The papers for a Honda Accord lease return windshield calibration file come from the glass shop, because the lessor's own guide never asks about the camera. American Honda Finance's 2021 Inspection Guide grades the windshield by its marks and has no line for calibration. If your Accord got new glass before turn-in, the shop's invoice and its written answer on Honda Sensing recalibration are the two records to add.
An Accord Turned In Three Months After a New Windshield
Take an Accord on a three-year lease. A rock strikes the windshield in the spring of the last year, the crack spreads across the driver's view, and new glass goes in about three months before the return date. On turn-in day, the car meets an inspector who checks it against the lessor's list of wear and damage.
The 2021 guide opens that list with a line many lessees skip past. "Throughout a vehicle's lifetime, some wear and use is to be expected." The charges are for excess wear and use past that point, or for damage. Its windshield block opens with "All windshield cracks, stars and bullseyes," so the glass is one of the first places the inspector looks.
A clean replacement windshield passes that check on its face. The new glass has no crack, no star and no bullseye. A walk-around shows the inspector nothing about the camera, though. Whether the Honda Sensing camera was recalibrated after the swap is a fact that lives only in the glass shop's paperwork.
That is the gap this lessee has to close. The car is clean, and the file is thin. Our Honda ADAS calibration page explains the camera service behind the shop's answer, and the Honda service hub gathers the rest of the glass work for the make.
The Windshield Block in the 2021 Inspection Guide
The windshield block in the 2021 edition of the American Honda Finance Inspection Guide has four lines, and the first three are about the windshield itself. All windshield cracks, stars and bullseyes count there as examples of excessive wear and use or damage a lessee might be charged for. In the 2021 guide, damage larger than a dime requires windshield replacement. Damage smaller than a dime is charged for repair in that edition, at one repair per windshield.
That size line is the Honda lease-end charge question for any windshield that reaches turn-in with a mark. The dime sorts the glass into a repair charge or a replacement before anyone talks about the camera.
The coin is the measuring tool, and it is one most people carry. A few weeks before the inspection, lay a dime over each mark on the glass. Under the 2021 guide, a mark that spreads past the edge of the dime falls under the replacement line. A mark the dime covers falls under the repair charge, billed as one repair for that windshield.
The guide's self-inspection test uses a different tool for the body panels. Dents, dings and scratches get measured with a standard credit card or a ruler. Use the card for the doors and the dime for the glass, and write down each finding with the date you checked.
A chip the dime covers leaves two choices: a repair shop before turn-in, or the lessor's repair charge at turn-in. Chip repair is a separate service, and we only replace glass. A crack or chip wider than a dime meets the 2021 guide's replacement line, and our Honda windshield replacement page covers that job.
Measure again in the week before the inspection. A mark that has spread past the dime's edge since your first check moves the windshield from the repair line to the replacement line.
Other Glass, Lenses and Mirrors on the Lease Return Sheet
Glass in the 2021 guide does not stop at the windshield. Right after the dime rules, the 2021 guide carries "Other broken or cracked glass." On an Accord, that 2021 line reaches a cracked door window or a broken back glass. Any of them can land on the inspection report beside the windshield line.
A second block in the same guide, under safety items, covers "Any cracked or broken lenses, glass or mirrors." Mirror glass and lenses sit there too. A lessee who replaced the windshield but left a cracked mirror has closed one line on the report and left another open.
Neither list ends the inspection. The 2021 guide puts a caution beside its examples: "Please note, this is not a complete list." A mark missing from the printed examples may still turn up on the report. Treat the printed examples as the places an inspector starts, and look over every pane and mirror the same way you checked the windshield.
Each piece of glass you replace before the return comes with its own receipt. Keep the side or back glass receipt with the windshield one, even when the jobs were months apart. Together they show the inspector what was fixed and when.
