Yokohama avid tire failures: what 88 owner reports say

Every complaint filed with NHTSA against the Yokohama Avid, 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

88Written owner reports

2Reported crashes

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

What owners described

Sidewall failure appears in 31% of these reports; about 2.1× as often as across all tire complaints. Percentages are shares of the 88 reports filed against the Yokohama Avid 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
Sidewall failure	31%	15%	2.1×
Blowout or sudden deflation	27%	20%	1.4×
Cracking or dry rot	16%	9%	1.7×
Bubble or bulge in the tire	14%	6%	2.3×
Loss of control, rollover or collision	6%	8%	0.7×
Pressure-monitoring (TPMS) fault	3%	2%	1.4×

Mileage at failure

55 of these reports state an odometer reading. The middle report is at 30,000 miles, with 8 in 10 falling between 6,644 and 80,000 miles.

In owners' own words

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

YOKOHAMA TIRE AVID ASCEND 185/55R-16 SIDE WALL HAS DEVELOPED SIDEWALL BULGE AND POTENTIAL FOR CATASTROPHIC FAILURE AFTER MINOR BUMP AGAINST CURB. THIS OCCURRED TWICE ON SAME VEHICLE WITHIN A 12 MONTH PERIOD. RECENT EVENT REPORTED BELOW WAS ON A TIRE WITH LESS THAN 15K MILES.

NHTSA complaint 1097806

PURCHASED YOKOHAMA AVID ASCEND TIRE IN APRIL 2013 BASED ON 80000 MILE TREAD WARRANTY. I NOTICED WHAT LOOKED LIKE DRY ROT CRACKING AND TIRES VIBRATED AT HIGHWAY SPEED. BROUGHT TO TIRE DEALER. THEY REBALANCED TIRES AND SAID TO COME BACK IF CONDITION GOT WORSE. DROVE ABOUT 400 MILES TO BEACH AND BACK. ON WAY BACK HOME VIBRATION CAME BACK. NOTICED AN ACTUAL SPLIT ABOUT 1/8 INCH WHERE TREAD MEETS THE SIDEWALL. TIRE DEALER REPLACED TWO TIRES ON A PRORATED BASIS ACCORDING TO YOKOHAMA. FRONT TIRES ALSO EXHIBITED FAR MORE PRONOUNCED WEAR THAN REARS DESPITE PROPER INFLATION. NOT HAPPY THAT I HAD TO PAY ANYTHING DUE TO MANUFACTURING DEFECT BUT I WAS NOT GOING TO RISK AN ACTUAL BLOWOUT.

NHTSA complaint 1103206

TOYOTA PRIUS 2010: WHEN THE CAR HITS A BUMP IN THE ROAD IT WILL ACCELERATE SO FAST BY ITSELF WHICH CAN BE VERY DANGEROUS AND FATAL. IT CAN HIGHLY CAUSE AN ACCIDENT IF THE DRIVER CANNOT STEP ON THE BRAKES IN TIME TO STOP THE CAR ACCELERATION. I WENT TO MY LOCAL TOYOTA DEALER HERE IN QUEENS NEW YORK AND TO MY SURPRISE THE REP SAID" I HAVE NEVER HEARD OF THAT COMPLAINT" AND DID NOT PURSUE THE MATTER AT ALL. ANOTHER SAFETY CONCERN IS THAT I HIT A SMALL POTHOLE AND THE WHOLE TIRE WAS DAMAGED ON MY BRAND NEW 2010 PRIUS WHICH I HAVE BEEN DRIVING FOR BARELY TWO MONTHS. I AM VERY CONCERNED ABOUT THESE SAFETY PROBLEMS AND DO NOT REALLY KNOW WHERE TO START GETTING ASSISTANCE. THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

NHTSA complaint 747984

TIRE SEEMED OUT OF BALANCE AT NARROW RANGE OF SPEEDS (60-65MPH), BUT SMOOTH AT 68MPH FOR MONTHS; RECENTLY NOTICED VEHICLE ROCKING WHEN COLD AND AT LOW SPEEDS; TODAY SAW AN OUTWARD BULGE IN REAR TIRE TREAD (DIRECTIONALLY OUTWARD FROM AXLE). AM SEEKING A REPLACEMENT TIRE BEFORE TREAD SEPARATION.

NHTSA complaint 911938

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

Sidewall failure; 2.1× the corpus rate here; see which other tires over-index
Cracking or dry rot; 1.7× the corpus rate here; see which other tires over-index
Bubble or bulge in the tire; 2.3× the corpus rate here; see which other tires over-index
Yokohama Geolandar; 53 reports

All Yokohama tire failure analysis

FAQ

What goes wrong with Yokohama Avid tires?

Across 88 written complaints, the most common description is sidewall failure, in 31% of reports; about 2.1× as often as across all tire complaints. A single report can describe more than one problem.

Is the Yokohama Avid 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 Yokohama Avid tires fail?

Of the owners who stated an odometer reading, the middle report is at 30,000 miles, with 8 in 10 between 6,644 and 80,000 miles. These are failures, not typical tire life; nobody files a complaint about a tire that wore out normally.

Have Yokohama Avid failures caused crashes?

Owners reported 2 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.