Sidewall failure: which tires owners report it on
The flexing wall between tread and bead splits, bulges or tears. Sidewalls cannot be repaired, so any sidewall damage means replacement.
How common is it?
Across every NHTSA tire complaint narrative on file, sidewall failure appears in 15%. That is the number every row below is measured against: a subject at 2× is one where owners describe this failure twice as often as the corpus average, whatever the total complaint volume.
Where it over-indexes
| Tire or vehicle | Reports describing it | Share of that subject | Vs all tire complaints |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jeep Wagoneer | 9 | 75% | 5.0× |
| Genesis G80 | 7 | 64% | 4.3× |
| Acura TLX | 5 | 63% | 4.2× |
| BMW 325XI | 5 | 63% | 4.2× |
| Audi S4 | 17 | 61% | 4.1× |
| Audi A3 | 7 | 58% | 3.9× |
| Volkswagen Arteon | 8 | 57% | 3.8× |
| Infiniti Q50 | 6 | 55% | 3.7× |
| Mazda MX-5 Miata | 7 | 54% | 3.6× |
| Goodyear Assurance Fuel MAX | 19 | 53% | 3.5× |
| Goodyear Eagle LS-2 | 44 | 50% | 3.4× |
| BMW 535I | 7 | 47% | 3.1× |
| Chevrolet Volt | 6 | 46% | 3.1× |
| Toyota Land Cruiser | 6 | 46% | 3.1× |
| Volkswagen Atlas | 6 | 46% | 3.1× |
| Cooper Discoverer A/T | 16 | 46% | 3.1× |
| Kumho Road Ventures | 16 | 46% | 3.1× |
| Saturn SC1 | 5 | 45% | 3.1× |
| Nissan Maxima | 89 | 44% | 3.0× |
| Dodge Dart | 14 | 44% | 2.9× |
| Dunlop SP Sport | 41 | 44% | 2.9× |
| Michelin XRV | 33 | 43% | 2.9× |
| Pontiac Montana | 9 | 43% | 2.9× |
| Volkswagen GTI | 5 | 42% | 2.8× |
| Hankook Optimo H725A | 14 | 41% | 2.8× |
Ranked by how far the subject sits above the corpus rate, counting only subjects with at least five reports describing this failure.
In owners' own words
Verbatim excerpts from complaints filed with NHTSA about sidewall failure across the NHTSA tire-complaint record. Reports are published by NHTSA as filed and are lightly cleaned here only to remove intake codes.
BRIDGESTONE DUELER H/L ALENZA 275/55R20 Tire sustained rapid and 100% complete airloss while driving on the highway. There were no warnings received via the vehicle tire pressure monitor system until over an hour later after the faulty tire had been changed. This is a brand new vehicle which I had only been driving for a couple of weeks. Personally only contributing to a couple hundred miles on the vehicle. There is no damage to the tire such as a puncture or foreign object. There had been no event leading up to this such as a pothole, a curb, etc.. There are multiple visible indents along the sidewall of the tire. The tire was inspected and viewed in person by roadside assistance technician as well as one dealership manager in addition to photos that were sent to home dealership and observed by manager and service manager.
THE CONTACT OWNS A 2018 GENESIS G80 EQUIPPED WITH CONTINENTAL TIRES, TIRE LINE: CONTI PRO CONTACT TX, TIRE SIZE 245/40/ZR19, DOT NUMBER: (NOT AVAILABLE). THE CONTACT STATED THAT WHILE DRIVING AT 60 MPH, A YELLOW WARNING LIGHT APPEARED ON THE INSTRUMENT PANEL. THE CONTACT PULLED OVER AND DISCOVERED THE PASSENGER'S SIDE TIRE SIDEWALL WAS BLOWN OUT. THE CONTACT ALSO STATED THAT THE CHECK YOUR TPMS WARNING MESSAGE ALSO ILLUMINATED ON THE INSTRUMENT PANEL SOON AFTER THE FAILURE. THE CONTACT CALLED ROAD SIDE ASSISTANCE AND HAD THE TIRE REPLACED. THE TIRE WAS PART OF A REPLACEMENT SET OF TIRES WHICH WERE REPLACED BY THE GENESIS DEALER. THE MANUFACTURER WAS CONTACTED AND INFORMED OF THE FAILURE. THE APPROXIMATE FAILURE MILEAGE ON THE TIRE WAS 20,000.
I currently have Kumho Ecsta PS91 tires on my 2021 Acura TLX that was purchased brand new and 3 out of 4 tires have cracks/splits all the way around the inside and outside sidewall. My vehicle currently has 30k miles and still has plenty of tread left on them as they are rated for 45k miles. Car has always had its routine maintenance done at Acura and tires are always checked and rotation is done also. Please look into this immediately 🙏 I was traveling on an Interstate at 70 mph and this could have been a tragedy for myself and others traveling. Also have pictures to show if needed
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.
FAQ
How common is sidewall failure in tire complaints?
Which tire has the most reports of sidewall failure?
Does a high rate here mean the tire is defective?
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.