Tire blowout or tread separation on the 2016 Ford Explorer
When tire blowout or tread separation gets reported
Owners of the 2016 Ford Explorer report tire blowout or tread separation at a median of 15,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 15,000 miles and a quarter after 25,000 miles, from 10 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 38,000 miles. It is the 37th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 10,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 60,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 47,200 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A window that narrow is the signature of a part that fails on its own schedule rather than on how the car is driven — which is usually a design or supplier problem rather than wear and tear.
80% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11,600 miles | 15,220 miles | 16,050 miles | 26,046 miles | 58,800 miles |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Putting it right typically runs $200–$1,500 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
This mode is classified as critical, which means a failure can leave the car unable to stop, steer, or stay out of the way of traffic. It is weighted accordingly in the risk score.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 14 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2016, at a median of 15,000 miles, and latest on the 1996 at 145,000 miles.
By volume the 1998 carries the most reports, with 166; the 2016 has 10. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
The rear sunroof exploded, I was driving down tollway 99 out side of houston texas, at about 60 MPH. The roadway is flat and straight the 4+ lanes are 150 yard apart, no overpasses. There were no other cars or trucks within 100 yards or more. And a very loud noise, like a gun shot " blew out" the rear glass ( the front can move, the rear cannot ) in the sunroof. I only have about 8000 mile on the SUV. Ford does not seem to understand the problem and keeps saying it must have been a rock. I can't prove they are wrong and they can't prove that I am correct. So my insurance pays, which means we all lose.
2016 ford explorer with hankook ventus s1 noble 2 tires. Approximately 3 months ago my wife was driving on a local surface street at 45 MPH. Her tire pressure monitor illuminated on the dash while simultaneously the vehicle veered sharply to the right. Upon inspection there was a 2-3 inch laceration in the sidewall of the front passenger side tire. There were not any potholes in the street where this incident occurred. Tire seemed to have simply "blown out". Tire was replaced. Yesterday my wife was making a left turn from from one surface street to another traveling approximately 15-20 MPH and the replacement tire blew out again. Similar details; tire pressure monitor illuminated while vehicle suddenly veered to the right. Again, no potholes were present and zero indication of foreign objects causing flat. There was approximately a 2-3 inch laceration to sidewall of front passenger tire. These two incidents occurred in a relatively short time span. I have read complaints about weak sidewalls regarding these tires as early as 2013. Additionally, hankook and hyundai have issued a recall for these tires (albeit a different size) due…
Tl* the contact owns a 2016 ford explorer equipped with hankook ventus s1 noble 2 tires, size: 255/50/r20 (na). While the vehicle was parked, the contact became aware of chunks of tire missing from the tire. The vehicle was taken to a tire facility to be inspected. The contact was not given a cause for the tire failure. The manufacturer was contacted and made aware of the failure. The approximate tire and vehicle failure mileage was 16,000.
Also reported on the 2016 Ford Explorer
Other body or interior problem
Other engine problem
Steering rack, gear or tie rod failure
Other steering problem
Water pump failure
Exhaust leak or fumes in the cabin
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 10 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does tire blowout or tread separation happen on the 2016 Ford Explorer?
Across 10 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 15,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 15,000 miles and a quarter after 25,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is tire blowout or tread separation on the 2016 Ford Explorer?
10 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.0 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed