Cooper discoverer A/T tire failures: what 35 owner reports say
Every complaint filed with NHTSA against the Cooper Discoverer A/T, read and classified: which failures owners actually describe, how that mix compares with all tire complaints on file, and at what mileage the tire let go.
The evidence base
Crash, injury and death figures are the counts owners themselves reported to NHTSA when filing.
What owners described
Sidewall failure appears in 46% of these reports; about 3.1× as often as across all tire complaints. Percentages are shares of the 35 reports filed against the Cooper Discoverer A/T across every vehicle it was fitted to that include a written account; a single report can describe more than one problem, so they do not total 100%.
| Reported problem | This subject | All tire complaints | Relative |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sidewall failure | 46% | 15% | 3.1× |
| Blowout or sudden deflation | 31% | 20% | 1.6× |
| Bubble or bulge in the tire | 26% | 6% | 4.4× |
| Loss of control, rollover or collision | 23% | 8% | 2.7× |
| Tread or belt separation | 17% | 13% | 1.3× |
| Cracking or dry rot | 14% | 9% | 1.5× |
Mileage at failure
18 of these reports state an odometer reading. The middle report is at 30,131 miles, with 8 in 10 falling between 8,000 and 108,314 miles.
In owners' own words
Verbatim excerpts from complaints filed with NHTSA about Cooper Discoverer A/T. Reports are published by NHTSA as filed and are lightly cleaned here only to remove intake codes.
THE CONTACT OWNS A 2009 CHEVROLET SILVERADO 1500 EQUIPPED WITH COOPER DISCOVERER A/T3 TIRES, SIZE: 275/70/R17 (NA). WHILE DRIVING APPROXIMATELY 72 MPH, THE FRONT DRIVER'S TIRE EXPERIENCED A BLOWOUT. THE CONTACT LOST CONTROL OF THE VEHICLE AS IT RAN OFF THE ROADWAY AND CRASHED INTO A DITCH. THE CONTACT STATED THAT THE FRONT DIFFERENTIAL AND THE FRONT BUMPER WERE DAMAGED. THERE WERE NO INJURIES AND A POLICE REPORT WAS NOT FILED. THE VEHICLE WAS NOT REPAIRED AND THE TIRE WAS NOT REPLACED. THE TIRE MANUFACTURER WAS CONTACTED. THE APPROXIMATE VEHICLE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS 172,000 AND THE TIRE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS 8,000.
WENT TO MY LOCAL GARAGE TO GET MY TIRES BALANCED. MECHANIC REPORTED THAT 1 OF THE 4 TIRES (ALL BOUGHT TOGETHER) WAS BEGINNING TO COME APART INTERNALLY / BELT SEPARATION. THE TIRES WERE INSTALLED DURING OCTOBER OF 2019. THEY HAVE LESS THAN 8000 MILES ON THE TIRES. VENDOR IS REIMBURSING ME FOR THE ONE TIRE THAT WAS FOUND TO HAVE THE DEFECT. THANKFULLY THIS WAS CAUGHT EARLY, BUT AM VERY CONCERNED AS THE OTHER 3 TIRES HAVE THE SAME DOT NUMBER.
The contact owns a 2004 Ford F-350 equipped with Cooper Tires, Tire Line: Discover AT3, Tire size: 265/75/R16, DOT Number: UPWM1M11718M16L. The contact stated that while driving 65 MPH, the rear driver's side tire had a sidewall blowout. The contact stated that all four tires had sidewall blowouts months apart. The tire blowouts had damaged the rims. The contact replaced the front driver's, passenger's, and rear driver's side tire with the spare after each blowout. The dealer was made aware of the failure and replaced the rear passenger's side tire. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure and the rear driver's side rim, rear driver's and front passenger's side tire were sent to the manufacturer. The failure mileage was not available.
The contact owns a 2011 Ford F-350 equipped with Cooper Tires, Tire Line: Discover AT/3 XLT, DOT Number: UT15/1/ne/201915l, Tire Size: 275/70/R18. The contact stated that he was in the process of placing winter tires on the vehicle and noticed that two of the tires had formed irregular bubbles on the side of tires. The contact took the tires to a local tires shop where they stated they would replace only one of the tires under warranty coverage. The contact was concerned after finding out the tire manufacturer had recalls on similar tires that were purchased, but not the exact tires he owned. The contact was also concerned that the tires could cause an accident if a failure was experienced while driving on the tires. The tires were not replaced. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage on the tires was 1,934. The vehicle failure mileage was unavailable.
How to read this
Complaints are voluntarily submitted to the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation and are not verified by NHTSA. They are owner-reported problems, not proven defects, and volume tracks how many of a tire were sold as much as how often it failed. What is comparable is the mix: which problems owners describe here versus across every tire complaint on file. That comparison, the mileage distribution and the mode rankings on this page are our analysis of the public record.
Related analysis
- Sidewall failure; 3.1× the corpus rate here; see which other tires over-index
- Blowout or sudden deflation; 1.6× the corpus rate here; see which other tires over-index
- Bubble or bulge in the tire; 4.4× the corpus rate here; see which other tires over-index
- Cooper Discoverer H/T; 72 reports
FAQ
What goes wrong with Cooper Discoverer A/T tires?
Is the Cooper Discoverer A/T recalled?
At what mileage do Cooper Discoverer A/T tires fail?
Have Cooper Discoverer A/T failures caused crashes?
Sources
Last verified 2026-10-07 against the sources below.
- NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation; owner complaints dataset (unverified owner reports, US federal government work, public domain).
- NHTSA Recalls database, nhtsa.gov/recalls.
- Corpus baselines computed over 58,390 complaint narratives longer than 200 characters.