Exploders on Firestones

It amazes me that I still see Ford Explorers on Firestone tyres.. even more so when you see them with the sidewalls all scuffed white. Do these people not remember Ford and Firestone's issues with rollover crashes after the sidewalls blew out due to running them under inflated?

Or Pintos that haven't burned to the ground.

Or a Takata airbag equipped car that hasn't decapitated its driver.

Or a Suzuki Samurai that hasn't rolled over.

Ahh I could care less, but I never had an Audi 5000 run away on me either.

You act like the average person remembers this sort of stuff.

That was like 15 years ago. I'd figure that Firestone changed the way they made them since then. And a 15 year old tire needs to be replaced anyways

that may be true MTN.. but the fact that people still let those trucks run low on air to the point that the sidewalls are white, scare me

Its got bugger all to do with Firestone. As in almost all of these situations, people who owned Explorers AND had the knowledge to check their tires, OR had the skills it takes to drive a vehicle properly had exactly no life threatening experiences.

Appleseed wrote: Or Pintos that haven't burned to the ground. Or a Takata airbag equipped car that hasn't decapitated its driver. Or a Suzuki Samurai that hasn't rolled over.

Or the mighty Prius flying down the road at 110 with a hung open throttle.

It's not just Exploders on Firestones that drive around 10lbs underinflated.

Streetwiseguy wrote: Its got bugger all to do with Firestone. As in almost all of these situations, people who owned Explorers AND had the knowledge to check their tires, OR had the skills it takes to drive a vehicle properly had exactly no life threatening experiences.

maybe I should have named it better... but it does seem odd that most SUVs I see with scuffed white sidewalls seem to be explorers... I rarely see Blazers, Durangos, or any of the others that way.

My wife had a brand new set of Firestones on her Ford Elite. 3 of them blew out catastrophically, one at a time. One of them resulted in her spinning out on I45 during rush hour in Houston and winding up on the opposite shoulder facing the other way. Needless to say, we do not purchase Firestone tires.

Streetwiseguy wrote: Its got bugger all to do with Firestone. As in almost all of these situations, people who owned Explorers AND had the knowledge to check their tires, OR had the skills it takes to drive a vehicle properly had exactly no life threatening experiences.

This. But, thanks to that whole fiasco, we all get to deal with TPMS sensors now.

Tom_Spangler wrote:

Streetwiseguy wrote: Its got bugger all to do with Firestone. As in almost all of these situations, people who owned Explorers AND had the knowledge to check their tires, OR had the skills it takes to drive a vehicle properly had exactly no life threatening experiences.

This. But, thanks to that whole fiasco, we all get to deal with TPMS sensors now.

Can't + this enough.

chandlerGTi wrote:

Tom_Spangler wrote:

Streetwiseguy wrote: Its got bugger all to do with Firestone. As in almost all of these situations, people who owned Explorers AND had the knowledge to check their tires, OR had the skills it takes to drive a vehicle properly had exactly no life threatening experiences.

This. But, thanks to that whole fiasco, we all get to deal with TPMS sensors now.

Can't + this enough.

Yes. And the lovely people who get concerned if their tire drops 1psi overnight thanks to ambient air temps but insists their must be a leak, when you know damn well these are the same people that before there were TPMS drove around with their tires 15psi low and never knew. Or the people who insist that they want all their tires set exactly at 36psi when the door placard calls for 35psi, like you can really tell the difference.

It was with a specific batch of tires that were oe on explorers. I had a set on my explorer. The issue was with belt delamination when run at low pressure and or underinflated when towing and to much tongue weight.

If the tires are not in the batch with the problem you are good to go. I actually liked the firestone tires on my explorer. They were excellent tires.

mad_machine wrote:

Streetwiseguy wrote: Its got bugger all to do with Firestone. As in almost all of these situations, people who owned Explorers AND had the knowledge to check their tires, OR had the skills it takes to drive a vehicle properly had exactly no life threatening experiences.

but it does seem odd that most SUVs I see with scuffed white sidewalls seem to be explorers...

They're called white walls. They come like that.

On an unrelated side question - do you think we will ever see the return of the racing spoke wheel and white wall in competition? Could it possibly ever be hipster enough to return?

NickD wrote:

chandlerGTi wrote:

Tom_Spangler wrote:

Streetwiseguy wrote: Its got bugger all to do with Firestone. As in almost all of these situations, people who owned Explorers AND had the knowledge to check their tires, OR had the skills it takes to drive a vehicle properly had exactly no life threatening experiences.

This. But, thanks to that whole fiasco, we all get to deal with TPMS sensors now.

Can't + this enough.

Yes. And the lovely people who get concerned if their tire drops 1psi overnight thanks to ambient air temps but insists their must be a leak, when you know damn well these are the same people that before there were TPMS drove around with their tires 15psi low and never knew. Or the people who insist that they want all their tires set exactly at 36psi when the door placard calls for 35psi, like you can really tell the difference.

I suspect TPMS was going to be mandatory with or without the Firestone issue anyway. Kind of like air bags and ABS before it. Isn't there something on the books that says by 2017 or 2018 all cars have to have some kind of back up warning system?

