New Goodyears Exploding in Brazil

[sphaugh]

watch the news this summer:

the furor over firestone tires mounted on explorers has only just begun. goodyears, and other 'replacement' brands continue to fail on Explorers in South America. I heard this from a firestone factory employee who got the lowdown during a speech from management - explaining why Firestone still feels maligned by Ford & is probably going to sever ties altogether. ( http://mirror.bridgestone-firestone.com/homeimgs/H010521a.htm )

Be careful out there this summer.

 

[Karman]

It was actually Venezuela, but you're close enough. There was an article about it in the Miami Herald last week. The Venezuelan government is getting involved and going after Ford. It hasn't made the news in a big way yet, but I'm sure it will as the Firestone vs. Ford war heats up.

Anyone who thinks this is a tire problem is living in a dream world.

 

[FMExplorer]

Karman,
MotorTrend (I believe) did a test on the Explorers trying to get them to roll. Simulated blowouts under a strict controls. None of them flipped. They were trying to discover if there was poor driving involved. Conclusion - not poor driving. However, none of their Explorer's even came close to flipping. Also - none of the tires had tread seperation. I've followed this pretty intensley and haven't come up with any conclusions, but the evidence I see leans in Ford's favor and against Firestone...

Jon

 

[PLRBEAR]

There's only one problem with the Motortrend test: All of the tests were done in a straight line.

What if the person was going round a bend when the tire went? That's a question still left unanswered.

 

[Karman]

I haven't seen the MT test. Can anyone scan it or post the details of how it was done? One things for sure - a Motor Trend test driver in a controlled environment is not the same as a soccer mom at the wheel, loaded with grandma, the kids and vacation gear headed down the Florida turnpike at 90 mph to Disney World in the middle of July with 12 lbs. of pressure in a set of 7 year old worn out tires.

Its too bad the Explorer has turned into a status-oriented station wagon. This problem would never have happened.

 

[FMExplorer]

I haven't seen the MT test. Can anyone scan it or post the details of how it was done? One things for sure - a Motor Trend test driver in a controlled environment is not the same as a soccer mom at the wheel, loaded with grandma, the kids and vacation gear headed down the Florida turnpike at 90 mph to Disney World in the middle of July with 12 lbs. of pressure in a set of 7 year old worn out tires.

Karman - it was a real controlled environment. The tires were not seperated, just instantly deflated. It was done on a straight track, however, the driver even ran the test with no hands on the wheel - and the Explorer still tracked true. I guess the point is, if anyone runs 7-year old tires at 90mph with 12psi in ANY car they are asking for it...

The only thing I can think of is maybe there is something in the design of the Explorer that causes it to roll when tires seperate. Shame on the engineers for not putting that safety feature in (said sarcastically)

Jon

 

[kvo]

It was a Car-N-Driver article about three months ago.

I'll scan it and post it tomorrow for those interested along with subsequent comments from readers regarding the test.

 

[kvo]

I found the articles but the scanner doesn't work at work. The test was from the Car-N-Driver January 2001 issue and the comments were from the April 2001 issue.