I just want to put a warning out there for anyone running or considering running Dunlop car tires. I purchased a set of tires from tire rack almost 2 years and 20k miles ago. I installed them on my Wife's car. 2 weeks ago I was driving the car home from work and noticed a slight vibration in the steering wheel developing. I got home and checked the tires assuming a weight fell off. I found the LF tire had a bulge in the inner sidewall about 15" long! I pulled it out of commission immediately! The tire was starting to separate. I maintain my air pressures meticulously. I emailed tire rack about it and they determined(based on pics) the tire was indeed defective and offered me a refund or a deal on a new set of tires of my choice. I chose to buy a new set of tires as I no longer trusted the Dunlops. The new tires came in today so I removed the wheels and tires from my Wife's car to bring them to work with me so I could mount and balance the new tires. As I was removing them I inspected them. 1 of the tires was so dry rotted on the inner sidewall it had cracked almost all the way around! A 2nd was starting to do the same! So 3 of the 4 tires I purchased were failing within 2 years and 20k miles! I have emailed Dunlop about their defective tires.

So this is a heads up to anyone out there running Dunlop car tires...keep a very close eye on them before they fail and destroy something or someone!

Good to know. Anyone else less meticulous would have had a very serious accident. Happy that Tire rack took care of ya. My FIL has a tire shop in Utah and swears by Bridgestone. I just has a set of Bridgestones installed last month on my DD and cannot believe the difference from the Dunlops that came with my car. I took my car back to the dealer twice thinking there were serious front end issues. Come to find out, it was just Dunlops.

I watched a report on one of those Dateline 20 / 20 type shows about 6 months back.

They did an expose on how tire dealers were selling new tires that were almost 7 years old because they would buy in bulk from manufacturers.

A bunch of lawsuits as a result of deaths caused by this practice.

Sometimes it is a really good thing that we live in a litigious society.

crawler - Good thing you found it before it blew.
Rox just like you said you also have to check the date code on the tires. If they are 7 or more yrs old it's probably time to start thinking about replacing them.
Here's info on decoding the DOT code on the sidewall:
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/ ... ?techid=11

Date code is one of the first things I check when I get new tires. These dunlops were made late in 2007. So less than 4 years old! The tread was basically coming 'unglued' from the sidewall on the worst one(besides the bulged sidewall tire). The new tires I just installed were made in the middle of this year and are a much better brand.

That's spooky!! Glad you found it before anything bad happened!

There were BFG's on our cummuter car ('00 Focus) and they are crazy noisy. They were new when we bought the car so it'll be a while before we replace them. Curious to know what you and others run with good luck.

I've only had one car in the last 10 years, my 06 Chrysler 300C AWD. It came with Continentals that were junk, worn to the wear bars in 12,000 miles. So bad there was a class action lawsuit, I actually got a check for like $300.00. I'm running Firestone Winterforce right now, they are awesome in the snow & ice, and very affordable. They probably won't last as long, compared to non-winter tires. They are available in truck sizes. I know a bunch of people running them & all have had good luck. I want to have a nice summer set of rims & tires next year and keep the Winterforce on the stock rims for winter.

Chad