I leased one of the first '97 Expeditions as my tow vehicle and immediately was concerned about its tires since the 17's that came on the Eddie Bauer edition were barely rated to hold the weight of the vehicle much less a loaded Expedition. My tire guy and I went thru several different tire options until Michelin finally released a truck tire in the size that was properly rated. In '99, I swapped for another leased Expedition but with the uprated 5.4 and deleted air suspension. I also swapped out the wheels/tires to keep the Michelins. Ford did pay me for the cost of the replacement tires.
The oem tires were under-rated and came with very soft sidewall for that passenger car ride in a truck. The factory tire pressure recommendations were already on the edge of being too low before the average owner ignored his tire pressures for several seasons. Ford and Firestone got what they deserved in that mess.

mad_machine wrote: It amazes me that I still see Ford Explorers on Firestone tyres.. even more so when you see them with the sidewalls all scuffed white. Do these people not remember Ford and Firestone's issues with rollover crashes after the sidewalls blew out due to running them under inflated?

The sidewalls wouldn't blow out, the tread would delaminate from the carcass.

Around when all of this was starting to happen, we had an F150 come in on Firestones that delaminated. The tread stayed attached to one part of the tire and it wrapped around the axle while he was driving. That was fun to deal with, none of us had a Sawzall.

Streetwiseguy wrote: Its got bugger all to do with Firestone. As in almost all of these situations, people who owned Explorers AND had the knowledge to check their tires, OR had the skills it takes to drive a vehicle properly had exactly no life threatening experiences.

Oddly enough, the people who had Goodyear equipped Fords, with the exact same size and pressure recommendations, did not have problems. Not all Explorers came with Firestones.

That was a crazy time. I was working in a large independent Goodyear chain. (Would be familiar to anybody in Cleveland who listens to the radio, they advertised constantly) We had to cut the DOT numbers out of the Firestones for credit. Did many many many sets of tires for about five-six months. Spares included...

Klayfish wrote: Isn't there something on the books that says by 2017 or 2018 all cars have to have some kind of back up warning system?

Yes, because DOT headlights are incredibly bright and throw light everywhere, so new cars/trucks have extremely high beltlines and limotint in the rear windows so kids in rear facing child seats don't go blind by the time they are 2 years old.

Klayfish wrote: Isn't there something on the books that says by 2017 or 2018 all cars have to have some kind of back up warning system?

I hope that is only new cars.. because I have no intention on retrofitting something into any of my cars. I can see out the back just fine any of mine as they have decent windows and not cave like pillars

whenry wrote: I leased one of the first '97 Expeditions as my tow vehicle and immediately was concerned about its tires since the 17's that came on the Eddie Bauer edition were barely rated to hold the weight of the vehicle much less a loaded Expedition. My tire guy and I went thru several different tire options until Michelin finally released a truck tire in the size that was properly rated. In '99, I swapped for another leased Expedition but with the uprated 5.4 and deleted air suspension. I also swapped out the wheels/tires to keep the Michelins. Ford did pay me for the cost of the replacement tires. The oem tires were under-rated and came with very soft sidewall for that passenger car ride in a truck. The factory tire pressure recommendations were already on the edge of being too low before the average owner ignored his tire pressures for several seasons. Ford and Firestone got what they deserved in that mess.

I'm fairly sure no one here will truly appreciate the hilarity of this but me, but here goes anyways.

One of my best friend's mom's had an Eddie Bauer Expedition of that era throughout most of our early teen years. She also had a hardcore Long Island accent and a propensity to absolutely flip out over the most menial little issues. On one such occasion, she was picking a group of 5 of us up from the movie theater and had room for only four in the Expedition (wasn't equipped with the third row) and refused to let someone sit in the back because she was VERY insistent that they were "going to pop the tires." (Imagine a completely hysterical Lois Griffin shouting this at a group of 13 year olds in front of a large crowd outside the theater. It was quite amusing and still gets brought up pretty frequently to this day.) I tried to reason that the chassis is shared with the F150 and was rated for whatever payload, ect, to no avail.

Perhaps she was right afterall!

As for the Exploders, I'd be more concerned about the busted leaf spring shackles and absurd camber from sagging/broken springs on the TTB front ends that they all seem to be sporting.

mad_machine wrote:

Klayfish wrote: Isn't there something on the books that says by 2017 or 2018 all cars have to have some kind of back up warning system?

I hope that is only new cars.. because I have no intention on retrofitting something into any of my cars. I can see out the back just fine any of mine as they have decent windows and not cave like pillars

I'll be honest--no matter what the car, short of a Miata or E30 convertible (with the top down) this is something I want on all my cars. Currently trying to figure out how to do it on the new TSX without drilling anything.

mad_machine wrote:

Klayfish wrote: Isn't there something on the books that says by 2017 or 2018 all cars have to have some kind of back up warning system?

I hope that is only new cars.. because I have no intention on retrofitting something into any of my cars. I can see out the back just fine any of mine as they have decent windows and not cave like pillars

I can't imagine they'd require people to retrofit it. IIRC, that's never been done in the past.