— A Goodyear G159 tire recall involves more than 173,000 size 275/70R22.5 tires imprinted with DOT date codes 046 through 0403.
The Goodyear G159 recall occurs nearly 20 years after the last G159 tire came off the assembly line.
And as recently as March Goodyear was still refusing to recall the tires that are typically installed on motorhomes.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the G159 tread may separate and cause a driver to lose control while driving.
Goodyear alleges the tread can separate because motorhome manufacturers didn't correctly specify reserve loads and other information regarding overloading and underinflation of the G159 tires.
Goodyear customers and safety advocates have for years said the G159 tires should be erased from vehicles and the highways, with investigators claiming at least eight people have been killed between 1998 and 2009.
Those same investigators allege about 70 people have been injured by the defective tires.
According to federal safety regulators, Goodyear should have recalled the G159 tires in 2002 to prevent drivers from losing control and crashing.
Goodyear G159 Tire Investigation
NHTSA opened an investigation into Goodyear G159 tire failures in late-December 2017 based on allegations of crashes, injuries and deaths caused by tires that couldn't handle the heat of highway driving.
NHTSA accuses Goodyear of spending years paying out lawsuit settlements that were then sealed by judges.
The government also claims the Goodyear G159 tire was originally meant for city delivery vehicles that required a lot of stop-and-go driving.
But the G159 tires were eventually used as original tires on motorhomes that spend a large amount of time traveling great distances at highway speeds. This allegedly caused the G159 tires to get hotter than they were made for which destroyed the tread.
Goodyear's own testing in 1996 showed the tires registered temperatures "well in excess of 200 degrees F at 50 mph" which is enough to cause tread separation.
The Goodyear G159 tires were also rated for a maximum speed limit of 65 mph because that was the limit at the time. But some states began raising their speed limits to 75 mph which exposed the G159 tires to even greater temperatures.
Goodyear has always asserted the G159 tires were never defective and engineers could never find a single tire that wasn't fully capable of operating at highway speeds.
Even though more than 173,000 G159 tires are involved in the recall, Goodyear doesn't know if any of those tires are still on the roads.
If a vehicle is equipped G159 tires, Goodyear will replace the tires with G670 tires of the same size of 275/70R22.5, covering the cost of the replacement tires, mounting, balancing and disposal of the G159 tires. Goodyear will also provide a $60 voucher to cover the cost of having the vehicle professionally weighed.
Goodyear will also pay $500 to exchange a tire if it isn't installed on a recreational vehicle.
Goodyear says it will do what it can to let owners know about the G159 recall because the company has no registration data.
"Since the motorhome manufacturers that specified the Subject Tires no longer are in business, and Goodyear does not have, or have access to, any registration data for the Subject Tires, Goodyear will issue an information bulletin describing this campaign. The bulletin will be published on certain Goodyear websites and issued to Tire Service Centers and Tire Dealers." — Goodyear
Goodyear isn't sure when the G159 tire recall will begin, but tire owners may call Goodyear at 800-592-3267.
