Dunlop SP sport tire failures: what 94 owner reports say

Every complaint filed with NHTSA against the Dunlop SP Sport, 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.

By Mark Bishop · Last verified 2026-10-07

The evidence base

94Written owner reports

2Reported crashes

2Reported injuries

Crash, injury and death figures are the counts owners themselves reported to NHTSA when filing.

What owners described

Sidewall failure appears in 44% of these reports; about 2.9× as often as across all tire complaints. Percentages are shares of the 94 reports filed against the Dunlop SP Sport 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	44%	15%	2.9×
Bubble or bulge in the tire	24%	6%	4.1×
Blowout or sudden deflation	17%	20%	0.8×
Loss of control, rollover or collision	13%	8%	1.5×
Cracking or dry rot	6%	9%	0.7×
Tread or belt separation	4%	13%	0.3×

Mileage at failure

82 of these reports state an odometer reading. The middle report is at 15,950 miles, with 8 in 10 falling between 4,800 and 40,000 miles.

In owners' own words

Verbatim excerpts from complaints filed with NHTSA about Dunlop SP Sport. Reports are published by NHTSA as filed and are lightly cleaned here only to remove intake codes.

EXACT MODEL OF TIRE IS NOT FOUND IN THE DROP DOWN MENU. DUNLOP SP SPORT 01 A/S. SIZE 225/40R18 92H. A BUBBLE IN THE SIDEWALL DEVELOPED AFTER 9,000 MILES WITH NO ACCIDENT. THIS WEAKNESS IN THE TIRE CAN VERY EASILY LEAD TO BLOWOUTS. IF THE BUBBLE OCCUR ON THE INSIDE OF THE TIRE, IT CAN GO UNNOTICED. THIS IS A COMMON PROBLEM WITH THIS SPECIFIC TIRE AND MANY VEHICLES USE THIS TIRE AS THE ORIGINAL EQUIPMENT.

NHTSA complaint 1025726

I PURCHASED A 2014 INFINITI Q50 NEW FROM THE DEALER. THE CAR HAD APPROXIMATELY 6,500 MILES ON IT WHEN THE RIGHT FRONT TIRE SIDE WALL CRACKED. THE REPAIR SHOP NOTICED THAT THE LEFT FRONT TIRE HAD A BUBBLE AND ALSO NEEDED TO BE REPLACED. BOTH FRONT TIRES WERE REPLACED THE WEEK OF 5/17/15. ONE MONTH AFTER THE REPLACEMENT, THE RIGHT FRONT TIRE SIDEWALL CRACKED AGAIN.

NHTSA complaint 1193452

The contact owns a 2025 Toyota Corolla equipped with Dunlop Tires, Tire Line: SP Sport 5000, Tire Size: 225/40/R18, DOT Number: 1EUT74MBR5024. The contact stated that while driving on several occasions at various speeds, there was an abnormal sound coming from each tire, and the tires were slick while driving in inclement weather. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, where it was determined that all four tires needed to be replaced due to uneven wear. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure, and a complaint was filed. The failure mileage was 8,000.

NHTSA complaint 2238932

TREAD SEPARATION AND THEN TIRE SIDEWALL FAILURE, CAUSED SIDEWAYS CAR SKID ON SNOW COVERED ROAD, FORTUNATELY THERE WAS A GAP IN TRAFFIC AT THAT TIME IN ONCOMING LANE AND NO ONE FOLLOWING CLOSE BEHIND.

NHTSA complaint 344659

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; 2.9× the corpus rate here; see which other tires over-index
Bubble or bulge in the tire; 4.1× the corpus rate here; see which other tires over-index
Loss of control, rollover or collision; 1.5× the corpus rate here; see which other tires over-index
Dunlop SP4000; 66 reports
Dunlop Grand Trek; 57 reports
Dunlop Sport; 35 reports

All Dunlop tire failure analysis

FAQ

What goes wrong with Dunlop SP Sport tires?

Across 94 written complaints, the most common description is sidewall failure, in 44% of reports; about 2.9× as often as across all tire complaints. A single report can describe more than one problem.

Is the Dunlop SP Sport recalled?

Complaints are not recalls. A complaint is a voluntary, unverified owner report; a recall is an official campaign requiring a free remedy. Check the current recall status by DOT date code at the NHTSA recall lookup; that is the only authoritative answer for your specific tire.

At what mileage do Dunlop SP Sport tires fail?

Of the owners who stated an odometer reading, the middle report is at 15,950 miles, with 8 in 10 between 4,800 and 40,000 miles. These are failures, not typical tire life; nobody files a complaint about a tire that wore out normally.

Have Dunlop SP Sport failures caused crashes?

Owners reported 2 crashes and 2 injuries when filing. NHTSA publishes these as reported and does not verify them.

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.