My Indy Firehawk Problems

[MacDogg]

2019 Stinger GT (TT, RWD) Picked up November 2019
Just turned 36,000 miles (6,000 mile per year average) late October 2025
Location: Austin, TX mostly, so good roads, little rain, hardly a winter
How I drive: I haven't burned rubber in this car, I do floor it sometimes if I'm first at a traffic light (TC on), never dragged or tracked. I do hit over 80mph often but that's on toll roads so I don't think my driving has anything to do with this (but who knows)
Date: 09/09/2023
Tires: Rear Firestone Firehawk Indy 500 Ultra High Performance Tire 255/35R19 96 W Extra Load
Issue: Bought replacements Firehawks because the rears were getting low (I didn't keep track of mileage). Went to a local corner tire shop I've been to many times in the past and they removed the tires and one had a chunk of rubber missing and a long crack on the inside right near the rim. Pics 090923-01 and 090923-02 show this tire. I didn't think much of it and didn't take any other pictures.
Date: 10/17/2025
Tires: Front Firestone Firehawk Indy 500 Ultra High Performance Tire 225/35R19 93 W
Issue: Getting the front brakes changed on a Friday and the mechanic showed me the front right tire. Similar issue happened, a HUGE chunk of rubber was missing on the inside near the rim. Pics 10172025-01, 08, 09 and 10 show this tire and 11 shows how much tread was left. I was heading on a 1,500 mile road trip two days after this so I had to run to Discount Tire on Saturday and I decided to go with Khumo tires on the short time frame so I could leave Sunday. I will not be using Firehawks ever again.
I reached out to Firestone Tires on social media and they gave me an email address to send my complaint to. I sent an email on 10/23 and haven't heard anything back. I'm not looking for replacement tires or even a refund, I simply wanted to make them aware of this issue and see if they could tell me why this happened on a front and rear tire used as a daily driver.

 

[Snicklefritz]

Holy crap! I've heard nothing good about Firehawk Indy 500s, and this is the worst bad report I've seen. At one point I was going to try them. But then the price point largely went away because Firestone started charging more for them, and that was the only incentive to try them out. Glad you didn't have a blowout - actually I am amazed that you didn't have a blowout!??

 

[blnewt]

Wow, now that's living on the edge literally. What date codes on those tires? Looks like some very old rubber, probably not but they look horrendous. Glad you got them off!

 

[SRV]

The third picture clearly shows rim damage where the tire damage is.

What did you run over?

This doesn't look like Firestone's problem.

 

[Snicklefritz]

The third picture clearly shows rim damage where the tire damage is.

What did you run over?

This doesn't look like Firestone's problem.

I don't see any rim damage. Those marks don't deform the rim. They look more like tire mounting/dismounting abrasions. What about all the other places the tires have shed enormous amounts of rubber and no evidence of rim damage? This looks like Firestone's problem.

 

[SRV]

I don't see any rim damage. Those marks don't deform the rim. They look more like tire mounting/dismounting abrasions. What about all the other places the tires have shed enormous amounts of rubber and no evidence of rim damage? This looks like Firestone's problem.

Do not agree.

Starting a 5 o'clock and over to 7 o'clock, one can see the damage on the sidewall of the tire, and then on the rim itself.

This is clearly not damage from mounting a tire.

 

[MacDogg]

Do not agree.

Starting a 5 o'clock and over to 7 o'clock, one can see the damage on the sidewall of the tire, and then on the rim itself.

This is clearly not damage from mounting a tire.

I didn't look too hard at the wheel either time it was off the car but if I can find some time this weekend I'll jack her up and take a closer look. I can't recall hitting or running over anything that could have done that much damage but you never know.

 

[Snowwhite]

what pressure were you running them at?

 

[MacDogg]

I jacked it up and ran my ungloved finger around the lip of the rim (you can actually see it's a little cleaner in these pics) and I didn't catch a dent, nick or chip all the way around. Anything seen is just dirt or debris stuck on the edge.

 

[MacDogg]

what pressure were you running them at?

Hard to say because I never checked them unless the TPMS sensor came on. I would guess at least 35psi all the way around. Right now they are all at 38psi.

 

[blnewt]

date codes on tires???

 

[Volfy]

Sidewall delamination typically happens when the tire has been overheated repeatedly. Most often, this happens when the tire has been run on low(er) pressure, leading to carcass flex. Tire pinching due to hard strikes can exacerbate the problem. This can happen without visible signs of rim damage. The rim and the ground basically do to the tire what your grandma did to your cheeks on Thanksgiving visit. Low profile tires makes this problem worse. Same reason grandma pinching your skinny-ass toddler cheeks hurts a whole lot more than your big fat cousin Louie.

