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Ford Explorer Community - Maintenance - Modifications - Performance Upgrades - Problem Solving - Off-Road - Street
Explorer Forum Covers the Explorer ST, Explorer Sport, Explorer Sport Trac, Lincoln Aviator, Mercury Mountaineer, Mazda Navajo, Ford Ranger, Mazda Pickups, and the Ford Aerostar
OK, we got our recall notice the other day and I want the AT K/O and my dad says that Firestone is still a good tire manfacturer, its just this one incident at that one plant that makes everybody think its terrible. This Decatur plant had workers on strike and it was sabotage to get back at the company and they didnt look ahead to think it might kill or injure people or cost them their job or life. So are there any other Firestone tires that are any good? And is there any that you can run around 70,000 miles before having to change them? I heard the KO could go that far. And what kinds of warranties? I definately want the KO, but then theres Goodyear, Firestone, Michelin, all those others to pick from.
Given:
1) 1,456 Firestone ATX, ATX II, Wilderness AT tire failures reported so far.
2) 14,400,000 suspect tires
Failure Rate:
1456 / 14,400,000 = 0.01% or
approx 1 out of every 9890 tires or
approx 1 out of every 1978 Explorers with ATX, ATX II, Wilderness AT tires (assuming 5 tires per vehicle)
At one time in my life I only used Firestone tires, until I experienced three blowouts with the radial 500 tire Firestone made before the 721 model. Maybe most of the posters here are young or perhaps did not drive in the mid to late 1970's, but if they did they would remeber how Firestone screwed around with the radial 500 defects. They eventually recalled all of them, but not until there were many more accidents than experienced with the Wilderness AT. Firestone tires are a piece of junk. Basically, Firestone makes it money by being an OEM supplier which means they must be very cheap in order to compete. The 2001 Explorer Sport I bought is the first vehicle I owned with Firestone tires since the radial 500 fiasco. At about 6500 miles one of the tires developed a 12" crack in the tread. That was it for me! Those tires are now history. I replaced them with Pirelli Scorpion AT tires. The difference in performance was unbelieveble. Why the heel did Ford stick with this tire!
In light of Firestone's past history, I would never ever put their tires on my or my emeney's vehilce......
The 721's were garbage also, they had 0 wet weather traction, and lousy milage. My dad insisted that we put 721's on because that is what was on the car when he bought it, but I remember one time when he was driving down the street during a light rain, and some putz pulls out of a dealership with a brand new buick riviera, and my dad hit the brakes and slid into the back of them, and totaled their new car, the damage done to the Ford LTD he was driving was a dent in the bumper, and pushed it back 1/2".
I replaced them with cooper lifeliner classics, and the difference was night and day.
95ExplorerLTD:
I think you may be thinking of the Firestone Steeltex A/T. TI have heard good things about the Steeltex A/T and know that they come on trucks like the suburban and tahoe. I believe our friend went 65K beofre needing to replace the steeltex tires.
BTW: I highly recommend BFG long Trails....very quiet..70,000 mile warentee...excellent traction!
Honestly, I trust firestone with their tires, that is if they're on a car, when it comes to the ones recalled, I also believe they suck but their A/T's and M/T's I think they look like a quality tire although I think next spring I'm gonna pick up a set of General M/T's...Pete
I was talkin to someone and he was thinking now is the time to buy firestones.....they may be cheaper because of low demand, and the new ones will most likely not be made of crappy rubber because firestone won't be able to afford another recall for many years..I don't think they will make that mistake over again so now's the time to get the firestone steeltex A/Ts!
I have had both the Firestone 500's and the ATX's .The 500's I had had a blowout in the rear lucky I wasn't going fast. The ATX's had a tread seperation in the front my son, lucky for us noticed it while washing the Explorer. Thats twice and enough for me i will never buy or own a Firestone product again. The only good thing was that Firestone gave me $500 for the Michelin AT's which by the way is so much better.
Amen! Firestone stinks and they have lost my business forever. I am very happy with the 2001 Sport; however, I'm rather pissed off at Ford! It was my option to replace the Wilderness AT's, but it was not my option to select the Wilderness tires in the first place. I think it is rather absurd to not have a choice when plunking down $25,000. You know Ford makes $10,000 - $15,000 per vehicle. Will someone at Ford explain why they can't either eat or charge another couple hundred bucks in order to allow the customer to select the brand tire supplied. I recently learned Ford only paid $10.00 apiece for the Wilderness AT tires!
Ford makes about $5000 - $7000 on their luxury vehicles, and about $10,000 - $15,000 on the Explorer. I have family who work in the OEM parts business and at Ford. The Explorer has made the lion's share of Ford's profits for quite some time. With profits like this I cannot understand why Ford refused to be proactive in correcting the tire problem. This would have saved a few lives and nipped in the Butt any backlash against Ford.
This issue is not just about a bad product. It is about a company that knowingly and willingly produced a substandard product over a period of time. They knew about the defect. It's not even a defect, as the tread seperation is a logical result of running a tire that is poorly designed and manufactured to begin with.
In the name of profit, Firestone has comprimised the safety of everyone on the road.
It's more than just stats. People have died...
I do not expect that Firestone will ever recover from this "recall". Not just financially, but their brand identity and product confidence is shattered.
I know I will never buy a Firestone tire.
It is unfortunate for the people who work at Firestone but this company, with its objectives and descisions noted, deserves to crumble and fall...
The tires that were on my truck all sucked and just about every other explorer with ATX's that I have seen showed signs of cracking - my sister's truck as well. Can you honestly say that all these tires were produced in this small time frame - impossible. There was an overall defect in the tire design and they just want a lame excuse for the problem. Why the F*** is no one fessing up to the blame
(1) Ford - my truck doesn't have design flaws. The problem lies with Firestone.
(2) Firestone - Our tires don't suck. Its our employees that were upset during a strike.
(3) Employees - W/T/F? (they don't have any press play to voice their opinion.)
To also further my opinion, my father purchased a set of Dunlops (also Firestone related) approx. four years ago when I was driving his Taurus. I used the car often (daily) and one day (20k miles later), I was driving on the highway doing 70mph. All of a sudden I heard a chopper above and said to myself, of ****, a cop if a helicopter is following for speeding. The chopper continued to follow me until I reached the exit ramp and slowed down to 30mph. When I pulled into my driveway I was shocked that no police vehicle had followed me to issue a ticket. I was wary that the car was vibrating slightly at the time so I took a look under the car. A ten inch by three inch portion of my tire had ripped off the thread. The only thing that was holding the tire together was the steel belt. It wasn't a chopper, it was a defective Dunlop. I BET THEY MADE THAT ONE DURING THE STRIKE ALSO.
According to the 8 Sept Wall Street Journal, there is no big flap about Bridgestone/Firestone tires in Japan. They attribute the lack of tread seperation incidents in Japan to the fact that there are so few SUV type vehicles there.
Interesting!
One bad apple?! How can u say that? More like one poison apple that ford and firstone let out into the public knowingly and let the poison kill 88 people. I'm sorry but this whole firestone/ford thing I find unbelievable. Very very upsetting at least. I feel like they put my life at risk and I do believe they did until i decided to spend the money and get new tires.
I don't know what it's like at other localities, but I can't get BFG KO's or any other replacement tire right now. COSTCO told me that there is a three month waiting list for Michelins.
