Firestone firehawk tire failures: what 204 owner reports say

Every complaint filed with NHTSA against the Firestone Firehawk, 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

204Written owner reports

17Reported crashes

16Reported injuries

2Reported deaths

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 23% of these reports. Percentages are shares of the 204 reports filed against the Firestone Firehawk 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	23%	20%	1.1×
Tread or belt separation	19%	13%	1.4×
Sidewall failure	19%	15%	1.3×
Cracking or dry rot	10%	9%	1.1×
Loss of control, rollover or collision	10%	8%	1.2×
Bubble or bulge in the tire	7%	6%	1.2×

Mileage at failure

64 of these reports state an odometer reading. The middle report is at 29,123 miles, with 8 in 10 falling between 4,000 and 130,000 miles.

In owners' own words

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

Tire size: P 185 / 55 R 15 I believe a manufacturing defect with the Firestone Firehawk tires exists. The tires are prematurely cracking, these tires are supposed to have a 50,000 mile limited warranty. I replaced all four tires on 6/18/2022 and today (7/15/2023) I noticed there was deep cracking through the treads and into the sidewall. I currently have the tires and it is available for inspection upon request. I believe that cracked tires are a safety issue that could put myself and other cars at risk. The Firestone store mentioned the Firehawk tires were discontinued for the car. That cracking was a known issue on these tires and they refused to send the tires in for a warranty replacement. Tire Identification information: Front driver side tire: DOT RB8X FH1 4320 Front passenger side tire: DOT RB8X FH1 3421 Both rear tires: DOT RB8X FH1 4521

NHTSA complaint 1910177

ODI - 6141; WHILE DRIVING 45 MPH LEFT FRONT DRIVER'S TIRE BLEW OUT AND DROPPED FLAT TO THE GROUND. TIRE HAD A 4 TO 6 INCH PEELING, AND TREAD SEPARATED FROM TIRE. TIRES SIZE WAS P275/60R15 107S M+S. VEHICLE IS A 93 CHEVROLET PICKUP TRUCK. THE TIRE WAS 3 MONTHS OLD.

NHTSA complaint 223427

PE00-020; FIREHAWK R4S, TIRE SIZE 2781/2*14, AFTERMARKET TIRES AT 20,000 MILES, CONSUMER WAS DRIVING AT APPROXIMATELY 75 MPH WHEN BACK OF TRUCK STARTED TO FISHTALE WHEN DRIVING OVER A BUMP OR TAKING A CURVE. CONSUMER DROVE HOME AND MECHANIC CAME OUT, AND NOTICED A HUGE BUBBLE HAD DEVELOPED RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF TREAD ON REAR PASSENGER SIDE TIRE. CONSUMER REPLACED TIRE WITH A SPARE AND LEFT DEFECTIVE TIRE IN GARGAE OVER NIGHT, THE NEXT DAY CONSUMER NOTICED TIRE HAD EXPLODED TO THE POINT WHERE ALL THE WIRES CAME OUT.

NHTSA complaint 229389

ACCIDENT IS IN LITIGATION; TWO EXPERTS HAVE EXAMINED THE TIRE AND DETERMINED THAT SEPARATION CAUSED BY A MANUFACTURING DEFECT. BRIDGESTONE/FIRESTONE HAS I.D. THE TIRE AS MANUFACTURED 7TH WEEK OF 1996 IN DECATEUR FACTORY; THE IS NO ISSUE OF UNDER OR OVER INFLATION. FOR MORE INFORMATION CALL ATTORNEY ROBERT KAHN 650-851-6911

NHTSA complaint 242306

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

Firestone Wilderness; 1,134 reports
Firestone Steeltex; 708 reports
Firestone Wilderness AT; 679 reports
Firestone ATX; 435 reports
Firestone Steeltex R4S; 219 reports
Firestone Affinity; 192 reports

All Firestone tire failure analysis

FAQ

What goes wrong with Firestone Firehawk tires?

Across 204 written complaints, the most common description is blowout or sudden deflation, in 23% of reports; about 1.1× as often as across all tire complaints. A single report can describe more than one problem.

Is the Firestone Firehawk 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 Firestone Firehawk tires fail?

Of the owners who stated an odometer reading, the middle report is at 29,123 miles, with 8 in 10 between 4,000 and 130,000 miles. These are failures, not typical tire life; nobody files a complaint about a tire that wore out normally.

Have Firestone Firehawk failures caused crashes?

Owners reported 17 crashes and 16 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.