Tire Blowout problems of the 1997 Jeep Grand Cherokee

Vehicle was going 40mph and the rear passenger's tire blewout. No warning, it suddenly blew out. Vehicle started swaying, and consumer saw smoke from back tire. Half of the tire was gone. Original tires, size p225/75r15 on a 1997, Jeep Grand Cherokee with 52,000 miles.

Vehicle was going 50-55 mph and consumer noticed road was feeling rough and uneven. Left front tire suddenly blewout. There were no signs before it happened. Consumer has a 1997, Grand Cherokee, aftermarket tires with 24000 miles on them, and size p225/75r15. Tire was a firestone wilderness ht, dot number vdhhawr 179.

At 45 mph on smooth highway tire suddenly blew out and we immediately pulled over. The tire was demolished to the point we could not tell what the cause was or the tire repair man. This tire had approxiamately 2000 miles only on it at the time . (tiresize: 16)( dot number: tire size: 16 ).

During the week of 10/18/00 I was returning from a business trip. I was traveling west in the driving lane of I-80 at approximately 2:45 am. In front and behind me were semi trucks and, in the passing lane, was a car. Suddenly I heard an "explosion" and my vehicle slammed to the pavement and veered sharply to the right, toward the shoulder. After nearly losing control of the vehicle I was able to pull to a stop on the berm of the road. The passenger front tire had literally disintegrated and the vehicle was resting on the rim. After returning home I inspected the tire and felt it was a manufacturing defect. I contacted firestone and was told that they had received no other complaints about this model tire. After some negotiating they agreed to replace the tire which blew out as well as the remaining three tires. I explained to them that, since the incident, I was experiencing some difficulties with the steering. They refused to do more than replace the tires. After they replaced the tires I took the Jeep to a repair shop and found it had a broken front-end suspension part, which I had replaced. I feel this happened at the time of the incident. Additionally, I took photos of the tire which disintegrated and have them available on jpg format, if you wish to have them. I feel that firestone, inc. Lied to me about having no complaints regarding this model tire. If I had not pushed the issue I would have been riding on three other of the same model tires. I put approximately 20,000 miles per year on my vehicle and I feel firestone tried to deliberately cover up what they knew was an ongoing problem. Thank you( dot number: tire size: 70r16 ).