Kumho solus tire failures: what 60 owner reports say

Every complaint filed with NHTSA against the Kumho Solus, 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

60Written owner reports

3Reported crashes

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 60 reports filed against the Kumho Solus 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%	1.2×
Sidewall failure	18%	15%	1.2×
Cracking or dry rot	12%	9%	1.3×
Loss of control, rollover or collision	12%	8%	1.4×
Bubble or bulge in the tire	10%	6%	1.7×
Premature or uneven wear	8%	1%	6.4×

Mileage at failure

54 of these reports state an odometer reading. The middle report is at 20,000 miles, with 8 in 10 falling between 4,400 and 178,000 miles.

In owners' own words

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

THE CONTACT OWNS A 1994 CHEVROLET BERETTA WITH KUMHO SOLUS TIRES. THE CONTACT STATED WHILE DRIVING 40 MPH, THE VEHICLE SHOOK AS THE FRONT DRIVER SIDE TIRE BLEW OUT. THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO THE TIRE SHOP FOR DIAGNOSIS BUT THEY WERE UNABLE TO DUPLICATE THE PROBLEM. THE TIRE WAS REPAIRED AND THE MANUFACTURER WAS NOTIFIED. THE APPROXIMATE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS 117,000. THE TIRE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS 30,000.

NHTSA complaint 1009008

KUMHO KH25 225/45/17 TIRES DEVELOPED BUBBLE ON SIDEWALL AT APPROXIMATELY 20,000 MILES. REPLACED TIRE DUE TO SAFETY ISSUE. SECOND TIRE DEVELOPED SAME PROBLEM AT AROUND 24,000 MILES. REMAINING TWO KH25 TIRES ARE LOSING AIR AND APPEAR TO BE CRACKING. THE TIRES MANUFACTURE CODE IS OUTSIDE OF THE CURRENT RECALL ON THESE TIRE WITH MANUFACTURE DATE OF 4812.

NHTSA complaint 1127035

KUMHO TIRES INSTALLED AS ORIGINAL EQUIPMENT WEAR PREMATURELY. TIRES WERE WORN TO 4/32 AT 12,000 MILES. NEW TIRE WERE INSTALLED AND THE CAR HAS BEEN TRANSFORMED. WHILE THE ORIGINAL TIRE MAY MEET WHATEVER APPLICABLE STANDARDS EXIST THEY WERE INADEQUATE FOR THE 2013 SONATA.

NHTSA complaint 1191949

ON JANUARY 16, 2017, AT APPROXIMATELY 3:50PM ARIZONA TIME, ON WESTBOUND I-40 ABOUT TWO MILES FROM EXIT 9, THE LEFT FRONT KUHMO SOLUS TA31 TIRE BLEW OUT ITS SIDEWALL AT 45MPH IN A CONSTRUCTION ZONE. THE RESULT WAS THE TIRE WAS DESTROYED WITH DAMAGE TO BOTH DRIVER-SIDE WHEELS. IN ADDITION, A BULGE WAS NOTICED IN THE LEFT REAR TIRE. ALL FOUR TIRES WERE REPLACED. THE DAMAGE TO THE WHEELS IS CONSIDERED COSMETIC AND THEY WERE NOT REPLACED DUE TO A COST OF $427 EACH. THE ROAD CONDITION AND VISIBILITY AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT WERE EXCELLENT. THE TIRES HAD 17,560 MILES ON THEM AND WERE MAINTAINED ACCORDING TO MANUFACTURER SPECIFICATIONS REGARDING PRESSURE AND ROTATION.

NHTSA complaint 1350439

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

Bubble or bulge in the tire; 1.7× the corpus rate here; see which other tires over-index
Premature or uneven wear; 6.4× the corpus rate here; see which other tires over-index
Kumho Road Ventures; 35 reports

All Kumho tire failure analysis

FAQ

What goes wrong with Kumho Solus tires?

Across 60 written complaints, the most common description is blowout or sudden deflation, in 23% of reports; about 1.2× as often as across all tire complaints. A single report can describe more than one problem.

Is the Kumho Solus 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 Kumho Solus tires fail?

Of the owners who stated an odometer reading, the middle report is at 20,000 miles, with 8 in 10 between 4,400 and 178,000 miles. These are failures, not typical tire life; nobody files a complaint about a tire that wore out normally.

Have Kumho Solus failures caused crashes?

Owners reported 3 crashes 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.