NHTSA Complaint #10195073 — 2007 DODGE CARAVAN

THESE TIRES (BRIDGESTONE TURANZA EL42 ? 215/65R16) WERE OEM ON MY 2007 DODGE CARAVAN WITH A FIRESTONE/BRIDGESTONE WARRANTY. AT 10,000 MILES I NOTICED A PULL TO THE RIGHT. I PURCHASED A LIFETIME ALIGNMENT AND ROTATED THE TIRES AT B/F. AFTER ANOTHER 1300 MILES, THE PULL WAS A HARDER RIGHT. F/B CHECKED THE ALIGNMENT, STATING IT WAS GOOD AND TOLD ME THIS WAS A "BELT" ISSUE....PUT THE "BAD" TIRES TO THE REAR AND ORDERED TWO OEM TIRES. I AM AWAITING 2 NEW TIRES OF THE SAME OEM (ONE TO BE WARRANTED THE OTHER SELF PAY). THE F/B STORE, WHERE I PURCHASED THE LIFETIME ALIGNMENT, TELLS ME YOU CAN CHECK A BELT PROBLEM BY CROSS ROTATING THE TIRES. UNTIL THAT TEST IS COMPLETED, THEY CANNOT CONSIDER REPLACING A DAMAGED TIRE UNDER THE WARRANTY. BOTH TIRES ARE UNDER THE 12 MONTH-2/32 DEPTH WARRANTY PROVIDED WITH MY NEW CAR. I THINK F/B SHOULD COVER THE WARRANTY ON BOTH DAMAGED TIRES WITHOUT ANY NEED TO TEST FOR A BELT ISSUE. EITHER THE ?BAD? BELT DAMAGED 2 TIRES OR AN IMPROPER ALIGNMENT DAMAGED 2 TIRES. AFTER READING NUMEROUS REVIEWS ABT THIS PARTICULAR TIRE ON WWW.NHTSA AND WWW.TIRERACK.COM, I DO NOT WANT TO PAY A DIME FOR A TURANZA EL42 REPLACEMENT TIRE. REVIEWS OF THESE TIRES ON BMW'S, ACURA'S, AND DODGE/CHRYSLER PRODUCTS SHOW NUMEROUS PROBLEMS FROM BLOW-OUTS, POOR TREAD WEAR, FLAT SPOTS, CUPPING, AND BELT ISSUES. ADDENDUM: WHILE THE ORIGINAL F/B STORE (WHO INITIALLY ALIGNED AND ROTATED MY TIRES) WILL NOT CONSIDER HONORING THE TIRE WARRANTY, I DID FIND ANOTHER F/B STORE IN MY AREA (20 MILES AWAY INSTEAD OF JUST 4 MILES AWAY) WHO WILL REPLACE THE 2 WORN TIRES WITHOUT QUESTION AND UNDER THE WARRANTY. I WILL SPEAK WITH THE DISTRICT MANAGER OF F/B ABOUT BOTH LOCAL STORES AND THE GOOD AND BAD BEHAVIORS OF EACH STORE MANAGER. *TR