Firestone tire blowout

[G McCall]

Well it happened !
Driving along at 70 mph and the front left factory Firestone tire on my 02 chevy HD pickup blew. No going down slowly. The truck hit the ground with a "thud". THe tire has a 3" long split in the sidewall. I was lucky enough to pull the truck over to the shoulder.
I THOUGHT THIS FIRESTONE TIRE PROBLEM WAS OVER ! My thinking may be a "LITTLE" premature though.

These tires will not be on my truck this afternoon and there will never be another Firestone tire on any vehicle I own.

 

[wistleofdeath]

I thought that they concluded that the tire failure was fords problem because ford did not inflate the tires enough. Just wonderin

 

[G McCall]

Yea right ! Chevy may have inhereited the problem now. Time will tell. Makes me wonder if the problem is still around.
And, I check my tires often enough to make sure their aired up, as I pull occasionally, but I'm sure Firestone could find some excuse.
They get no more chances with me.

 

[NJTurbo]

Originally posted by wistleofdeath
I thought that they concluded that the tire failure was fords problem because ford did not inflate the tires enough. Just wonderin

Not True. I am a Service Director for Ford. The Wlderness AT'S only were the problem. Blow outs in the sidewalls, the second recall was Ford's doing as Firestone claimed they had fixed the problem. After years of being partners with Firestone, Ford is sueing Firestone as they want no part of the second recall.

 

[arista5]

http://www.us.tuv.com/tires/hartford.html

might fit the requirements and you will get a free set of tires

 

[GNSCOTT]

Ford did a great job of covering up on that one. You can get a blow out with ANY tire. Yes that brand of tire was defective, but it did not cause the exploders to roll over. What if you get a blow out with a goodyear on the same exploder? My guess is it will roll over the same way it would with any tire on it. Ford, the US government, and Firestone are all working on this together, because the real solution is to recall all of the exploders, but that would easily bankrupt Ford.

Funny how during all of this they were still airing those Bill Ford commercials saying how his Grandpa (Henry Ford), the president , thomas edison and Firestone used to go on a trip to the ole' cabin together every year, all while they were throwing his name under the bus.

For a little while i though maybe Firestone tires had springs in them that made the exploder flip.

 

[The Blob]

Originally posted by GNSCOTT
...What if you get a blow out with a goodyear on the same exploder? My guess is it will roll over the same way it would with any tire on it...

Your guess would be wrong. Car and Driver did a test where they purposely blew a tire on an Explorer at, I think, 70 MPH. (They did the drivers side rear because that was the one that blew on the truck that was involved in the big lawsuit.) The result? By about the fourth test the driver let it blow with his hands off the wheel and the vehicle rolled to a straight stop.

Much like Audi's "unintended acceleration" debacle of many years ago - where the "problem" turned out to be people pressing the gas instead of the brake, duh! - the blowout/rollover thing was mostly media frenzy. As cold as this may sound, Explorers roll over because people don't know how to drive them.

 

[1badTTA]

Sorry but I wouldn't feel safe driving on any OEM tires no matter what brand they are. The specs for an OEM tire are different than a regular tire and in all reality they just SUCK.

 

[GNSCOTT]

Your guess would be wrong. Car and Driver did a test where they purposely blew a tire on an Explorer at, I think, 70 MPH. (They did the drivers side rear because that was the one that blew on the truck that was involved in the big lawsuit.) The result? By about the fourth test the driver let it blow with his hands off the wheel and the vehicle rolled to a straight stop.

Your absolutly right about the test, but the fact is people panic during a blow out with all cars, but the exploder flips when you panic. I saw the test, it was on TV and they made note of that as well. Exploders are flipping during blowouts ALOT more frequently than in other cars because of the top heaviness, short wheelbase, combined with driver panic.

The tires do not make the car flip. They did a comparitive study with the GMC Jimmy and tire blowouts and the Jimmy was something like 75% less of a chance in flipping over. I'm sure people panicked in those situations as well. You have to take driver stupidity into consideration when desighning a car. That is why cars have seat belts, air bags, etc..

JMHO though. Back under my car.

 

[Chad Oliver]

I posted a few weeks ago about my bridgestones having the treads seperate. It's a division of firestone, so yes they still have major issues.

 

[fitz3820]

It is the other way around, Bridgestone owns Firestone...

" posted a few weeks ago about my bridgestones having the treads seperate. It's a division of firestone, so yes they still have major issues."

They make good tires, Ford had folks underinflating them.

Mark F. 87 GN 11.9 @ 115

 

[UNGN]

Firestone Steeltex's is why I will never buy another Firestone or Bridgestone Tire again.

Jim Haas had a tread separation blow out.
A friend from work had a tread separation blow out.

I can't name another HD tire on a New truck that this happens to.

