Report: Tires Stuck With Bad Adhesive

WASHINGTON--USA Today has reported that the tread separations plaguing Firestone tires are due to problems with an adhesive used in the manufacturing process.

Reporter James R. Healey wrote that executives from Ford Motor Co. and Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. were to tell federal safety officials this week that both companies have coming to similar conclusions about the Firestone tire failures on Ford Explorer sport utility vehicles. The findings “appear to exonerate Explorer and tire workers,” according to Healey’s piece.

“The companies wouldn’t say in advance what they will tell the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. But people familiar with their plans say they are expected to focus on problems in the tire manufacturing process involving adhesives between the tires’ steel belts and on the tires’ design in the so-called wedge area, which is a layer of rubber between the belts,” the story said.

Ford officials told the paper that “the company is still researching the cause of the tread separations and has not made a determination,” according to the piece. It quoted a Ford spokesman as saying “We do not have anything to announce.”

The meetings with NHTSA this week were characterized as routine. Ford labled them as “a status report and a regular part of the investigation.”

The paper quoted Bridgestone/Firestone CEO John Lampe as saying earlier: “Our technical teams believe the performance issue with the tire ultimately will be the cumulative effect of tire design, tire components and the interaction of the tire with the vehicle.”

Healey’s report said that “a redesigned wedge went into production in 1998, retired Bridgestone/Firestone quality chief Robert Martin said in a court deposition last month. One purpose was to reduce the chance of tread separations, according to a transcript of the deposition.

“Most of the recalled tires were made before 1998.”

Ford and Bridegestone/Firestone have conducted separate investigations with differing methods to determine why the tires failed. “The companies have been discussing their findings with each other,” the story said.

“If the two companies wind up ultimately agreeing that it was tire design and manufacturing problems that caused treads to peel, that would be a ‘not guilty’ verdict for Ford’s Explorer. As Lampe’s statement last month points out, Bridgestone/Firestone has been linking Explorer’s design to rollovers when tires failed.

“Blaming the tire design and manufacturing processes also would undermine the theory that unqualified replacement workers made faulty tires during a strike at Firestone's Decatur, Ill., factory in 1995-96, or that the regular workers performed badly,” the piece noted.

To read the story in its entirety, contact http://www.usatoday.com/money/consumer/autos/mauto949.htm.