Continental General Tire Issues Massive Recall; Lincoln Navigators Affected

Continental General Tireannounced that it would replace 160,000 of the16-inch ContiTrac AS tires, most of which were standard equipment on 1998-99 Navigators, made byLincoln, a division of Ford. Some of the tires were found to lose part of their tread, though no serious accidents have been reported.

Shawn Witek, general manager at Leith Lincoln-Mercury, says his staff is contacting customers to make sure their vehicles are not running on the 16-inch tires.

"If a customer wants to check on the tire code, it would be on theinside of the tire wall," he says.

Witek says the series of numbers will end in either seven or eight:DOT: AD70 449 017throughAD70 449 118

Denise Waters drives a Lincoln Navigator with the 16-inch tires. She says since the Navigator is a family vehicle, and safety comes first.

"My husband is going through that with the Ford he has, and the Firestone tires. When I heard about it (the recall) today, I let my brother know," she says.

Continental says it is already shipping tires to Lincoln dealers and expects that all replacements will be completed within eight weeks. From staff and wire reports