Ooops, old firestone tire...

[apolo607]

Well, here my history:

I own a xlt 98 4wd which I like a lot. I bought it since 4 years ago. It has been always well maintained. When I bought it, I replaced 4 tires with the bfgoodrigch long trial, with the exception of the spare tire. Spare tire was a firestone wilderness, I did not replaced this because it just look like new. I think previous owned never had to used.

I have had to use rarely this spare tire, about an average of once per year, my bfgoodrich were bought at Costco, and have a service for life for any puncture on the road face of the tire. I have usually go to Costco as soon as I have had any puncture on my bfg's, and the spare part has been used just for some miles.

Well, I last friday I went from Queretaro to San Luis Potosi, it is a 2 hours driving. One day before, I check my tires pressure, and saw that my rear pilot side tire was low. Then I change the tire for the spare one. Due to a busy day, I did not go to Costco as I used to do, and went to San Luis. After 45 minutes of driven, at a average speed of 120 km per hour, in an almost straight and nice road, I heard a very loud pop coming from drivers rear side. I feel like a bump and I slow and drive to roadside to review my vehicle.

Well, I found that my spare tire(the firestone one which used to look like new) lost the layer that has ALL of the thread!!! I look slightly around I did not see nearby on the highway. I start to change the tire for the bfgoorrich one. when I removed the firestone, I found the missing layer of the tire kind of coiled in between the wheel shaft and the brake caliper. I saw the mess and were afraid of damage to the brake lines. Only ebrake cable was broke, no damage to the hydraulic brake lines. I drove to a near tire shop and fix the bf one.

I did a little search on the web and found in the recall firestone page this picture where there is a very similar issue (http://www.firestone-tire-recall.com/pages/accident_reports/9-15_photos.html). It is very scary

I thanks good that my wife and me are ok after this.

Below are the pictures from my tire. All the first layer is off, luckily that the tire did not blown out. You can see that the thread of the tire look like new.

 

[SoNic67]

Yep, you are lucky that didn't panic like other drivers that rolled over from same incident.
What can I say - Firestone tires. I won't drive on them even if they are free...
For the record, do you know what was the pressure in that tire?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firestone_and_Ford_tire_controversy

 

[corkey]

just tell him it had 35 psi in it,,

 

[Blee1099]

Meh you could still drive on that carcass

 

[dogfriend]

You are quite fortunate. That is precisely the reason those tires were all recalled. Even if it were another model and/or brand, you should not trust any tire that is more than 5 or 6 years old without having it inspected by a tire shop.

 

[Maniak]

Don't forget, most spare tires are put on, and left on there for years.

IIRC, most companies say to not run tires once they get 6 years old. If that poor tire was an original OEM firestone tire then its way past its service life.

~Mark

 

[lynchy wa]

Glad your OK.

 

[CDW6212R]

Don't forget, most spare tires are put on, and left on there for years.

IIRC, most companies say to not run tires once they get 6 years old. If that poor tire was an original OEM firestone tire then its way past its service life.

~Mark

What does that say about cars that are literally undriven and touted as like new, with the original tires on them? People place value in an original tire for an old car, musclecar etc. I'm with you, after several years get rid of it.

FYI, when all of that Firestone mess was going on, I was on a trip with my mother 1100 miles from home. We drove my 93 4WD Explorer there and back, at 75mph+ each way. It did great with 20-22mpg, and the Firestones had about 34-36psi in them the whole way. I drove them for almost a year until the last month they could be replaced.

I think there were some bad runs, and nobody knew which were good or bad. Hopefully that doesn't happen again with any tire. Regards,

 

[sport97]

Glad you are ok. That could have been really bad.

I need a new spare too. I just used it for the 1st time last year. It had never been taken out from under since '97, still had the rubber nipples on the tread. It was scary, it took a good mile for it to get smooth, it was shaking really bad. I had to drive really slow.

 

[SoNic67]

I think there were some bad runs, and nobody knew which were good or bad.

Oh, at some point, they knew:

...several models of 15" Firestone tires (ATX, ATX II, and Wilderness AT) had very high failure rates, especially those made at Firestone's Decatur, Illinois plant. This was one of the leading factors to the closing of the Decatur plant.

just tell him it had 35 psi in it,,

On that model of tire the stamped MAX pressure was 35PSI.

 

[apollo607]

Oh, at some point, they knew:

On that model of tire the stamped MAX pressure was 35PSI.

Yes, I use my tires at 35 psi. It is interesting for me that you show that kind of graphics. I am actually working as a quality assistance mgr at an automotive maker parts (we supply to ford, among several others), an one of my tasks is to follow up my plant customer ppms.

 

[shadowless127]

Firestones are crap. I had a set of almost brand new Destination LE's on my 98 Mountaineer, and after maybe 15K they were down to the band, and wore extremely uneven the entire time with horrible traction.

I <3 the set of General Grabbers I have on the EB now.