Michelin XRV tire failures: what 76 owner reports say
Every complaint filed with NHTSA against the Michelin XRV, 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 appears in 79% of these reports; about 3.9× as often as across all tire complaints. Percentages are shares of the 76 reports filed against the Michelin XRV 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 | 79% | 20% | 3.9× |
| Sidewall failure | 43% | 15% | 2.9× |
| Cracking or dry rot | 11% | 9% | 1.1× |
| Bubble or bulge in the tire | 7% | 6% | 1.1× |
| Loss of control, rollover or collision | 5% | 8% | 0.6× |
Mileage at failure
42 of these reports state an odometer reading. The middle report is at 22,000 miles, with 8 in 10 falling between 8,200 and 38,000 miles.
In owners' own words
Verbatim excerpts from complaints filed with NHTSA about Michelin XRV. Reports are published by NHTSA as filed and are lightly cleaned here only to remove intake codes.
WE PURCHASED FOUR (4) NEW MICHELIN TIRES FOR THE REAR OF OUR 2006 ITASCA SUN CRUISER IN JUNE, 2014. THESE ARE THE MICHELIN XRV TIRES (235/80R22.5). WHILE DRIVING ON I-24 IN MANCHESTER, TN, WE HAD A BLOW OUT ON ONE OF THE NEW TIRES (REAR, OUTSIDE TIRE BUT THE DAMAGE WAS ON THE INSIDE NEXT TO THE AXLE TIRE). LUCKILY, WE CARRY A SPARE TIRE ON A RIM. CONTACTING THREE DIFFERENT DEALERS IN THE AREA, TO GET NO HELP, WE DECIDED TO CONTINUE WITHOUT A SPARE TIRE TO OUR FLORIDA LOCATION. UPON ARRIVING IN FL, WE ARE NOT GETTING ANY SATISFACTION FROM THE LOCAL MICHELIN DEALER OR THE MICHELIN CORPORATE NUMBER. WE HAD LESS THAN 500 MILES ON THESE NEW TIRES. THEY WERE INFLATED CORRECTLY AND CHECKED DAILY. WE STILL HAVE THE OLD TIRE FOR INSPECTION. TO ADD INSULT TO INJURY, THESE TIRES NOW ARE ON A NATIONAL BACK ORDER AND ARE NOT AVAILABLE ANYTIME SOON.
MY RV HAS LESS THAN 6,000 ORIGINAL MILES ON IT AND I BOUGHT IT BRAND NEW WITH MICHELIN TIRES 235/80/22.5 IN WHICH CASE I'VE HAD TO REPLACE 2 TIRES ALREADY BECAUSE OF SIDEWALL CRACKING. I LIVE IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AND I TAKE VERY GOOD CARE OF MY MOTORHOME INCLUDING COVERING THE TIRES WHEN IN STORAGE WHICH IS THE MAJORITY OF THE TIME. I'VE TRIED TO CONTACT MICHELIN FOR A RECALL BUT NOTHING. EACH TIRE IS APPROX. $400-500 AND I'M BEING TOLD I NEED TO REPLACE ALL SIX TIRES. WITH AS LOW MILEAGE AS I DRIVE MY RV I AM DISGUSTED AT THE FACT THAT THESE EXPENSIVE TIRES ALREADY NEED REPLACEMENT. PLEASE HELP....
MICHELIN BRAND NEW TIRES MANUFACTURED IN 2000. CONSUMER HAD A BLOW OUT AT 17,000, AND TWO MORE AT 21,000. WHILE DRIVING AT 60 MPH DRIVER'S REAR INSIDE TIRE SPLIT 8 INCHES, CONSUMER TEMPORARILY LOST CONTROL. THE SECOND BLOW OUT OF DRIVER'S REAR TIRE OCCURRED AT 65 MPH. PASSENGER'S SIDE REAR TIRE WAS THE THIRD TO BLOW OUT AT 50 MPH. *AK CONSUMER WOULD LIKE MICHELIN TO REIMBURSE HIM A THOUSAND DOLLARS FOR OUT OF POCKET COST.
MICHLIN 235-80-22.5 TIRE BLEW OUT (RIGHT INNER DUAL SIDE WALL).TRAVELING AT 60 MPH. JUST HAD MOTORHOME WEIGHED AT EACH CORNERAT RALLY IN TEXAS 2 DAYS BEFORE BLOWOUT AND IT WAS WITHIN WEIGHT AND TIRE PRESSURE LIMITS. 2000 DISCOVERY (36,000) MILES CAUSED $3100.00 DAMAGE TO BODY. 2 WEEKS LATER WHILE DOING MAINT. DISCOVERED MUNTIPLE BULGES IN BOTH FRONT TIRES. REPLACED THEM AND NOW AM REPLACING LEFT REAR DUALS FOR FEAR THEY WILL BLOW! THE DEALER TELLS ME THEY ARE ON BACK ORDER FROM MICHLIN AND THEY DON'T EVEN KNOW WHEN THEY CAN GET ANY. I THINK 6 TIRES AT 36,000 MILES IS A PROBLEM!! I HAVE PHOTOS OF BLOWN OUT TIRE AND DAMAGE.
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; 3.9× the corpus rate here; see which other tires over-index
- Sidewall failure; 2.9× the corpus rate here; see which other tires over-index
- Michelin MXV4; 87 reports
- Michelin Radial X; 75 reports
- Michelin Pilot; 68 reports
FAQ
What goes wrong with Michelin XRV tires?
Is the Michelin XRV recalled?
At what mileage do Michelin XRV tires fail?
Have Michelin XRV 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.