Sprinter openable rear window options
- Thread starter Paddy
- Start date
mhiscox
Expedition Leader
In the years I've been around Sprinters, I've only heard of Motion Windows (a.k.a. Peninsular Glass in Vancouver) making easy-to-source opening replacement windows for the T1N (2002-06) North American Sprinters.
The German company Seitz makes appropriately-sized dual pane acrylic windows for the cutouts in the Sprinter doors, but they are not readily available to individuals in the US.
If you do not yet have a window in the spot where you want one, you can obviously cut a hole inside the stamping and use a wide variety of windows. Because the T1N stampings are rectangles, rectangular windows smaller than the stampings don't look too bad. The situation is worse on the newer NCV3s, where the stampings are a parallelogram.
Here's a photo of my first Sprinter, which had the Motion replacement rear windows and Seitz side windows a bit smaller than the cutout stampings:
The German company Seitz makes appropriately-sized dual pane acrylic windows for the cutouts in the Sprinter doors, but they are not readily available to individuals in the US.
If you do not yet have a window in the spot where you want one, you can obviously cut a hole inside the stamping and use a wide variety of windows. Because the T1N stampings are rectangles, rectangular windows smaller than the stampings don't look too bad. The situation is worse on the newer NCV3s, where the stampings are a parallelogram.
Here's a photo of my first Sprinter, which had the Motion replacement rear windows and Seitz side windows a bit smaller than the cutout stampings:
Paddy
Adventurer
Okay interesting I thought they were a tiny bit asymmetrical so yeah maybe I have more generic options than I thought. I don't think I want acrylic.
Side note I was checking out your van and I instantly refocused mogfest lol. Last year was the first time I went and we loved it although it was a bit dusty.
Side note I was checking out your van and I instantly refocused mogfest lol. Last year was the first time I went and we loved it although it was a bit dusty.
mhiscox
Expedition Leader
Thanks a good question. Yeah, you can occasionally get a little bit of exhaust coming inside, but it's wasn't really a problem. The '04-up Sprinters' exhaust really isn't all that stinky (the '02-'03 is a bit worse) and when you're driving, your nose is about 12 feet from the windows anyway. All in all, not perfect, but I'd be surprised if it's a big worry.
The bigger annoyance to me was that the molding in the middle of the each window further degrades the view out the back. I found it more bothersome than you might think. On the other hand, Sprinter mirrors are good and lots of people don't even have rear windows, but I'm easily annoyed, and installing the opening windows took the number of vertical splits in my rear view from one (the central split between the two doors) to three.
The other relatively small point is that some Sprinters came with defroster grids in the factory glass. That goes away with the sliding window installation.
mhiscox
Expedition Leader
They make a few different versions, so I don't know just what you got, but my prediction is that you'll be happy with them.
The ones I've had have all been good ones. There's nothing exotic about the Sprinter-specific offerings, as they are just single glass-paned solid or slider windows in a metal RV-style frame. But they are an exact size replacement for T1N Sprinter fixed windows, or for matching the body stampings if they're going where there weren't windows, and they are constructed with a fairly high degree of precision. The split lower window sections in my current Sprinter's Motion side windows are fully five feet long, making the slider pieces 30 inches long, and they slide great without binding and the latching works well. I'd recommend the Motion Sprinter windows to anyone with a T1N Sprinter as the absolute easiest way to get opening windows that look like they belong.
For any other application, they also seem a good choice. They're admittedly not the cheapest alternative, but I think that shows in their solid quality.