My front tires blew out on me at 20K miles due to a tire rub on the front struts. About a three inch band around the tire was completely worn away.

- Saline, MI, USA

I own a 2004 Pontiac GTO. I recently saw a news story regarding potential problems with the front tires rubbing against the strut. I wanted to bring to your attention that I had the oil changed in the car at a GM dealership about two months ago. While there, they mentioned to me that the right front tire was worn down from the inside and needed replaced. The car only has around 12,000 miles on it.

- Willoughby, OH, USA

I own a 2004 Pontiac GTO. I was driving to work on the freeway at 5:30am on Sept. 6, 2006. I was passing a semi truck when the passenger side front tire blew out. The vehicle pulled sharply to the right, but I was able to regain control and avoid striking the semi. I pulled the car to the side of the road. The passenger side front tire was shredded. The front tires both needed to be replaced, and I was told the rear tires were worn to the point of replacement. When I picked the car up later that night, I was told by the mechanic that I was going to continue to have problems due to the fact that the tires were too wide, causing them to rub against the strut brace. I had him show me the old tires. The one that had blown out was worn completely down to the belts, and it looked as though it had been cut with a knife, similar to opening a tuna can. I also found that when the tire blew out, it dented to the top of the passenger side wheel well and scratched the front bumper. I took the tires with me. The Pontiac GTO is an import from holden in austrailia. In austrailia the vehicle is equipped with 235/45R17 tires on it. When Pontiac brought it to the states, they equipped 245/45R17 tires on it, 10mm wider. The increase in width causes the tire to rub against the strut brace, mostly on the passenger side. The next day I took it to the dealership where I bought it. They told me it was the first they had ever heard of the problem, and that there was no recall. The service manager said he would call GM to see what the deal was. I heard back the next day. GM was going to reimburse me for 2 of the 4 tires I purchased and redo the alignment by adjusting the positive camber of the front tires, but they wanted the old tires back. Since that time, I have been offered the same deal, with the inclusion of fixing the body work, and I can keep the tires. My GTO has less than 19K miles on it, and gave no prior indication of a problem.

- Streetsboro, OH, USA

I previously submitted a complaint regarding my 2004 Pontiac GTO in which the front tires (specifically the passenger) side rubbed against the suspension and severely damaged the tires. When contacted by the NHTSA, I did not respond because I had since changed my tires and no longer had the original tires. I got rid of my stock 2004 tires and rims and purchased four stock tires and rims for the 2005 Pontiac GTO from a 2005 GTO owner. I have had the tires on for several months and have had absolutely no rubbing. In investigating this defect, I recommend that the stock 2004 and 2005 rims/tires be compared. The tires that I have are the exact same as the 2004; the only difference is the rims (2004 vs 2005). Perhaps Pontiac realized there was a problem in the 2004 model and made a slight modification to the 2005 rims to prevent the rub.

- San Antonio, TX, USA

I purchased my vehicle on May 15, 2006 as a used vehicle with 27,042 miles on it. Since then it has been in the shop for a vibration to which I was told because of the tires were bad. The reason I was given they were bad is because of alignment issues. I personally ran a car fax on my VIN for my car and discovered that it had been in the shop twice in the span of three months for "suspension service". when I mentioned this to my dealer they told me they had been fighting with the car for the previous owner and could not fix this problem and that it was a direct condition from the "aggressive" stance of the vehicle. The dealership said that was a quote from GM themselves. There has been absolutely zero effort put forth by the dealership that I purchased the car from to help me remedy this problem. My car is even under the factory warranty for at least another 6,000 miles! I know for a fact that this is a problem that many other Pontiac GTO owners are having also.

- Newton, KS, USA

2004 GTO front sidewall of tire is rubbing a hard metal object (strut).

- Bloomingdale, NJ, USA

I reference claim oid#10116796. I am having this same problem. My tires are rubbed on my front struts and after rotation all 4 tires were worn. Two of them were worn down to the cords and all 4 tires needed immediate replacement. The dealer said that this problem was not covered by warranty and refused to replace my dangerously worn tires. This condition could have easily caused a blowout. I did save the least worn of the 4 tires for a full size spare and have a picture of the damage done to worst of the 4. history: The 2004-2005 Pontiac GTO is an imported version of the australia holden monaro. The holden manaro comes from the factory with 235/45R17 tires, tires that are generally 235mm (9.25") wide. However, when Pontiac spec'd the GTO for the us, they finally decided on a 10mm wider tire, a 245/45R17 bf goodrich G-force kdws tire. Current problem: The larger tire causes rubbing on the front strut, namely and more commonly the passenger side strut. This is evidenced by a rubbing mark on the strut body and many times wear marks on the tires themselves. In some cases, front suspension binding has occurred. In other cases, tire replacement was necessary. This is due, in fact, to the increase in size of the tire that Pontiac has chosen to put on the imported version. Several Pontiac dealerships are aware of this problem, and it has been speculated that Pontiac is aware as well. Future problems: Tires are not all the same size. One 245/45R17 tire can be smaller or larger depending on the manufacturer of the tire. There is a strong posibility that when a consumer replaces his/her worn factory tires with another set of tires, of the same "size", that they would be even larger and could cause serious problems. In light of the Ford-Firestone tire problems, I believe this is a situation that should be researched. Please note: Dealership lot cars would most likely not demonstrate this problem as they will not have been driven enough to cause the rubbing.

- New Port Richey, FL, USA