Be Wary of Bridgestone

**Red Harvest** · 10-20-2005, 01:48

FYI--

If you thought Bridgestone/Firestone had fixed their tire manufacture problems (I had) you might want to reconsider. Yesterday, a 3 month old Bridgestone Potenza blew out on the rear of my wife's car (she heard it pop), on the interstate at 70 mph. Front wheel drives go bonkers with a flat rear tire, so when it blew and started shaking and snaking she was unable to keep it straight on a gentle curve in traffic. The vehicle spun, flipped and ended up standing on end at the highway median. She walked away without a scratch (sore today though.)

The car is of course totalled.

I've looked at the tire on the car, and there is no sign of low air pressure (no indication of the tell tale rub marks or heat effects of that--I know what that looks like as I changed quite a few tires at work back in college.) Alignment and air pressure had looked/felt fine the night before, no indication of a bulge (wobbly ride, etc.) The inside sidewall has completely separated from the tire, outside still attached. Without pulling it and examining it I can't tell what caused it. There is some considerable bead damage that looks like rot or damage from the mounting (not present on another tire that was broken loose by impact. No sign of anything in the road that would have caused damage and then a pop.

So right now the primary suspects in order are: 1. inner sidewall failure 2. Bead failure due to poor quality rubber or rot. 3. Installation problem that caused loss of the bead.

This is all preliminary, so something else might turn up.

The tire in question has been extremely highly rated on Tirerack, better than the Dunlops I had been running. It's wet weather handling was excellent.

**Devastatin Dave** · 10-20-2005, 01:52

Man, I'm glad your wife's OK Red.

This doesn't sound good, have you contacted the company. Could be a model defect.

**Uesugi Kenshin** · 10-20-2005, 02:20

Glad your wife is okay Red. I hope this problem (if it is what it looks to be) is fixed very soon and doesn't cause anymore accidents.

**Crazed Rabbit** · 10-20-2005, 02:25

Glad your wife is okay.

I hope you can sort this all out.

Crazed Rabbit

**Papewaio** · 10-20-2005, 02:53

Look after your wife. Appreciate the moments.

**Kongamato** · 10-20-2005, 05:24

It sounds like you're both quite fortunate. On a related note, have you noticed their "wheel goes round" advertisements? Absolutely no info on the tires, just scantily clad dancers feeling up the tire set to music. You gotta be suspicious when that's how they try to sell tires.

**Spetulhu** · 10-20-2005, 05:51

Originally Posted by Kongamato

It sounds like you're both quite fortunate. On a related note, have you noticed their "wheel goes round" advertisements? Absolutely no info on the tires, just scantily clad dancers feeling up the tire set to music. You gotta be suspicious when that's how they try to sell tires.

Agreed, the lady is lucky to get away without serious injury.

As for tires... I use Nokian summer and winter.

**Azi Tohak** · 10-20-2005, 06:16

EWW! Thanks for the notice. Geesh, and my Dad always liked Firestone too. So much for that!

Good news on the wifey too.

Azi

**drone** · 10-20-2005, 15:54

Glad to here your wife is OK, sounds like a wild ride.

I've been running on Potenza RE750 tires for about a year now, no problems so far (the handling is very nice). I got mine from Tirerack, installed by them on new rims. Who did the installation for your tires?

I need to rotate them soon anyway, maybe I need to check the inner sidewalls when I pull them off.

**Xiahou** · 10-20-2005, 18:58

Originally Posted by Red Harvest

So right now the primary suspects in order are: 1. inner sidewall failure 2. Bead failure due to poor quality rubber or rot. 3. Installation problem that caused loss of the bead.

Some tire salespeople aren't above selling old tires that have been sitting around in a warehouse for years. Dry-rot could've been setting in before they were even installed- or the tires could pre-date any changes made in manufacturing.

The only way you can tell a tire's 'born on date' is from the serial number or some such code on the tire... and good luck getting someone to tell you how to interpret that.

**Red Harvest** · 10-21-2005, 02:00

I know the tires weren't old, because they were delivered to me, and inspected by me before I took them to the shop for mounting. I've been buying tires this way for eight years or so. I started doing this to put high speed rated tires on my inexpensive sportscar which I had modified and made into a real "sleeper"--cornered like it was on rails.

I never bother with tire salesmen. They sell mainly lower end tires at high end prices. Last time I did so, I got a typical bait and switch--they didn't have the tire we had agreed on before I came in.

The shop could have screwed up the mounting and damaged the bead, but even that wouldn't explain the "flakiness" of the the rubber covering the bead cords. It looks like a 5 or 10 year old tire around the bead, vs. brand new everywhere else (except for the separated inside sidewall.) Externally, before the blow out there would have been no evidence of a problem.

Seeing the indications of premature aging at the bead, I can't recommend these tires to anyone. I've never worked in tire production, but it looks like Bridgestone has a problem with blending and/or extrusion of the composition.

Regardless of the original cause of the failure, a tire that flies apart immediately when it goes flat is an extreme hazard.