DEARBORN, Mich. ? Ford Motor Company said that it will replace all 13 million Firestone Wilderness AT tires on its vehicles. Ford's action, which the company described as precautionary, is based on analysis of data on the actual road performance of these tires, comparisons with the performance of comparable tires by other tire makers, a review of information developed by and received from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), and extensive laboratory and vehicle testing.
The company said that many of the non-recalled Wilderness AT tires on the road today appear to perform substantially better than the tires recalled last year. However, analysis of real world performance data, information from NHTSA and lab and vehicle testing indicate that some of the non-recalled Wilderness AT tires will probably experience elevated failure rates at some time in the future.
Specifically, the company's decision to replace all Wilderness AT tires on its vehicles is based on several factors, including:
- Field data, which is real world tire performance data, recently received from Firestone showed that failure rates had increased for some of the Wilderness AT tires. Projections indicate that the failure rates, while still relatively low compared with tires recalled last year, could reach unusually high levels in the future.
- Information shared by NHTSA showed that failure rates in actual road performance for many of the non-recalled Wilderness AT tires were measurably worse than comparable tires from other manufacturers.
- Laboratory and vehicle testing by Ford shows that tire design and variations in physical characteristics of the non-recalled Wilderness AT tires make them less durable than comparable tires from other manufacturers. The comparable tires include Goodyear tires on more than 500,000 Explorers. These test results are consistent with the NHTSA information and the real world data described above.