Tire Sidewall Problems of BMW M3

Firestone firehawk indy 500 tire failed on sidewall.

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This letter is in reference to two michelin pilot sport a/s 3+ 255/35zr19 96y tires which both failed within 1,130 miles of each other from identical failures. These two failures were on the interior sidewall of the tires. These two tires were purchased and installed on the same day, September 15, 2016, by a dealer. The car had 104,775 miles on it at the end of this service. On Tuesday, November 21, while driving to ohio for thanksgiving holiday I experienced a complete failure of the driver's side rear tire (one of the above pilot sport tires) at highway speed at 121,801 miles. The tire separated from the interior sidewall completely. On December 8, 2017, at 122,934 miles the other michelin pilot sport tire from the above set also failed. While in the parking lot I heard the passenger rear tire venting air and it quickly went flat. The interior sidewall hard a large crack circling almost half the tire. These two failures occurred only 1,130 miles apart in the same part of the tire. These two tires had 17,026 and 18,159 miles respectively, far under the warranted life and the typical life. The second failure was acknowledged by michelin in a case I opened based on an evaluation of the tire by a michelin authorized dealer. Michelin has not acknowledge the first failure because I no longer have the tire.

On October 13th at approximately 1800hrs the left rear tire of my 1998 BMW M3 "rapidly deflated" resulting in a rollover crash. Approximately 1/4 of the inner sidewall was left shredded. Weather was sunny and warm, with no debris or contamination on the road surface(sr-62). The tire was installed by a BMW service center 5/7/08 at 68,814 miles, accident occurred at 82,943 miles. The dunlop 8080e p245/40 zr-17 dot# dmc903y1607 was determined to have good tread at the time of the accident by the California highway patrol and the tire pressure was checked three days prior.

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I was traveling at a high rate of speed on the freeway, when I heard a noise. As the noise got louder, I realized it must be a flat tire as the vehicle begin to pull in one direction. As the noise got louder I saw smoke coming from the back passenger side of vehicle. I pull over to find that the tire had completely separated from the sidewall. The tire was a continental contisport contact 255, 40zr 18, on a 2002 BMW M3. The tire appears to have simply blown out due to the separation. I believe this to be defective workmanship. I was told by the tire dealer that this is "common" for low-profile type tires. I do not think this an acceptable explanation, as the tire was not underpressurized, bare and/or damaged. I believe this blow out was due to a tire defect (tire separation). The only tire I could find to replace it was another brand. I will not put continentals on my car in the future. I do not feel safe driving on them since I do alot of freeway driving, and I wonder when one of the other tires will separate and blow out.

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