Firestone tire recall: Are mine a problem?

ajbearder

I have a 97 Explorer with Wilderness AT 235/70/R15 tires with 34,000 miles on them. Since all four of my tires are exhibiting a separation of the tread I have had 5 mechanics look at them (two of them Firestone garages). Each says they definitely have a problem they haven't seen before that should be covered by Firestone's recall.

Oddly enough, Firestone (corporate) will not cover them as they are not made at the Michigan plant, Even though they agree that the tread has a problem and warn me to replace them at my cost.

Has anyone else had luck in getting Firestone to cover tires of the same size and model with their replacement policy when they weren't made at the Michigan plant???

ghtrap

The Firestone plant in question is in Decatur, Il, and the code precedeing the s/n on the tires is 'VD'. They may not replace the other plant's tires on the voluntary safety recall.

Look at Firestone's web site and read about the "Customer satisfaction refund" info. Your size tires may be on that list.

In any case, for Pete's sake, get good safe tires on you vehicle! Even if you wind up footing the bill, it's you and your family's safety that's at stake.

Go to the Firestone store and get the paperwork for the refund. Read it carefully, and see if the dealer can help you get an adjustment. For most of these 'customer satisfaction' deals, you can buy any tire you want from any dealer. Keep your old tires! You have to surrender the old tires to a Firestone dealer. Fill out the refund request portion of the paperwork. The Firestone dealer fills out the surrender portion.

Mail it in with the required documentation, and if Firestone doesn't file bankruptcy first, you may eventually get your refund.

Good luck, but get off those tires!

butch11

Are your fstones showing a hair line crack on the sidewall just at the edge where the tread cap meets the sidewall. I have seen several fstones with this hairline crack going all the way around the tire.

A group of lawyers is trying to force fstone to dramatically increase the number of recalled tires. Numbers are in the 10's of millions. If that happens, the cost of the recall will exceed the value of fstone and they will reorganize under bankruptcy proceedings. Then you will be lucky to get a nickel on the dollar out of them. Get your claim in asap. Once they go into bankruptcy everybody is left holding the bag.

gpm5

Now that really bothers/alarms me--peoples lives are at stake, the tires are showing tread separation signs, and Fstone won't replace. Unbelievable. I've seen another Explorer with ATs that are showing a hairline crack on both rear tires (not on the front) where the tread and tire side wall meet. Probably the same deal.

mazman1

Just read this article on cnn.com which describes that Ford is installing the recalled Firestone Radial ATX tires as spares on NEW Ranger pickups.

There is nothing more satisfying than doing business with an honest company. Read on!

http://cnnfn.cnn.com/2000/10/05/busunu/wires/ford_firestone_wg/index.htm

ram4x4

We have a 95 Explorer with a set of "non-recalled" Wilderness AT's (including a complimentary set of cracks where the tread meets the sidewall...courtesey of Firestone's incompetence). Up to now, I thought the Explorer was pretty safe and stable..I guess someone has been feeding me the same drugs the the CEO of Ford has been taking. After learning that the vehicle has a roll rate greater than that of most planes that I fly, we decided to get rid of it...not just the tires. We don't need two 4x4's (other truck is a 2001 Dodge Ram Quad Cab 4x4) and it's a burden on the insurance.
I realize the tires are the main cause of the problem but it appears the Explorer is an unsafe vehicle with or without Firestones. Putting the two together just made a dangerous and deadly combo and I'm not willing to bet my family's lives on it.
If anyone has a death wish, I have an Explorer with Firestones for sale.....CHEAP!

traction

"Toyota now refusing to use Bridgestone/Firestone
tires after discovering cracks

Toyota has informed Bridgestone/Firestone that it
will no longer accept tires that fall under the
Bridgestone Dueler brand name after Toyota
discovered "abnormal surface cracks"; in new tires
that come as standard equipment on such models as
the Toyota Tundra, according to CBS affiliate WWJ
News Radio in Detroit, MI. Surface cracks, if they do appear on tires, do not usually show until the near the very end of a tires life. This newly discovered problem could also lend to the argument of safety advocacy groups that quality is still an issue at Bridgestone/Firestone."

pat455

Hi traction -

What is that you are quoting? If you check out the Participant Agreement, you'll find that not violating the copyright or other intellectual property rights of others is a requirement.

The best thing to do would be for you to post a link to the material you have quoted and scribble post 200.

Please do that, because I'm sure lots of folks here will be interested.

