Goodyear wrangler tire failures: what 286 owner reports say
Every complaint filed with NHTSA against the Goodyear Wrangler, 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 23% of these reports. Percentages are shares of the 286 reports filed against the Goodyear Wrangler 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× |
| Sidewall failure | 19% | 15% | 1.3× |
| Loss of control, rollover or collision | 14% | 8% | 1.7× |
| Tread or belt separation | 13% | 13% | 0.9× |
| Cracking or dry rot | 9% | 9% | 0.9× |
| Bubble or bulge in the tire | 5% | 6% | 0.9× |
Mileage at failure
149 of these reports state an odometer reading. The middle report is at 18,000 miles, with 8 in 10 falling between 4,000 and 62,000 miles.
In owners' own words
Verbatim excerpts from complaints filed with NHTSA about Goodyear Wrangler. Reports are published by NHTSA as filed and are lightly cleaned here only to remove intake codes.
HIT SMALL BUMP ON EXPRESSWAY CAUSING 2008 JEEP WRANGLER UNLIMITED TO SHAKE VIOLENTLY LIKE THE WHEELS WERE LOOSE. I HAD TO IMMEDIATELY GET OFF THE EXPRESSWAY TO CHECK WHEELS. THIS COULD HAVE CAUSED AN ACCIDENT BY THE INITIAL REACTION IS TO SLOW DOWN AND WOULD HAVE CAUSED A CHAIN REACTION (CRASH). AFTER INSPECTING VEHICLE SHAKING HAD STOPPED.
DRIVING APPROXIMATELY 65 MPH ON HIGHWAY. DRIVER FRONT TIRE BLEW OUT. LOST CONTROL OF VEHICLE, LEFT THE ROAD ONTO THE SHOULDER. SIDEWALL OF TIRE BLOWN OUT AGAIN. THIS IS THE SECOND TIRE I HAVE HAD THIS HAPPEN TO IN THE LAST 2 MONTHS. IN BOTH CASES THE SIDE WALL HAS BLOWN OUT.
THE CONTACT OWNS A 2013 FORD F-150 EQUIPPED WITH GOODYEAR WRANGLER TIRES, SIZE: P275/65/R18 (NA). WHILE ROTATING THE TIRES, THE CONTACT NOTICED CRACKS BETWEEN THE TREAD. THE CONTACT MENTIONED THAT ALL FOUR TIRES EXPERIENCED CRACKING. THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO AN INDEPENDENT MECHANIC AND THE DEALER, WHO BOTH STATED THAT ALL THE TIRES NEEDED TO BE REPLACED. THE TIRES WERE NOT REPLACED. THE MANUFACTURER WAS NOT MADE AWARE OF THE FAILURE. THE TIRE AND VEHICLE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS 18,500.
THE CONTACT OWNS A 2003 DODGE RAM 1500 EQUIPPED WITH GOODYEAR WRANGLER AUTHORITY TIRES, SIZE: LT265/70R17 (NA). THE CONTACT DISCOVERED THAT THE FRONT DRIVER AND PASSENGER SIDE TIRES EXPERIENCED TREAD SEPARATION AND EXCESSIVE WEAR, WHICH CAUSED THE STEEL BELTS TO BECOME EXPOSED. THE MANUFACTURER WAS NOT INFORMED OF THE FAILURE. THE CONTACT INDICATED THAT THE FAILURE OCCURRED ON TWO PREVIOUS TIRES OF THE SAME MAKE AND MODEL VEHICLE. THE MANUFACTURER WAS NOT NOTIFIED OF THE FAILURE. THE VIN WAS UNKNOWN. THE TIRE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS 100,000 AND VEHICLE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS 100,592.
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
- Loss of control, rollover or collision; 1.7× the corpus rate here; see which other tires over-index
- Goodyear Eagle; 308 reports
- Goodyear Eagle Rs-a; 181 reports
- Goodyear Wrangler SRA; 140 reports
- Goodyear Marathon; 115 reports
- Goodyear Eagle LS-2; 88 reports
- Goodyear Marathon ST; 56 reports
FAQ
What goes wrong with Goodyear Wrangler tires?
Is the Goodyear Wrangler recalled?
At what mileage do Goodyear Wrangler tires fail?
Have Goodyear Wrangler 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.