Firestone steeltex tire failures: what 708 owner reports say

Every complaint filed with NHTSA against the Firestone Steeltex, 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

708Written owner reports

31Reported crashes

62Reported injuries

19Reported deaths

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

What owners described

Blowout or sudden deflation appears in 31% of these reports; about 1.5× as often as across all tire complaints. Percentages are shares of the 708 reports filed against the Firestone Steeltex 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	31%	20%	1.5×
Tread or belt separation	28%	13%	2.1×
Sidewall failure	17%	15%	1.1×
Loss of control, rollover or collision	7%	8%	0.9×
Cracking or dry rot	6%	9%	0.6×
Bubble or bulge in the tire	5%	6%	0.8×

Mileage at failure

212 of these reports state an odometer reading. The middle report is at 22,000 miles, with 8 in 10 falling between 5,500 and 51,780 miles.

In owners' own words

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

THE CONTACT OWNS A 2000 FORD EXCURSION EQUIPPED WITH FIRESTONE STEELTEX TIRES, SIZE: 385/65-R18 (NA). WHILE DRIVING 70 MPH, THE TREAD ON THE TIRES SEPARATED AND THE CONTACT LOST CONTROL OF THE VEHICLE. AS A RESULT, A CRASH OCCURRED AND THREE OCCUPANTS SUSTAINED MAJOR AND MINOR INJURIES. ONE INJURY WAS FATAL. MEDICAL ATTENTION WAS REQUIRED. A POLICE REPORT WAS FILED. THE VEHICLE WAS TOWED TO AN IMPOUND LOT. THE DEALER AND MANUFACTURER WERE NOT NOTIFIED OF THE FAILURE. THE VIN AND DOT NUMBER WERE NOT AVAILABLE. THE VEHICLE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS 150,000 AND THE TIRE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS 3,000.

NHTSA complaint 1452681

PE00020, P23585R16; CHEVROLET C20 1982. WHILE DRIVING AT ABOUT 65 WHILE COMING OFF HIGHWAY VEHICLE STARTED SHAKING, CONSUMER TOOK A LOOK AT THE PASSENGER FRONT TIRE AND NOTICED CRACKS, COULD SEE STEEL BELTS THROUGH THE CRACKS. ALSO, AIR WAS COMING OUT THROUGH THE CRACKS. CONSUMER CHANGED TIRE, AND 50 MILES DOWN THE ROAD REAR DRIVER'S SIDE TIRE EXPLODED, JUST LIKE THE ONE ON T.V. CONSUMER FELT UNSAFE BECAUSE OF HIS FAMILY RIDING IN THIS VEHICLE.

NHTSA complaint 228384

PE 00 020/TIRE TREAD SEPARATION: VEHICLE EXPERINCED A RIGHT REAR BLOWOUT/TREAD SEPARATION WHILE TRAVELING AT HIGHWAY SPEED OF 55-60 MPH IN A 1999 GMC, SUBURBAN, ORIGINAL EQUIPMENT, P245/74R16, AND DOT# V611B1A. NO INJURY REPORTED. PLEASE PROVIDE ANY FURTHER DETAILS.

NHTSA complaint 229485

THE FIRST TIRE FAILURE INVOLVED THE TREAD COMING COMPLETELY OFF THE VEHICLE. THIS CAUSE SIGNIFICANT BODY DAMAGE TO THE SUBURBAN (ABOUT $3000). WE WERE TOWING A 30' TRAILER WITH BOTH INSTANCE. THE TIRE PRESSURE WERE CHECKED PRIOR TO DEPARTURE. THE SECOND INCIDENT INVOLVED A BUBBLE FORMING ON THE TIRE TREAD. THESE WERE THE ORIGINAL TIRES THAT CAME WITH THE VEHICLE.

NHTSA complaint 237471

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

Blowout or sudden deflation; 1.5× the corpus rate here; see which other tires over-index
Tread or belt separation; 2.1× the corpus rate here; see which other tires over-index
Firestone Wilderness; 1,134 reports
Firestone Wilderness AT; 679 reports
Firestone ATX; 435 reports
Firestone Steeltex R4S; 219 reports
Firestone Firehawk; 204 reports
Firestone Affinity; 192 reports

All Firestone tire failure analysis

FAQ

What goes wrong with Firestone Steeltex tires?

Across 708 written complaints, the most common description is blowout or sudden deflation, in 31% of reports; about 1.5× as often as across all tire complaints. A single report can describe more than one problem.

Is the Firestone Steeltex 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 Steeltex tires fail?

Of the owners who stated an odometer reading, the middle report is at 22,000 miles, with 8 in 10 between 5,500 and 51,780 miles. These are failures, not typical tire life; nobody files a complaint about a tire that wore out normally.

Have Firestone Steeltex failures caused crashes?

Owners reported 31 crashes and 62 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.