Dunlop SP4000 tire failures: what 66 owner reports say
Every complaint filed with NHTSA against the Dunlop SP4000, 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
Blowout or sudden deflation is the most common description, in 18% of these reports. Percentages are shares of the 66 reports filed against the Dunlop SP4000 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blowout or sudden deflation | 18% | 20% | 0.9× |
| Sidewall failure | 9% | 15% | 0.6× |
| Premature or uneven wear | 8% | 1% | 5.8× |
| Tread or belt separation | 5% | 13% | 0.3× |
| Cracking or dry rot | 3% | 9% | 0.3× |
| Pressure-monitoring (TPMS) fault | 3% | 2% | 1.3× |
Mileage at failure
64 of these reports state an odometer reading. The middle report is at 15,669 miles, with 8 in 10 falling between 7,000 and 56,000 miles.
In owners' own words
Verbatim excerpts from complaints filed with NHTSA about Dunlop SP4000. Reports are published by NHTSA as filed and are lightly cleaned here only to remove intake codes.
HAVE A TOYATA XLE AWD VAN WITH RUN FLATS AND TIRE PRESSURE MONITORING SYSTEM. THE TIRE PRESSURE MONITORING DOES NOT WORK. FRONT PASSENGER TIRE HAS A LEAK WHICH COULD NOT BE FOUND 2 WEEKS AGO. THE SYSTEM WAS RESET, ALL TIRES PRESSURED UP BY THE DEALER 2 WEEKS AGO. A 20 PSI DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE LEFT AND RIGHT WHEELS AND THE SYSTEM DOES NOT LIGHT UP IN THE DASH exists. 3 WEEK AGO, WE WENT ON A 2000 MILE TRIP, BEFORE WHICH I NOTICED THE PROBLEM OF ONE TIRE BEING LOW IN TIRE PRESSURE AND THE SYSTEM NOT WORKING. THE DEALER HAS NO FIX ON THE PROBLEM AND SAID TOYOTA DOES NOT HAVE ANY TSB'S ON IT. NOW DUSE TO THIS DEFECTIVE SYSTEM, THEY HAVE FOUND A LEAK WHICH MAY BE CLOSE TO THE SIDEWALL ON THE TIRE AND CANNOT BE REPAIRED AND IT BEING AN ALL WHEEL DRIVE VEHICLE, I AM BEING ADVISED TO PUT 4 NEW RUNFLATS AT OVER $1200 WITH LESS THAN 16000 MILES ON THIS VEHICLE.
ON MAY 17, 2005 WE PURCHASED 4 DUNLOP SP SPORT 4000 TIRES FOR OUR HONDA ODYSSEY. WE HAD 4 WHEEL FRONT DRIVE ALIGNMENT AND COMPUTER BALANCING. ON MAY 30TH, WE NOTICED A BUBBLE ON THE SIDE OF THE WALL. SINCE THE TIRES WERE ONLY 2 WEEKS OLD, WE WERE VERY SURPRISED AND DISAPPOINTED. WHEN WE CONTACTED THE ORIGINAL TIRE SHOP, THEY SAID THAT SUCH BUBBLES WERE NOT THE RESULT OF POORLY MADE TIRES, INSTEAD, BY ROAD HAZARDS. THERE ARE NO SCRATCHES OR OTHER NOTICEABLE MARKS ON THE TIRE, BUT A RIP ON THE INSIDE, NEAR THE RIM exists. THE TIRE WAS OBVIOUSLY DEFECTIVE.
WE HAD A TIRE BLOW OUT THROUGH THE SIDEWALL RECENTLY. WE DRIVE A 2004 TOYOTA SIENNA LE FWD WITH DUNLOP SP SPORT 4000 A/S TIRES INSTALLED AS OEM. WE HAD JUST BARELY PASSED 26,000 MILES WHEN WE HAD A SIDE WALL BLOWOUT ON THE DRIVER SIDE REAR TIRE WHILE TRAVELLING APP. 70 MPH ON THE HIGHWAY IN SOUTH CAROLINA. I PAY ATTENTION TO TIRE PRESSURE AND TEADWEAR, SO THE TIRE THAT BLEW SHOULD HAVE BEEN INFLATED PROPERLY, AND IN THIS CASE I HAD ALREADY BEGUN THINKING ABOUT GETTING NEW TIRES BECAUSE THE TREAD WAS APPROACHING THE WEAR BARS. THIS IS A VERY POOR-PERFORMANCE TIRE, AND I'M AMAZED TOYOTA MADE A CORPORATE DECISION TO PUT THESE TIRES ON THEIR SIENNA "FAMILY VANS." DUNLOP SHOULD BE EMBARASSED TO EVEN ATTEMPT TO SELL THEM.
OUR 2004 TOYOTA SIENNA HAS RUN-FLAT DUNLOP TIRES THAT ARE WEARING PREMATURELY AT AROUND 13000 MILES. THE PROBLEM IS THAT THE TOYOTA DEALERSHIP THAT SERVICES OUR CAR DOES NOT WANT TO ADMIT THAT A PROBLEM WITH THESE TIRES exists. THIS HAS PROLONGED OUR REPLACEMENT OF THE TIRES WHICH HAS PUT OUR FAMILY AT RISK FOR PERSONAL INJURY SHOULD THE TIRES FAIL SUDDENLY. WE SHOULD HAVE REPLACED THE TIRES 1000 MILES AGO BUT DID NOT BECAUSE THE TOYOTA DEALERSHIP WOULD NOT TELL US THAT THEY NEEDED TO BE REPLACED AFTER 3 SERVICE VISITS FOR ISSUES RELATED TO THE TIRES(MOST LIKELY BECAUSE OF A FEAR THAT THEY WOULD HAVE TO PAY TO REPLACE THEM AT SUCH AN EARLY TIME). THIS IS A NATIONAL PROBLEM AND THESE TIRES NEED TO BE RECALLED BEFORE YOU START TO RECEIVE COMPLAINTS ASSOCIATED WITH PERSONAL INJURIES AND DEATHS.
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
- Premature or uneven wear; 5.8× the corpus rate here; see which other tires over-index
- Dunlop SP Sport; 94 reports
- Dunlop Grand Trek; 57 reports
- Dunlop Sport; 35 reports
FAQ
What goes wrong with Dunlop SP4000 tires?
Is the Dunlop SP4000 recalled?
At what mileage do Dunlop SP4000 tires fail?
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.