chip guide
Repair or Replace? How to Tell With Your Windscreen Chip
Images are illustrative onlyIn short: A windscreen chip can be repaired if it is smaller than a 20c coin, sits outside the driver’s direct line of sight, has no crack longer than about 15cm, and there are only 1 or 2 chips. It needs replacing if it is larger than a 20c coin, a crack has reached 15cm or more, it sits in the driver’s line of sight, or there are more than 3 chips. A repair is $70 to $150 (often $0 on insurance); a replacement is $300 to $1,400 or more.
Key takeaways
- Repairable: under a 20c coin, out of the driver’s sightline, no long crack, 1 to 2 chips.
- Replace: over a 20c coin, a crack 15cm or longer, in the driver’s sightline, or 3+ chips.
- Repair $70 to $150 (often $0 on cover); replacement $300 to $1,400+.
- The driver’s line of sight can force a replacement even on a small chip.
- Adelaide heat shortens the window in which a repair is still possible.
It is the most valuable question a chipped windscreen raises, because the 2 answers are separated by hundreds of dollars. Repair or replace is not a judgement call a good specialist agonises over: it follows clear thresholds. Here is exactly where the line sits, so you can gauge which way your damage is likely to go before you get it looked at.
The 4 thresholds that decide it
A repair is viable only when all 4 of these are true. Break any one, and it becomes a replacement.
| Test | Repair | Replace |
|---|---|---|
| Size | Smaller than a 20c coin | Larger than a 20c coin |
| Crack length | No crack, or under ~15cm | 15cm or longer |
| Location | Outside the driver’s sightline | In the driver’s line of sight |
| Count | 1 to 2 chips | More than 3 |
1. Size: the 20c coin rule
Hold a 20c coin over the damage. If the chip fits underneath it, the damaged area is small enough for resin to fill and bond properly. Bigger than that and the repair cannot reliably restore the strength of the glass, so a replacement is the safe call.
2. Crack length
A clean chip with no leg running off it is the easiest repair. Once a crack has grown from the chip, repairability drops fast. As a general rule, a crack of 15cm or longer is a replacement. Short legs can sometimes be stabilised, but a long crack has usually gone too far.
3. The driver’s line of sight
This is the threshold drivers least expect. A resin repair can leave faint optical distortion, which is fine at the edges of the glass but a problem directly in front of the driver. A small chip sitting in your primary viewing area is often replaced rather than repaired, both for clear vision and because view-obstructing damage can make a car defective in SA.
4. Number of chips
You can repair 1 or 2 separate chips individually. Once you have more than 3, or a shattered spider-web spread from a heavy impact, the structural integrity of the glass is compromised and a replacement is the right outcome.
Depth matters too
A windscreen is 2 layers of glass bonded to a plastic interlayer. If the chip has only broken the outer layer, resin can fill it. If the impact has gone through to the inner layer, the windscreen has to be replaced regardless of size, because its structural job is compromised.
The cost gap that makes this worth getting right
A repair is $70 to $150, and $0 on most comprehensive policies. A replacement is $300 to $550 without sensors and $700 to $1,400 with ADAS calibration. Acting while your chip is still repairable is the single biggest saving available on any windscreen job.
The chip-or-replace checker runs you through these thresholds in 4 quick questions and tells you which way your damage is likely to go, then you can get matched with a vetted Adelaide specialist to confirm it.
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