| Subject: LTR TIRES HANGZHOU ZHONGCE RUBBER CO. LT |
Summary: This pursuit is being pulled forward for public view and replaces eq 07-002. tires imported by foreign tire sales (fts) that were fabricated by hangzhou zhongce rubber co. ltd (hzr) in china have been declared, by fts, to contain a safety-related defect (nhtsa recall no. 07t-003).light truck radial tires carrying the westlake, compass and yks brands in the following sizes and models with a phase ii build date range (shown as the last four digits in the dot number) of 0404 (fourth week of 2004) through 0206 (second week of 2006), are involved.sizemodeldot no.lt235/75r-15 cr861, cr857 7dt5fts...lt235/85r-16 cr860, cr861, cr8577dt2fts...lt245/75r-16 cr860, cr861, cr857 7dt3fts...lt265/75r-16 cr860, cr861, cr857 7dt4fts...lt31x10.5 r-15 cr857, cr861 7dt6fts... phase i tires, with a build date range of job 1 through 0404, contained a c-shaped belt-edge (gum) strip.phase iii tires, build date range 0306 through current production, reportedly incorporate belt-edge wedges and nylon edge strips in an effort to meet the more stringent high-speed test included in fmvss 139.at this time, no decision has been made that a safety-related defect exists in either phase i or phase iii tires.gum strips are a common, but not mandatory, component used to slow the separation of belts to beyond the useful life of the tire.for phase ii, hzr eliminated the c-shaped gum strips present in phase i tires, allegedly without informing fts of this change.when fts discovered the change, it decided that constituted a safety-related defect, and recalled its phase ii tires, 07t-003.the purpose of this investigation was to determine if other tire importers, including those implicated by fts in their defect information report dated june 11, 2007, imported tires of similar construction to those involved in recall 07t-003.the seventeen (17) tire importers that were sent information requests in association with this investigation are; air land sea-ways inc., cambridge, caribbean rubber, cooper tire, dunlap & kyle co, eben, inc., gomera govi, inc., goodyear, k&d tire, omni united, orteck international inc., robison tire, strategic import supply, tireco inc., tyres international inc., universal tire, and victor moralies & assoc.information was also obtained from fts and hzr in this investigation.hzr confirmed statements made by the 17 importers that production dates for all tires shipped to importers other than fts began after the forth week of 2006, and are therefore phase iii tires and different from the tires recalled by fts.no information was found to verify the june 11th fts implication that other importers brought tires similar to the recalled tires into the us market.this investigation has found no information showing that any importers other than fts imported tires substantially similar to the phase ii recalled tires.all defective phase ii tires, manufactured by hzr and imported into the us market (approximately 270,014 tires), are being recalled through campaign 07t-003.accordingly, no further action is necessary and this investigation is closed.
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