Dunlop sport tire failures: what 35 owner reports say
Every complaint filed with NHTSA against the Dunlop 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.
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 34% of these reports; about 2.3× as often as across all tire complaints. Percentages are shares of the 35 reports filed against the Dunlop 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 | 34% | 15% | 2.3× |
| Loss of control, rollover or collision | 17% | 8% | 2.0× |
| Bubble or bulge in the tire | 11% | 6% | 1.9× |
| Blowout or sudden deflation | 9% | 20% | 0.4× |
Mileage at failure
13 of these reports state an odometer reading. The middle report is at 17,500 miles, with 8 in 10 falling between 6,224 and 21,000 miles.
In owners' own words
Verbatim excerpts from complaints filed with NHTSA about Dunlop Sport. Reports are published by NHTSA as filed and are lightly cleaned here only to remove intake codes.
THE CONTACT OWNS A 2010 INFINITI G37 EQUIPPED WITH DUNLOP SP SPORT MAXX (NA) TIRES, SIZE P225/50R18 (NA). WHILE DRIVING 65 MPH, THE CONTACT FELT RUMBLING UNDERNEATH THE VEHICLE. THE CONTACT PULLED OVER TO THE SHOULDER OF THE ROAD AND NOTICED THAT THE REAR DRIVER SIDE TIRE WAS DESTROYED. THE CONTACT STATED THAT THE TIRE WAS REPLACED BY AN INDEPENDENT MECHANIC WHO CONFIRMED THAT THE SIDEWALL DETACHED FROM THE TREAD OF THE TIRE. THE TIRE WAS ORIGINAL EQUIPMENT. THE MANUFACTURER WAS NOT NOTIFIED OF THE FAILURE. THE APPROXIMATE FAILURE MILEAGE OF THE TIRE AND VEHICLE WAS 15,000. THE DOT NUMBER AND VIN WERE NOT AVAILABLE.
DUNLOP SP SPORT 5000 DSST P245/40RF19 DEVELOPED SIDEWALL BUBBLE SPONTANEOUSLY. THESE TIRES WERE STANDARD WHEN THE CAR WAS PURCHASED NEW. I HAVE SEEN NUMEROUS REPORTS OF SIMILAR COMPLAINTS OF SIDEWALL BUBBLES FOLLOWING POTHOLE ENCOUNTERS. TIRES HAD ONLY 17,500 MILES ON THEM. THE FACT THAT THERE ARE SO MANY SIMILAR COMPLAINTS LEADS ME TO BELIEVE A MANUFACTURING ISSUE exists.
DT: THE CONSUMERS VEHICLE DID NOT HAVE A SPARE TIRE. THE CONSUMER EXPERIENCED A BLOW OUT ON A TIRE THAT WAS NOT SUPPOSE TO GO FLAT. THE DEALER SAID IT WOULD TAKE A FEW DAYS TO GET A NEW TIRE. MANUFACTURER ADVISED THE CONSUMER TO CALL THE TIRE MANUFACTURER. DUNLOP TIRE WAS NOT HELPFUL. THE CONSUMER SAID NO ONE WAS QUALIFIED TO FIX THAT KIND OF TIRE, AND NO ONE CARRIED IT IN STOCK IN HIS AREA. DUNLOP RUN FLAT TIRES #SP4000, POOH/. *AK THE VEHICLE WAS EQUIPPED WITH RUN FLAT TIRES, HOWEVER WHEN THE CONSUMER ATTEMPTED TO DRIVE ON THE TIRE, IT BLEW OUT. THE CONSUMER STATED IT WAS OBVIOUS ONE COULD NOT DRIVE 100 MILES ON THE TIRE AS STATED IN THE OWNERS MANUAL.
THE DEALER ATLANTIC SUBARU (124 WATERHOUSE RD BOURNE, MA 02532). SOLD ME A USED 2007 BMW X5 WITH TIRES BELOW 2/32. IT IS MY UNDERSTANDING THAT IN MA THEY NEED TO BE 4/32 TO THE WEAR BAR. I HAVE DOCUMENTATION FROM MY BMW DEALER SHOWING THE CORRECT DEPTH. THIS CAR WAS REPRESENTED AS TO HAVE NOT BEEN IN AN ACCIDENT AND ONCE IT ARRIVED IT WAS OBVIOUSLY REPAIRED. DO I HAVE ANY RECOURSE WITH YOU? [XXX]S.C. 552(B)(6).
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; 2.3× the corpus rate here; see which other tires over-index
- Loss of control, rollover or collision; 2.0× the corpus rate here; see which other tires over-index
- Dunlop SP Sport; 94 reports
- Dunlop SP4000; 66 reports
- Dunlop Grand Trek; 57 reports
FAQ
What goes wrong with Dunlop Sport tires?
Is the Dunlop Sport recalled?
At what mileage do Dunlop Sport tires fail?
Have Dunlop Sport 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.