Certain 2024 Nissan Sentra Vehicles Recalled Over Windshield Bubble Delamination

On May 23, during a routine yard audit, a technician identified air bubbes in the windshield. More specifically, in the lower driver-side area. Quality control boffins immediately quarantined the car, prompting an investigation with the supplier of the windshield.

Vitro is the supplier in question, the largest glass manufacturer in Mexico and the western hemisphere to boot. 727006LB0B is the part number of the Sentra's windshield for both the US of A and Canadian markets.

The supplier identified a failure of the windshield glass assembly fixture, which led to uneven pressure distribution of the glass layers during the adhesion process. In other words, air was inadvertently trapped between the glass and PVB layers. PVB is the short way of saying polyvinyl butyral, which is a plastic resin that's commonly used to bond two panes of glass together.

Air bubbles, however, form only when exposed to high temperatures in the sun. A heat cycle test revealed that air bubbles in the windshield become visible after circa 2 hours of exposure to high temperatures (make that 70 degrees Celsius or 158 degrees Fahrenheit). As expected, Nissan determined that air bubbles in the windshield is a condition that goes against the requirements of a particular motor vehicle safety standard.

In addition to FMVSS 205, air bubbles in the windshield may obscure the 17-character vehicle identification number. Said VIN can be used by worried customers to determine whether their vehicles are included in this recall or not. Because it's assembled in Mexico, the number for the US-market Sentra should kick off with 3.

Owners who aren't as proactive will ultimately receive a recall notification by first-class mail beginning August 29, 2024. Dealers have already been instructed to replace the windshield at no charge to the customers. The operation takes in the ballpark of 2.5 hours to complete.

All told, 1,608 vehicles are recalled stateside. Slotted between the soon-to-be-discontinued Versa subcompact sedan and soon-to-be-discontinued Altima mid-size sedan, the Sentra starts at $21,180 for model year 2024. Sentra moved 89,028 units in the first half of calendar year 2024, meaning that it's the second best-selling Nissan in the United States after the Rogue crossover (141,160 in H1 2024).

The Civic- and Corolla-rivaling sedan is available in three flavors: entry-level S, mid-range SV, and the well-equipped SR. All three flaunt a 2.0-liter naturally aspirated engine with 149 horsepower and 146 pound-feet (198 Nm) on tap, connected to a continuously variable transmission. As opposed to the all-electric Nissan Leaf, the Sentra comes with multi-link rear suspension instead of a torsion beam.