Sears Halts Sale of Some Firestone Tires Amid Federal Probe

Retailing giant Sears, Roebuck & Co. has suspended sales of several popular models of Firestone truck and sport-utility vehicle tires pending a federal probe of scores of reports of accidents caused by tread failures.

Twenty-one deaths were reported in the 193 cases being looked at by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. A NHTSA spokesman said Friday that two dozen or more of the accidents occurred in California, although none of those incidents resulted in a death.

NHTSA’s investigation centers on reports that the tires’ treads separate from the casings, causing loss of control.

Bridgestone/Firestone Tire Sales Co., the Nashville-based U.S. arm of Japanese tire giant Bridgestone Corp., is cooperating with NHTSA and Ford Motor Co. and does not yet know why most of the accidents have involved Ford Explorers operated in hot climates, said Matthew Wisla, a spokesman for the tire maker.

Tire separation can be among the most serious safety problems on a vehicle. It occurs when one of the internal layers of a tire becomes separated from adjacent layers, such as tread separating from steel belts or steel belts separating from cords. Separation typically throws a tire out of balance, causing a heavy thumping, and ultimately can cause a blowout, experts say. Separation can be caused by defects in the design, materials or manufacture of tires.

Firestone said it could not provide sales figures for the tires in question, though it said it has sold tens of millions of the tires under the designation ATX, ATX II and Wilderness models. They are supplied as original equipment on Ford’s best-selling Explorer as well as on some Ford F-Series pickups, Mercury Mountaineer SUVs, and select SUVs and light trucks built by General Motors Corp., Mazda Motor Corp., Toyota Motor Corp. and Nissan Motor Co.

Almost all of the accidents reported to NHTSA, however, involve Firestone-equipped Explorers operated in regions with very hot climates. Most of the accidents involved Texas and Florida vehicles.

About 400,000 Explorers have been sold in California since the model was introduced in 1990. Many vehicle owners change tire brands when the original tires need replaced, so how many of those SUVs still ride on the potentially troublesome Firestone models is unknown.

Although there is no Firestone recall--the NHTSA investigation is a “preliminary evaluation, and about 50% of those are closed with no action,” said agency spokesman Tim Hurd--the tire maker has said customers with concerns can bring their vehicles to a company-owned Firestone Tire & Service Center for a free inspection. Many of the centers are independently owned, so customers should call (800) 465-1904 to find the nearest company-owned location.

“If there are any problems, they will be resolved to the customer’s satisfaction,” Wisla said.

Sears, the nation’s largest tire retailer, sells Firestone models at 790 Sears Auto Centers and 350 National Tire & Battery stores in the U.S. Sears spokeswoman Peggy Palter said Friday that she is not aware of any customer complaints about the Firestone tires. There are 75 Sears Auto Centers in California.

Workers at several Firestone Tire & Service Centers in Southern California said Friday that some customers have asked for tire inspections in the last week, but that none of the tires they inspected were faulty.

“It’s not many; probably five or six people have come in for an inspection in the last week,” said Brian McLaughlin, a service technician at the Firestone Tire & Service Center in Fountain Valley.

Spokesmen for GM, Toyota and Nissan all said their companies had not received any customer complaints about the Firestone tires supplied on various models.

At Ford, spokeswoman Jerree Martin said the company had been aware of problems overseas before NHTSA launched its U.S. probe in May. Indeed, Ford has replaced Firestone tires on 39,800 Explorers and F-Series pickups in Venezuela, Colombia and Uruguay, on 6,800 Explorers and Mercury Mountaineers in Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf-area nations and on 300 Explorers in Malaysia and Thailand.

“Bridgestone/Firestone is a long-standing and valued supplier,” Jac Nasser, Ford’s president and chief executive, said in a brief statement Friday. “We are working together as partners to understand and then resolve this issue.”

The world’s second-largest auto maker has sold more than 3.5 million Explorers, most of them equipped with Firestone tires, since the vehicle’s debut.

Martin said Ford will do “whatever is needed to make the situation right for customers.” She did not rule out dropping the Firestone tire models if warranted.

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Tires

Sears has stopped selling certain models of Firestone tires that are standard on many popular SUVs and pickup trucks after reports of fatal crashes linked to tread failure. The three models are the ATX, ATX II and Wilderness tires. Firestone has manufactured nearly 48 million of the tires since 1990. Firestone is also offering free tire inspections to customers with safety concerns. Vehicles that come equipped with the tires include:

* Ford Explorer and Expedition

* Ford F-150 and Ranger pickups

* Ford Bronco

* Select GMC SUVs and pickups

* Nissan Frontier pickup and Pathfinder SUV

* Toyota Tacoma pickup and select SUVs

* Mazda pickup

Sources: Firestone Web site;

Associated Press

Researched by NONA YATES/Los Angeles Times