The Nissan Path

Hi all,
My wife has a 2010 Pathfinder which was parked in our garage. We heard a loud crash like a ladder falling over. Went downstairs to check the garage and the back windshield of the pathfinder was completely blown out, wiper mechanism, struts, the entire structure. Ever hear of such a thing? Her garage door was closed, mine open. Police were notified and they came to take a look.
Saw no evidence of foul play. We live in farm country so don't suspect malicious behavior. I know Nissan had a tough time with sunroofs sponteneoulsy exploding a while back but this one is a stumper. Also, any estimates for a repair would be appreciated.
Jeff

It's not just Nissan and not just sunroofs that this occurs to. It often happens (but not always) when there are quick changes in temperature from cold to warm. I once worked in a Nissan dealer in NJ that had a drive-in, heated service area. One cold, snowy day, we had an older 300ZX parked inside for about 20-minutes when all of the sudden the rear hatch glass blew out into a million little pieces. It sounded like a shotgun blast when it happened! This is why tempered glass, which is what these parts are made of, is not used to make windshields, which are laminated glass. Laminated glass will shatter but stay mostly in one piece. Sometimes a small crack in the glass or chip can help cause this, but not always. Consumer Reports did an article about tempered glass sunroofs that were more prone to shattering on some vehicles compared to others. One of the factors was glass thickness; to save weight, some manufacturers use thinner glass which is more prone to shattering.
As far as cost, I priced a rear hatch glass about a year ago and it was several hundred dollars just for the glass. If you can locate one in an auto salvage yard, it would be less expensive. The labor really isn't too bad and can be accomplished in about 30-minutes.

Appreciate the information. It was strange, the temp inside and out of the garage was the same as the first bay was open. Not sure what to think of it.

Another topic, lost power steering on my lifted 2005 finder. Dealer wanted $3K. Local fixed it for $450. Gotta like the local guys.

This happened to me except I was in the vehicle at the time. We were in the woods and it was really hot, so I had the AC going pretty hard. The rear glass shattered and I took off. I thought we were being shot at. It wasn't until I started googling it that I realized that although it's uncommon, a temperature differential can cause a change in pressure sufficient to shatter the glass. For some reason it's almost always the rear glass.