I checked mine at 30K miles and one was so checked and cracked (1.5 years old) that there was no way I would let my wife drive it and son ride in it. I replaced the set with Michelins (which are EXCELLENT)

My wife took the tires to the Firestone dealer to show him the cracking and he said "you under inflated them". When she said we run 45 psi, he said "those are worn out, anyway".

I told my wife to get out there and tell the guy she is never coming back. If a new car I want has firestone on it, I won't buy it until the tires are swapped. They can rot in hell.

If you are reading this and work for Firestone, I'd suggest updating your resume.

 

[Nick Micale]

To even up the score a bit, our PT Cruiser has a factory Goodyear with a bubble as big as your hand!

 

[UNGN]

Originally posted by The Blob
Your guess would be wrong. Car and Driver did a test where they purposely blew a tire on an Explorer at, I think, 70 MPH. (They did the drivers side rear because that was the one that blew on the truck that was involved in the big lawsuit.) The result? By about the fourth test the driver let it blow with his hands off the wheel and the vehicle rolled to a straight stop

The Car and Driver test WAS STUPID!!!!!

They DEFLATED the tire. If they would have had the tread separate from the tire and repeated the test, the results would have been completely different.

In a tread separation the tire can stay inflated and with the tread gone provides ZERO braking force (vs. the drag of a deflated tire)

Applying the brake can easily lock up the treadless tire (since its just steel cords) and the back end can sway violently since there is only one tire to contain the lateral movement of vehicle (the treadless one won't)

Let's see Car and Driver repeat the test with a tread tire on one side and a steelcord tread tire on the other. Try a lane change maneuver or take a banked highway corner at 70 mph. Thats what's happening in these accidents.

 

[gn85]

Same story on the Flintstones (I mean Firestones). I had a friend with a 2500 HD that had a blow out. Granted, we were on dirt roads, but it was nothing that an ordinary car tire couldn't handle. My friend was only doing 20mph and it darn near spun him around. That tire was pretty mangled afterwards.

I had a friend at work who had the Firestones on his truck... when I sold my GMC Jimmy, I took the BFG All-Terrains I had off, sold them to him for something like $50 for all four which were almost brand new. Simply because I wanted to see those tires get some good use and didn't like seeing him riding around on Firestones. I didn't want to make a profit or anything. Just my good deed for the day.

DON'T LIKE FIRESTONES!! Seen it with my own eyes.

 

[Buick From Hell]

IS there such a thing as a good tire??

Firestone's obviously suck, there should be NO reason sidewalls (that haven't been victims of a 'road hazard') should just blow while driving down the road, even if they ARE slightly underinflated. Just plain poor workmanship, period...

I won't EVER buy a Goodyear tire, because 50% of them have chunks of tread randomly fall off or develop "bubble-gum" sidewalls, and 100% of them don't last for $#!T....

Had Yokohama's on my old motorhome, and 3 of the 6 of them had the cords "slide" (love that "S" shaped tread)...

And I've seen more than one Michelin motorhome-sized tire end up with bubble-gum sidewalls...

 

[Reaper]

my dad got a few bucks (1200.00) from firestone 3 or 4 summers ago when a tire let go on our old 3/4 chebby conversion van. we had to pay to have it sent to firestone. they tested the tire and sent us a check to fix the damage to the fiberglass body kit.... i will never ever buy any tire made by them strickly michelin/BFG for me!

 

[n20junkie]

i have driven on many new tires bought over a relativley short ammount of time, i had blow outs on each of them, firestone, goodyear and a kelly trailer tire blew too, but when you drive 30k a year too and from nc to ny, stuff just happens, thats the way i see it.
grant

 

[SuperSix]

I had a wonderful experience with Cooper tires..

After picking up my son in Charleston SC on the way to the nats one year, I had a blowout in town. It was Sunday, and the only place open was Poop Boys. I got a decent replacement tire, and about 5 miles after getting it, a loud **POP**.. got out to look - tire had a complete seperation along the sidewall.

I put my temp spare BACK on, drove back to Poop Boys, the tire manager told me the failure was due to me not getting the valve stem changed! :O

I got a "free upgrade" to a better line, and all was well.


Then, lo and behold, Cooper loses a huge class-action lawsuit for.... SIDEWALL SEPERATION!!! F*ckers...

NOTHING but BFGoodRich (TR) and Michelins (Wife's car) on our cars now...

Gotta love this URL: http://www.tirefailures.com/

 

[cruzn57]

firestones

we used firestones on most of our fleet, until last year,
we were loosing two to three a week, due to tread seperation, mostly from steeltex, firestone won't stand behind their product, so we switched to other brands,.
I'm talking almost a thousand vehicles!
until they get their act together........ NO FIRESTONES!!!

good luckl
cruzn57