Pe00-020 original equipment with firestone radial at . 3 out of 4 tires were plugged within 1 year and at approximately 45,000 miles , consumer was driving at 55 MPH when left rear tire blewout unexpectedly. All tires had plenty of tread, and looked like new.*ak firestone dealer indicated that it is not their fault.
1991 Ford Explorer tires complaints
Page 3 of 5: complaints 41 to 70 of 102, newest first, as owners wrote them.
Afterm arket firestone atx tire p235/75r15 size. Left front and left rear tread separated at highway speeds, causing vehicle to roll over, ejecting and killing the driver.*ak
Consumer received recall notice 00t005, consumer replaced firestone tires and is requesting reimbursement.
Just a few more data points for the firestone investigation; two of the firestone atx tires that came as original equipment on my 1991 ford explorer experienced tread separation in mid 1995, causing body damage but no accident or injury. We took the tread from one to a local firestone dealer, who claimed it was "road hazard damage" and that he couldn't help us. The tires were always inflated to the psi recommended on the sidewall; they were not underinflated. *ak (dot number: unknown tiresize: p235/75r15)
On monday, september 8, 1997, I was returning home (dallas, tx) from a camping trip in northern new mexico in my 1991 ford explorer. Prior to leaving on this trip, my husband took our explorer to the firestone dealership in our neighborhood to have all 4. *ak (tiresize: p235/75r15)( dot number: tire size: p235/75r15 )
Consumer took vehicle to dealer many times for front end alignments and a replacement of the transaxle.
Firestone atx tires experienced tread separation causing significant damage to the front fender.
Pe00 020; consumer was traveling about 25mph on highway and felt vibration inside of vehicle. Front right tire tread separated. There were no injuries. Firestone #atx, p23575r15.
Tire failure 8-21-91, 302 miles, 26 psi, right rear, flat tire in parking lot. Mitchell tire service in anaheim ca put air in tire & discover a pin hole leak in sidewall. He then dismounted tire to look for hole inside tire. No hole found inside tire, & told me the belt was seperating. He told me that since it was a sport ute, it was not covered under firestones warranty, I had to purchase another tire. I managed to get firestone factory to pay me back for failed tire. Tire failure #2, 1-11-92, 4,000 miles, 32 psi, left rear, tire flat in driveway. Firestone dealer in el toro, ca put air in the tire & discovered a pin hole leak. He said I had to purchase another tire since it wasn't covered by warranty. I tried to get firestone factory to replace tire, but they refused. So I purchased a goodyear wrangler. Tire failure #3, 1-25-92, 7,912 miles, 32 psi, left rear, tire started to vibrate on south bound 5 freeway in irvine. Mark c bloom, in el toro, ca spun the tire up on their balancing machine, & then advised me that the tire was severely out of round, a condition caused by the tire starting to seperate, so I purchased a goodyear wrangler. I still have the original fr480 spare. The first two letters of the dot code are w2. The (3) fr480 tires that failed may have had same designation, but I don't know for sure. Note: I have had no problems with goodyear tires on any of the (3) sets I have purchased! Note: as I listened to jacques nassers testimony, something was mentioned which jarred my memory. Rep billy tauzin asked him about hotline document# 71 pg# 3 dated 8-19-96, which stated that a ford dealer had 16 explorers he couldnt balance the tires on. Well, I had the same problem! Mills ford rebalanced my tires at least 3 times in the first 3000 miles. But it didnt help however, after the failed firestone tires were replaced. The balancing problem went away. *ak( dot number: unknown tire size: p225/70r15 )
