens too low ?
Sorry I didn't get to take any photos. I didn't want to make the Autoglass engineer think I was suspicious of his work.
Hope this is useful/interesting to everyone
