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Firestone Tires • Prius Problems • SteelTex Truck Tires • Tread Separations • Blowouts • The Ford/Firestone Recall

Firestone will for many years be known for its role in the infamous Ford Explorer/Firestone recall. While the recall has ended, consumers continue to experience tread separation problems with other Firestone tires, as the complaints in this section demonstrate. There's a completely different set of problems with Firestone Service Centers.

Lyn of Denver, CO August 10, 2006

Lyn of Denver CO (08/10/06)
I purchased four new tires from this store. After two months a bubble appeared on the side of one of the tires. They said my driving had caused the problem; that it was not a defect in the tire. I had to replace my new tire with another new tire. A few months later I noticed another tire had a bubble on the sidewall. I let it go and it has gotten increasingly larger, so today I am going to go in to have it replaced. They said if it was not the tire I just purchased in Feb. then I would have to buy a new tire. I am thinking both tires were defective as this seems unusual to have the same problem.

I have now purchased five new tires in six months and may have to purchase a sixth tire today in order to insure the safety of my car.

David of San Antonio, TX August 5, 2006

David of San Antonio TX (08/05/06)
I had to replace one of the Firestone Steeltex Radial R4S tires on my 2000 F250 truck at 44,151 miles and almost 3 years of use, not due to insufficient remaining tread but due to a bulge in the tread due to belt separation. I purchased one tire, with a small pro-rated discount and put the spare on the other wheel on that axle, moving the other 44k mile tire to spare duty. I was disappointed in the failure mode, but had gotten decent mileage from the tire. On July 29, 2006, at just over 78,000 miles (34k miles on these tires), on a trip from San Antonio, TX to Oklahoma, about 65 miles into the trip at about 9:30 a.m., the right rear tire blew.

Since I was going on a 1200 mile round trip, I had checked out the truck the night before leaving and found all the tires at 78 psi, just under the 80 psi max. I felt no weave or anything before the sudden rupture. The truck was loaded well within it's load capacity, with maybe 500 lbs of equipment in the bed. I maintained control and pulled the truck to the shoulder where I changed the tire, but the side panel of the truck bed is mangled, and the exhaust pipe was bent nearly closed by the ~3' flap of rubber and steel whipping around at highway speeds.

I went to the Firestone dealer today and they asked if I had bought the tire there. Turned out the one that blew was the one that was previously the spare, so they said I'd have to go through the 800 number. I have yet to call, but was disturbed by the dealership person's comments that Well, this tire is SIX years old. 6 years does not seem exorbitant for a tire lifetime to me, even being typical for a 60k mile tire getting 10k miles/year. And it has only been on the ground for 3 yrs. He also said that it had probably been underinflated. When I told him I had checked it just the night before, he said I might have run over something and in the process of it going flat, it blew. There was no motion as of a tire going flat. He was very quick with his [I suspect] standard list of excuses though.

Tire lost. Estimated 1500 of damage to the truck, not including tire replacement.

Charles of Villisca, IA July 27, 2006

Charles of Villisca IA (07/27/06)
I bought two Firestone atx tires at a yard sale 3 months ago. One month ago, a tire lost it's tread and blew out. My wife almost hit a bridge, but missed it. Last night, 7/26/2006, the other one did the same. I heard something about the recall last week on the news, so i checked, they were on the list. I did not know these tires were on recall , or I wopuld not have bought them for twentydollars a piece. I called a firestone dealer and explained. He said he would not replace the tires because the recall was over. ther was slight damage to the vehicle. I should not have been able to buy these tires. I did noy want new tires, just a couple of good used tires. I say used because we are not people that have alot of money. I'm not out to get more than I deserve.

I had to replace inner fender and small section of outside fender on 91 pontiac transport se. now I have to replace the two tires with money I don't have.

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