O/T Tire Failure

I had a michelin 235 85r 16 tire with 95 % tread left develope a bump, on my pickup. I took it off, and that night it exploded. I let some air out to get it home, so it wasen't over inflated. It blew a hole in the tread area right through the steel belt, and split the side wall to the rim. The tire is 7 years old. I figured it should have gone longer than that. What do you think? Stan

Were the belts rusted out from a "bruise" to the tread some time ago that let water/salt get to them/

They go off with a bang don't they ! I had 3 blow this year . Same size , while going 65 mph. Tore the heck out of stuff. Rear brake lines two times, box supports , trailer wiring, what a mess.

I'm not surprised. After all Firestone and Bridgestone are one in the same. After the big lawsuit over the SUV's rolling over after a tire blowing, they probably just renamed the same tires to Bridgestone.
I had 1 Firestone blow (same size as your B'stone) but it wasn't on their list of recall tires so I was out of luck. I replaced 2 at that time with some Good Years. Less than a year later, I had one of the remaining Firestones get a big bubble on it so I pulled it off and took it to them, they said no warranty. I reminded them about the lawsuit that was coming up in a few weeks and told them I planned to attend that trial. Suddenly my tire was under warranty, what a bunch of bull. So I got a new tire and put it under the truck for a spare. That left me 2 Firestones on the rear of my truck when I took of on a 300 mile trip. You guessed it, one of them blew and I felt the vibration for about 30 seconds before it did. Thankfully I had slowed down and was looking for a wide spot to pull over when it let go (I was running 65 on a 2 lane road). It damaged the fender of course. So I put my brand new Firestone spare in it's place and proceed down the road hoping the other older tire (they had about 15K miles on them) didn't let go too. Guess what? Nope, it didn't blow but as I pulled into a small town I heard a scraping noise. I stop to investigate and discover a brace from the damaged fender had fallen down and was rubbing the inside sidewall near the rim, almost to the point of showing the cords (you can see the picture above). I had gone about 30 miles and the new tire was shot. The little town had one tire store and he scrounged up one used tire and mounted it and I made it home, a nervous wreck.
Needless to say there will never ever be another Firestone or Bridgestone product on a vehicle that I own.

if you get a thorn in them, the air will leak out and get between the treads and force in a bubble.. or if you ever plug a radial, it will tend to do the same.. so the bubble problem is not unusual in radial belted tires...

anytime you get a bubble, that tire will start to separate.. question is,, will it blow out, or throw the tread... either option is not good. I've seen tire run with small bubble for several months if they are on the sides.. some folks just dont change them till they blow.

And a tread separation at hyway speeds can steer the vehicle sideways,, with catastropic results.

I figured out years ago that my level of success with tires is inversely proportional to price and brand recognition.

In other words, I have far better luck with el cheapos that no one ever heard of than with Firestones, Goodyears, Michelens, etal.

I had some old tires on a 1964 F250 that had that issue. Tell you what, you don't know if you should toss your under wear or wash it after blowing a rear tire at 70 MPH on a truck with drum brakes, solid front axle and a trailer pushing it on a narrow two lane road with no shoulders.

The tires looked good but the one that blew had rusty steel belts (run flat by previous owner?). Bit the bullet and spent $500 on tires so I wouldn't have to worry about it anymore.

> I have far better luck with el cheapos that no one ever heard of than with Firestones, Goodyears, Michelens, etal.

I agree there. The best LT tires I've ever had are Interco (Chinese).

Where was the "bump" at? If it was around the shoulder area (where the tread meets the sidewall) and not at correct psi, the tire would not be able to deflect debris as well and have cord separation. That is about the biggest cause of sidewall failure after slices.

I had a Motor Home [1972--1995] and was forced to use Michelin tires as they were the only one we could find that made 17" tires at that time. needless to say ,they were prone to seperation or cracks if you will of the side wall and tread rubber. These cracks in the carcase rubber would seperate all the way to the cords. It usually took about 2 years before this would happen,Numerous blow outs and flats while sitting in storage were the results of these poor tires. Got rid of the Motor Home and no more Michelins for me.I think if the tires were kept in use they may have gave satisfactory service. That is only a guess.A tire is made to go around not sit around.

I would agree also. Khumo and Hankook have turned out to be excellent tires for me.

I swore off Goodyears after blowing out three Regatta 2s with over 3/4 tread in one summer on my Grand Marquis. Strangely enough I've only blown one other tire (Continental) on my family car in over 20 years. I keep them rotated and never let them get too thin so hopefully my wife doesn't have to deal with tire issues with kids in the car.

Replace all 4 on my merc marquis with only 51 K on them sidewalls all dry rotted

A seven year old tire with 95% tread left.

What'd you do, buy three and mount the spare that had been riding around underneath all that time? And then did the worst thing possible by letting the pressure down on a dry-rotted tire so that it could flex more as it went around, accelerating what was an inevitable failure?

I'm not sure what you expect of tires, friend.

They don't last seven years. Granted, quality tires to put under motor vehicles are easier to come by than good trailer tires, but my trailer tires, as much as I fuss over them, are typically replaced for age, not treadwear, at five or six years.

My truck came with 17" Michelin Load Range E Michelins. I'm on my second set with about 85k on them, and I nursed them through last winter, but I'll be replacing them this fall for weather checking after almost six years. Plenty of tread but they are reaching a point that I wouldn't want to haul a heavy trailer with them.

You need to get a grip. 7 years old with 95% tread left? That's a good'n.

You sure do hate Firestone/Bridgestone don't you? So much that you didn't even read the original post properly. He said it was a Michelin that blew out. There is a move out to outlaw running any tires over 6 years old. Guess that would fix you guys who expect to neglect or abuse tires for years and wonder why they fail.

I had a set of Dunlops that lasted for yonks would never wear out but came adrift under the tread, went back to the same supplier and asked for another set, told they don't make them anymore. "why".
"too good"
Had to settle for their replacement. nowhere as good.
Quality obviously affects the balance sheet.

Same deal with camper tires. People only check them out right before the take a trip, and blow a gasket when their tires (6 to 10 years old, w/ tons of tread)blow out and leave them on the side of the road. Always hated those road calls!

If you check the side wall of the tire you can determine it's manufacturing date. That seven year old tire may be 10 or more years old. Some dealers leave those tires outside for display. Not good. So it could have been sitting around for awhile before you bought it.
The date code is next to the DOT code. The date code will look like 3509. Tire was manufactured in the 35th week of 2009. I bought a set of four tires last year and they all had different manufacturing dates. Same year different months. One was even from Canada