Is this normal? Absolutely not. Is this the tire's fault? Very unlikely.

 

[Volfy]

Hard to say because I never checked them unless the TPMS sensor came on.

Not my place to tell you what you should do with your own car.

Call me old fashioned, but I still check my tires with a tire pressure gauge regularly - same as I always did. Especially during seasonal changes, like Fall and Spring, when temperature can drop - or rise - by a wide margin from 1 day to the next. The proliferation of TPMS doesn't mean I no longer need to check tire pressure. That's just me.

 

[Snicklefritz]

Not my place to tell you what you should do with your own car.

Call me old fashioned, but I still check my tires with a tire pressure gauge regularly - same as I always did. Especially during seasonal changes, like Fall and Spring, when temperature can drop - or rise - by a wide margin from 1 day to the next. The proliferation of TPMS doesn't mean I no longer need to check tire pressure. That's just me.

Ima convert. It happens to be FUN to be a bit OC monitoring psi. If you have invested in the right toy/tool. That would be a Longacre tire gauge. Here's the one I have. Longacre Deluxe 2.5" Tire Pressure Gauge, 0-60 psi | Pegasus Auto Racing Supplies I just grabbed a merchant at random to show my tire gauge.

After years of fighting with various cheap bog standard tire gauges I finally got a real racing quality one. When I first got my Stinger I bought a compressor so that I could inflate my tires at home. Then it took me another half a dozen years to get the other half of the necessary equipment, a real pressure gauge.

Since then I have regularly checked my cold tires in the morning. But I only drag out the compressor when the cold psi gets more than a couple of lbs. low, at this time of the year when it is getting colder - same applies in the spring when I reverse the process and let a bit of air out to obtain door card recommended psi. That would be 38 front 36 rear on my AWD GT, and 39 front 36 rear on the Premium. I check all eight tires at the same time.

The TPMS system is good for monitoring any changes but not for getting the door card psi spot on. Right now, when the TPMS first comes online it shows two to four lbs. lower than recommended, depending on how cold it is. But after driving for a while, like today, I get to see perfect 38, 38, 36, 36 on its way up to one or two psi above recommended cold. The Longacre gauge says that the TPMS, at least in my cars, reads a couple of lbs. low.

 

[MacDogg]

Hard to say because I never checked them unless the TPMS sensor came on. I would guess at least 35psi all the way around.

date codes on tires???

I don't see any date code on the pics I took of the tire from a few weeks ago. Unless it was on the piece or rubber that is missing? I only see a P1502, DOT EJ J2 and nothing after the DOT code. Maybe it is only stamped on the outside because on my current Firehawk rear tires there is a date stamp on the outside just after the DOT code. On the bad tires I did not get pics of the outside.

 

[MacDogg]

Not my place to tell you what you should do with your own car.

Call me old fashioned, but I still check my tires with a tire pressure gauge regularly - same as I always did. Especially during seasonal changes, like Fall and Spring, when temperature can drop - or rise - by a wide margin from 1 day to the next. The proliferation of TPMS doesn't mean I no longer need to check tire pressure. That's just me.

I understand, I have a Milton S-921 in the console. If the light comes on I pull out the Sears portable inflation pump in the trunk and fill it up and check the psi after.

 

[MacDogg]

Sidewall delamination typically happens when the tire has been overheated repeatedly. Most often, this happens when the tire has been run on low(er) pressure, leading to carcass flex. Tire pinching due to hard strikes can exacerbate the problem. This can happen without visible signs of rim damage. The rim and the ground basically do to the tire what your grandma did to your cheeks on Thanksgiving visit. Low profile tires makes this problem worse. Same reason grandma pinching your skinny-ass toddler cheeks hurts a whole lot more than your big fat cousin Louie.

Is this normal? Absolutely not. Is this the tire's fault? Very unlikely.

And I can't say true or false in this instance since I didn't check the tire pressure often but this tells me I need to keep an eye on the pressure just to keep it in check. I typically drive the same route every week and I know where the bumps are and since I have the H&R lowering springs I try to avoid hitting anything in the roads. There's even one spot I slow down to like 5mph to bounce through a particularly big bump in the road.

 

[Volfy]

I understand, I have a Milton S-921 in the console. If the light comes on I pull out the Sears portable inflation pump in the trunk and fill it up and check the psi after.

By the time that TPMS light comes ON, your tire pressure is wayyyy too low. That also means you've been running around with sub-optimum pressure prior to being wayyy too low. If you set your tire press up to the door sill spec pressure every time you pump it back up, that means probably 80% of the time, you are running at lower than recommended tire pressure.

I'm not at all surprised your tire sidewalls delaminated in dying protest.

 

[SRV]

I use this gauge for my compressor:

https://a.co/d/4AOk5mt