Bridgestone Firestone seeks all recalled tires

updated 5:31 p.m. ET July 21, 2006

WASHINGTON - Six years after dozens of motorists were killed in rollovers linked to defective tires, the manufacturer said Friday it would contact owners to try to bring in the remaining 200,000 tires that may still be on the road.

Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire, the Nashville, Tenn.-based subsidiary of Japan’s Bridgestone Corp., said its 2000-01 recall had been highly successful, replacing about 95 percent of the 6.5 million tires involved.

Safety officials said some tires may still be on used vehicles or serve as spares, overlooked in the wave of advertising to replace them.

The tiremaker will ask registered owners of Ford Explorer, Mercury Mountaineer and Mazda Navajo sport utility vehicles — many of which have the tires as original equipment — along with Firestone stores and dealers to check for the recalled tires.

“Even though there are only a small percentage of these tires believed to be still in use, we are continuing to put safety first and are implementing this communications campaign to try to reach out to a group of consumers whose tires have not yet been recovered,” said Mike Kane, the company’s vice president of quality assurance.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Friday issued a consumer advisory asking owners to replace all tires included in the recall campaign.

The affected tires include the P235/75R15 Radial ATX and certain P235/75R15 and P255/70R 16 Wilderness AT models manufactured before May 1998. Tires manufactured after that date are not affected, NHTSA said.

At least 271 people were reported killed and hundreds more injured in accidents involving Firestone ATX and AT tires, leading to the recalls. About 6.3 million of the tires were replaced during the recall, the company said.

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