Tire failure #1, 8-21-91, 302 miles, 26 psi, right rear tire flat in parking lot. Mitchell tire service in anaheim ca, put air in tire & discovered a pin hole leak in sidewall. He then dismounted the tire, inspected it, & told me the belt was separating. I purchased another fr480 from him. Firestone customer service refunded me for tire. Tire failure #2, 4,000 miles, 32 psi, left rear, flat in driveway. Firestone dealer in el toro, ca inspected tire & found pin hole leak in sidewall. Firestone refused to pay for second tire failure, so I purchased a goodyear wrangler. Tire failure #3, 7,912 miles, 32 psi, left rear, tire began to vibrate on south bound 5 in irvine. Mark c bloom in el toro, ca, spun tire up on their balancing machine & said it was severly out of round, a condition created by a belt near seperation. Purchased a goodyear wrangler.*ak( dot number: unk tire size: p225/70r15 )
The tire peeled away and was flung up and hit the windshield on the driver's side. We were driving on the interstate and were going through two concrete bunkers in the midst of some road reconstruction with an 18 wheeler right on o ur bumper. He didn't see that the tire had exploded and bore down on us and to avoid being hit we had to ride on the rim while trying to control the truck until we could get out of the single lane of construction. We lost control of the truck after coming o ut of the bunker lane and went across the esplanade. We were able to come to a stop before going into the oncoming traffic but it bent the frame of the truck and ruined the rim. When we went to a firestone dealer at spring cypress and kuykendahl road in spring, texas we were told that the tires were our problem and we'd probably just picked up a nail. We had to replace the tires in that town.( dot number: )
According to firestone tires not recalled, p235/75ri5 105s m/s, tread came completly off! Tire stayed inflated. Please look into more recalls on tires. I still have the tire. If you need a picture let me know. No injuries to my family but I still have the two rear tires. More lives could be lost. Suggest wider recall and investigation.*ak( dot number: tire size: p235/75ri5 )
Veh1 blew out a tire-veh flipped 3 times **trooper. Old insured they could remove personal belongings from the vehicle-insured was moving back from college** the tire was a firestone atx, but they already sold the salvage. (claim# 53-c556-170)
Left rear tire has blown out. It is a firestone wilderness ht. The size is p235/75r15. Insured claimed that the tire blew out which is what caused accident. It appears that this tire had been run low for quite some time. It looked like the sides of the tire had gotten hot. It may pay to take this tire off of the rim and check and see if there is a nail or something in it that would have caused this tire to have gone flat. There is a spot on the back side. There looks like there is a hole in the back side of the tire. The front side of the tire looks like the tire has been run low for a long time. (claim# 25-5432-593)
Firestone: insured driving down freeway, tire blew out causing damage to vehicle and tire. Claim# 55-s245-270)
Driving veh top work and right rear tire blew.. This is one of the firestone tires that has been in the new.. At time of loss was unaware of the firestone tire problem so he replaced all four tires but still has the three that he removed. (claim 34-w488-773)
Tires inspected by independent auto mechanic/recommended tire replacement due to shifting of the tire treads/separation...bad tires taken to firestone and replaced after proration....received same tires except from a different dot (hyuu) two of the four original tires from dot (vduu) still on the vehicle...am concerned as I am at a 50% failure rate on this set. *ak( dot number: vduu 4fa tire size: p225/70r15 )
Tires are showning signs of tread seperation , crack all the way around tires on sidewall just below tread area. You can stick a dime into crack in tires. Was told by ford & firestone that these tires are not part of recall and were ok. Firestone dealer told me that this was normal for tires on large SUV's. My father has a 4 wheel drive chevy suburan equiped with unaroyal tires of the same size and no cracking or other signs of trouble have shown up. How do I get these tires replaced< my wife and 2 girls are not safe with these tires.*ak( dot number: 8xhl tire size: 235/75r/15 )
The vehicle had firestone tires on the vehicle, the vehicle had extensive problems with the front end, possibly due to the defective tires.
