By Sara Nathan, USA TODAY
Continental General Tire said Tuesday that it will replace 140,000 tires on Lincoln Navigators and 20,000 sold as replacement tires because heat stress can cause chunks of the tread to come off.
The tires are 16-inch ContiTrac AS tires in size P245/75R-16 that were made before March 1998.
The move follows Firestone's Aug. 9 recall of 6.5 million Wilderness and ATX tires used on Ford Motor vehicles because of reports that treads could peel.
But Bernd Frangenberg, president and CEO of Continental General Tire, says, "There is no comparison with the Firestone situation because we have no rollovers, no fatalities and no lawsuits."
Continental knows of one minor injury in Florida after an accident that involved ContiTrac tires, he says.
Continental changed the shape of the tire tread and reduced the weight in March 1998 to improve the Navigator's ride, Frangenberg says. Those changes reduce the stress on the tires by 24%, he says.
"We can trace the root cause, and we know the corrective action we took is effective," Frangenberg says. He says they analyzed warranty and adjustment data in August and found 486 claims for these tires, including 62 for damage to vehicles. Those figures are much higher than for its other tires, he says.
Consumers should bring 1998 and 1999 Navigators that were sold with ContiTrac tires to Lincoln dealerships. The tires will be replaced with new ContiTrac tires or Grabber AW or Ameri 660 AS tires.
Continental flew 10,000 tires from its plant in Mayfield, Ky., to Lincoln dealerships Monday night. Continental plans to replace all the tires within eight weeks.
Frangenberg says consumers should check for punctures or unusual wear. Tire pressure should be 30 pounds per square inch for front tires and 35 psi for the rear tires.