Pat
Community Leader/Maintenance & Repair Conference

ckreiter

I had some luck with my Ford dealer re: my Firestone Tires. They were not on the recall list but I wanted them off of my vehicle. I tried the service manager, then Ford HQ, then Firestone HQ and then a Firestone dealer with no success. Then, I spoke with the dealership manager and explained that all I really wanted was credit for my Firestones (only 5000 miles on the vehicle BTW) toward Goodyears. After a week, he called me and offered free replacement of all 5 tires with the Goodyears I wanted. I told him that he saved a customer that day. My one leverage was that I have a lease on a Windstar that is up in December and I reminded him of that.

Good luck...I think it's time that we get to chose the tires that are on our vehicles instead of being at the manufactures whim...

steve234

If you would check your facts, you would find that the tires are temporary spares and are not the same tires as the recalled tires. They are not rated for full time use. A hell of a lot of these so called news reports are some 15 year old kid that doesn't have enough brains to pop a zit, let alone understand the difference in tires.

rea98d

Read the markings on the sidewall very closely. If it says "Firestone" anywhere on your tires, you need to get them replaced right away!

joelis

I met with my local Firestone dealer 1 month ago about replacing my 17" Wilderness AT's on an Expedition with new Dueller AT's. (no recall on them, but I had the Cust Satisfaction letter). At that time, there was 3500 miles on the vehicle, and he said ok, and that I would get a full credit for the Wilderness's. He also gave me an invoice estimate showing just $97 for complete install. Problem was that the tires were on backorder at the time.

NOW, the tires are finally in, but the truck now has 5500 miles on it, and he says that they will now be prorated ($15 per tire) and no longer a full credit given.

Do I have any choice here, since it was not my fault that the tires were on backorder?

Any suggestions? Contacts?

swn1

As my driver ed teacher taught me, it's not the nut that holds the wheel on but the nut that holds onto the wheel that causes most problems on the roads. I read people trying to get 70-80 thousands miles out of about $20 cost worth of rubber, driving down the highway 80 mph and having blowouts. Everyday traveling the PA Turnpike I see people cruising along 75-80 mph in their SUV's with tires not designed for this type of abuse and trying to squeeze every last mile out of them. Then when the tires fail everybody wants to sue. This whole mess has been unfortunate but maybe it will make some stop and think and just maybe keep up the maintenance on their tires and drive a little slower and with some common sense. No I don't work for Firestone or Ford, I'm the guy driving along in a '99 Explorer with recalled tires like some of the rest you come up on and swerve around because I'm only going 65 mph. There is definitely a problem with the tires but I wonder how much the nut holding onto the wheel added to the cause of the accidents.

butch11

Years ago had firestone 500's on a stationwagon-well the right rear delaminated and blew. It was like that side of the car was on ice-no traction and no control-rear end (right) started coming around-steered into the slide and barely averted going into on coming traffic.

Anybody that says a blow out on a rear tire ain't no big deal has a different set of experiences than I-maybe they work for the road gang-lot of them out there and lot of them on this list it seems.

rea98d

I don't doubt in some circumstances it can be harrowing, but when it happened to me (twice), the car stayed relatively composed. (Okay, it dropped hard about 6 inches on the corner of the blowout and rattled like a 20 year old vette in need of a tuneup, but the car didn't do anything squirrely on me). I cut the cruise and let it coast down to a slow speed before pulling over to the side of the road, stopping, changing it and being on my way.

pocahontas

From Edmund's Editorial Section, here's a direct link to A Summarization of the Bridgestone/Firestone Debacle Part II, by Liz Kim. Thanks for your comments.

Pocahontas,
Edmunds.com/Roving Host

adc100

If you drive on 150 degree pavements with 15 pounds of air pressure, at high rates of speeds, on long trips. Ask Al Gore's lawyers.

rea98d

Then why don't we see it with Michelins, Goodyears, BF Goodrich, Cooper, General, Pirelli, or any other brand of tire. Or on anything other than Ford Trucks. Logic would dictate that the number of idiots out there would be equally spread among all makes, and all tire brands. Although underinflated tires may be a contributing factor, there is definately something wrong with these tires that needs to be fixed, otherwise we would hear about tread seperation on a lot more vehicles than Firestone light truck tires.

adc100

I agree with you. Firestone tires are not as idiot proof as some other brands. But i would personally have no problems using them with proper inflation. There's little doubt in my mind that these failures are due to abuse. As I said though, the safety factor is not high enogh to acommodate idiots.

Later

pat

Apparently this is the first time Firestone has owned up to the design problem. Read this washingtonpost.com article: Firestone Blames Itself, Ford for Tire Design Flaws.

So what happens next?

