MSNBC --

WASHINGTON, Oct. 4 —

Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. agreed Thursday to recall 3.5 million more Wilderness AT tires mounted on sport utility vehicles. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration ordered the tire maker to replace the tires after a 11/2-year investigation.

THE RECALL INVOLVES the P235/75R15 and P255/70R16 Wilderness AT tires manufactured before 1998 that were supplied as original equipment to Ford Motor Co. or sold as replacement tires for other SUV brands.

Firestone says only about 768,000 of the tires are still on the market. Many of the tires have already been replaced by the owners or as part of a replacement plan announced in May by Ford.

“We do not agree with NHTSA’s findings,” Bridgestone/Firestone CEO John Lampe said in a statement. “Our testing and science show our tires perform extremely well. However, we have decided that it is in the best interest of our company, our employees, our dealers and our customers if we replace the limited number of tires in question and close this chapter in the company’s history.”

Most of the tires are original equipment on the Ford Explorer and Mercury Mountaineer. The recall does not apply to other sizes of Wilderness AT tires or those supplied to other manufacturers as original equipment.

In a statement, NHTSA said those tires that are not involved have different design features and have not experienced as many tread separations.

-- PHO (owennos@bigfoot.com), October 04, 2001