After market firestone atx tires , p235/75r15 size, dot#: vdhl. On 2 separate occasions rear tire tread separated at highway speeds.*ak
I have a 1991 explorer which I purchased new.when I recently inspected my spare for the firestone recall, I was reminded of a problem I found back in 1991 where when I lowered the spare for the first time there were 2 cuts on each sidewall of the tire;deep enough to cut thru the steel belts.this was caused by the frame chafing the tire while driving. I called ford dearborn and was told to see the tire manufacturer.the installation chafed the tire ,not firestone.I still have the tire and will take a digital picture and fwd to u.( dot number: tire size: p235/75r15 )
While traveling on the local interstate, the tread on one of our rear tires separated. Thank goodness it was at night and not much traffic. This occurred before the recall, we just thought that it was a fluke accident. The tire was replaced with the spare, which is also firestone, and another spare was purchased. Now, we are having problems with the other rear tire -- we have called our local firestone dealer daily, but they have not received a shipment for recall replacements since the recall was issued. We are not in the position to make a major purchse of 4 new tires, and fear our safety. What in the world can we do? Please advise -- I have contacted firestone, but only get their standard scripted answers. I also object to the way firestone is placing the blame of their faulty workmanship onto the customer and hot weather. If their tires cannot hold up to hot texas summers, then they should not be selling their product in texas. Thank you for allowing me to vent.( dot number: )
The rear tires belts appear to have seperated causing large knots all around the tread of both rear tire they even have bubbles on the inside of the tire.all of this happened in about a 30 mile trip,you could feel a wobble in the back that grow worse, and worse.if I had not pulled of to inspect them I am sure they would have blown.I still have the tires but don't know who to contact about them because I can't find a lemans tire company and there is no other manufactures name on the tires.
On july 18, 1999, I was taking my daughter (15 at the time) to summer camp from henderson, nc to brown summit, nc. She was driving under her permit, and I was dozing. I was suddenly awakened by a sound like a machine gun, and the next thing I knew, we were spinning in circles across three lanes of I-40/85. We ended up spinning off the side of the road, but fortunately did not turn over. I found that my right rear tire (firestone wilderness at) had lost its tread, and that was the noise I had heard. A passing motorist stopped to see if we were ok, and he said that he didn't know how we avoided being creamed by an oncoming semi-trailer. The next day (monday), I went to a tire dealer in henderson, and forked out $400 for a set of michelin m/s tires. The dealer commented about the firestones, "oh, yeah, sometimes tread does come off like that." we were lucky, and all we suffered were psychological injuries, and damaged wheel well. I recently traded in the vehicle and purchased a new isuzu rodeo.( dot number: )
At the time of tire failure we weren't aware of the general problems, so we didn't keep the tire, get info on the dot numbers, etc. April 2000 incident, tire had a big bubble on it after slightly hitting it on the curb at a turn. We replaced the tire immediately. May incident the car skidded after taking a right hand turn and car spun around and hit the curb. We assumed this was purely a skid because of rain slick streets, but now are wondering if the tire failed first. We replaced the tire and paid for other damage (damage to the axle and several other related parts). 4 tires now on this car are the recalled tires, so we believe the failed tires were the recalled tires also. They were both wilderness at tires.it never occured to us to save info on the tires at that time. The car is currently at a firestone dealer having the recalled tires replaced.( dot number: n/a tire size: p235/75r15 )
Pe00020; tire tread separation: while driving about 55 MPH tread on the rear passenger's side tire came off. Driver was able to regain control of explorer and pull to the side of the road. Two other passengers were in the explorer. No one was injured. Tire was a firestone, p22570r156, original tire equipment. Also, on september 30, 1998, tread came off the driver's front side tire. The incident was reported to firestone on august 15, 2000. Please provide any further information. *ak firestone p225/70/r15
Both tires experienced tread seperation. The left front went first. Bending the chrome on my frunt bumper and scraping the paint off of the left front fender( dot number: tire size: 31x10r15 )
Had tires for about 18000 miles and got big cracks around the side walls right below of the trade( dot number: unknown tire size: lt2357515 )
We just wanted you to know of another instance of firestone/bridgestone tires blowing out and causing a ford esplorer to flip three times. Luckily, there was no fatality - only injury and property loss.( dot number: ? Tire size: p235/75r15 )
All firestone tires need to be investigated. The original firestone tires that came on my "91 ford explorer xlt and the subsequent replacement tires all developed cracks all around the tires where the tread meets the sidewall. I stopped buying firestone tires. The tires I now have, show none of these signs of cracking. Investigate all of firestone tires, there is a problem greater than currently acknowledged!!!
VIN decoder
See the problems and recalls for an exact car
Buying a used 1991 Ford Explorer?
Check the exact car before you pay: accidents, salvage or flood titles, odometer readings and previous owners.
Check its history