Pat/Roving Host

toytunone

at Discount Tires with Michelin LTX MS. The Ford dealer stated they wouldn't honor their previous commitment to replace the Deathstones with Michelins because of the higher cost of the Michelins, however they would use Uniroyal or Goodyears or Bridgestones. I said no thanks and used the Firestone form on their website which stated I could spend up to $100 per tire for 5 tires to replace them with any competitor's tires. When I replaced the 5 tires for $590 and took the old Firestones back to the Firestone dealer, he handed me the form to send to Firestone which now states they will pay up to $140 per competitor's tire for replacement.

eharri3

I have a few comments. first of all, in this litigous society, though the big corporations are often villified, the truth is sometimes they are wrong, but other times they really aren't but often end up having to cut their losses and admit wrong doing in order to survive as an entity. Think about it, if Firestone were to continue to try and avoid responsibility, it would only make for bad press and even more damage to their image than has already been done. At times like this, the actual facts become unimportant and it's all about spin control.

Second, I keep hearing about this supposed tread defect but up until now it has never been clearly explained, only mentioned in general as a cause for the blowouts. This leads me to believe that one may not even exist, and that a combination of a misinformed public that lacks proper drivers' education and a press that jumps to conclusion has created a controversly that has no basis. I believe that the media had a crucial role in inciting the whole controversy, as the story-hungry vultures latched on to a phenomenon that occurs far more often than most people realize, tire blowouts and SUV rollovers, picked a target upon which they could focus public interest, and then ran with it without any consideration to the panic they might have caused or for verifying all the facts. It would certainly be interesting to see rollover figures for all manufacturers, not just Ford.

Third... So far, from what I hear one common thread is low tire pressure. Ford was encouraging customers to put it at 26 psi when it should have been at at least 30. If Ford is guilty of anything it is faulty advice to customers, as they wanted to make Explorers seem to have comfier rides without considering the fact that improper pressure in tires causes excess heat which can damage the integrity of the tread.

Fourth... I really don't think most drivers know how to handle a blowout, and that is one of the leading causes of all the rollovers. I remember Dateline had one rollover victim on recently who flipped his explorer when the tire blew out. A friend riding shot gun ended up dead. If I remember correctly, his exact words were "I may have TAPPED the brakes slightly, and the next thing I knew it rolled over." One of the most frustrating facts to me was that there was no mention whatsoever of the fact that brake application is the one thing NOT to do when a tire has blown out. That phrase was completely glossed over and the whole thing was spun as a Ford defect. A leading car magazine recently tested just that exact theory, simulating a blowout on an Explorer at increasing speeds and the applying the brakes with varying intensity to see if they could get it to roll. It never happened. In fact, I have hardly ever seen any mention in the media of how drivers should safely handled a blowout. Why? A panicked public wants more information, which means they watch more news and ratings go up.
If you were driving and got into an accident that caused a friend's death, would you want to admit that it was probably because of your own screwup? Of course not. I think that also factors into the whole thing, as many drivers probably panic when their tires blow out and do things like make sudden steering corrections and hit their brakes hard. Not to mention that they neglect to check tire pressure because they don't understand why it's such a big deal. But as I said, either pride or guilt won't let them admit that they may be at least partially if not completely at fault for what happened. So what do they do? They blame manufacturers. When you can sue, why on earth should you accept any responsibility for your own actions? After all, they are just big, wealthy corporations, and a million dollar lawsuit for them is a drop in the bucket, isn't it?

bri66

I have had Firestone tires on my 1994 Ranger for 225,000 miles. My first original ATX set went for 60,000+ before I replaced them with another complete set of ATX's. My next set were Wilderness AT's, ATX's no longer available. They have been very good tires for me and will not hesitate to replace again with Firestone. I currently have the same P235\75R\15's on my 2000 Explorer with 34,000+ miles. I travel an average of 100 miles a day to commute back and forth to work mostly US.Rt 95. I do the speed limit, pay attention, and respect the roads. I do not work for either Ford or Firestone, just an average concerned consumer posting my experience.

globalboy32

I am shopping for a 2001 small car. It seems that all the models I'm looking at (Civic EX sedan, Protege ES sedan, apparently even the Saturn S Wagon) all come equipped with Firestones. The Honda dealer wouldn't sell me the Civic with Michelins or other tires, nor would he give me any discount toward purchase of safe tires.

Why are so many new small cars (still) equipped with Firestones? How can I avoid buying a small car equipped with them? Any comments?

ghtrap

Has anyone actually gotten their refund from Firestone after filling out the proper paprework?

I sent my refund request in September. No answer. Firestone won't ever get me back if
this is how they are treating their customers.

toytunone

Also, Firestone gave me only $100 per tire, ($500), when I replaced the Wilderness AT's with Michelin LTX MS's.