The Roadster is very sensitive to front tire balance. I get mine rebalanced annually because mere tire wear alters the balance enough that you get vibration.
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Sounds good, thanks!
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It seems that most of my tire squeal has disappeared probably due to the mold release agent wearing off?
Have had the MPSS installed for a couple weeks now and it's MUCH quieter than my bald stock tires!! Lol.
I would just remind people to remember to set the VDS to learn "new tires".
This was the first set that I had done and noticed the traction control going off and remembered about the setting. If you. Never have done it, it's pretty weird. It goes almost in to a coast mode with TC off.
I would just remind people to remember to set the VDS to learn "new tires".
This was the first set that I had done and noticed the traction control going off and remembered about the setting. If you. Never have done it, it's pretty weird. It goes almost in to a coast mode with TC off.
Appears to be a new version of the AD08 with orange peels (I kid you not - the tires are partially made from oil extracted from orange peels). Probably a drop-in replacement, maybe even a little better.
thefortunes
Active Member
Has anyone tried 205/45/16 on the front? I was thinking of the next autocross season, and would really like to dial down the understeer a bit more. Toyo Proxes R1R is available in that size. It's spec'd for a rim 1/2 inch larger than the Roadster's front wheels, but could probably squeeze it on.
Is the offset the same front/back? Has anyone tried putting 17" rims on the front?
Is the offset the same front/back? Has anyone tried putting 17" rims on the front?
I was a bit of a newbie with tire sizes at the time but I tried 205/50/16 and they interfered with the ground effects on a full turn of the wheel. I also found some 205/55/16 tires that did not hit the ground effects. What I learned was that not all tires with the same aspect ratio are the same. You need to measure or test them to find out for sure.
smorgasbord
Active Member
Yeah, this recently happened to me. Fronts changed at 17.5K miles, out of balance by 24K miles (maybe sooner). Didn't have a problem with my original set of fronts, though.
wiztecy
Active Member
Has anyone noticed a loss of range due to the larger foot-print up front?
Any pics of the 205 mounted up front with the rears in the back? Curious on how the bulge looks around the rim and the look between the front/rears since the rears won't have the buldge.
Also curious if anyone went wider than the stock 225's on the back and if that would offer any handling improvements.
wiztecy
Active Member
No range loss for the 205 then I presume? Same with the 195's then.
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Well, actually the width has a direct impact on range:
Tyre geometry - Taking into account the tyre transversal section dimensions, some of them could affect significant the rolling resistance.
Rim width - The major part of researchers agree that, in a particular case of a radial tyre, the minimum value of the rolling resistance is obtained for an optimum ratio between the width of the rim and the width of the tyre.
Tyre exterior radius - It is known that a large tyre has lower rolling resistance than a small tyre. The explication consists in the fact that the exterior radius is in close connection with the tyre nominal load. Thus, a large tyre has higher stiffness and encounters lower deformations over the same vertical load.
Source: Rolling resistance force
So what's the real loss? I'm sure someone has gone up in size in the front, can they report the loss in range with 195's as well as 205's? Please note your brand/model of tire since tire compounds play a huge factor in resistance.
The interesting part in real numbers here is that we're lighter up front so this may not be a huge issue for us. Can someone chime in?
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Updated
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Well, actually the width has a direct impact on range:
Tyre geometry - Taking into account the tyre transversal section dimensions, some of them could affect significant the rolling resistance.
Rim width - The major part of researchers agree that, in a particular case of a radial tyre, the minimum value of the rolling resistance is obtained for an optimum ratio between the width of the rim and the width of the tyre.
Tyre exterior radius - It is known that a large tyre has lower rolling resistance than a small tyre. The explication consists in the fact that the exterior radius is in close connection with the tyre nominal load. Thus, a large tyre has higher stiffness and encounters lower deformations over the same vertical load.
Source: Rolling resistance force
So what's the real loss? I'm sure someone has gone up in size in the front, can they report the loss in range with 195's as well as 205's? Please note your brand/model of tire since tire compounds play a huge factor in resistance.
The interesting part in real numbers here is that we're lighter up front so this may not be a huge issue for us. Can someone chime in?
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Had an interesting interaction with my local service center today. I recently purchased a 2010 2.0 Sport. Currently the car has the black forged wheels with four A048s on it. I also purchased a set of four standard wheels with AD07s on the front ones and Michelin Pilot Sport A/S Plus's on the rears. I called the service center to schedule an appointment to swap out the wheels and soften the suspension for winter driving as I'm not interested in being killled by the A048s on wet pavement or potholes. The service technician said he couldn't do that because the Michelins were not Roadster-approved tires. He said that they (the service techs) had recently been "told" that they were not allowed to work on any tires other than those sold at the service stations which, for winter driving means either Yokohamas or Hankooks. I explained that the tires are already mounted on the wheels and seem to be inflated (although unloaded who knows) and I only wanted to take the current wheels off and put the others on, but he said sorry but no dice -- they aren't allowed to work on any wheels with non-approved tires. Don't get me wrong. The guy was very nice and apologetic about it and understood my problem, but he just couldn't buck company policy. I get that it's preferred to have all four tires the same but I'm not doing any high-performance driving in the winter. I just want to be able to use the car when it's wet out.
I checked through some tire ratings sites and the Michelins are supposed to be very good both dry and wet, and there is definitely a lot of tread left on both the Michelins and the AD07s. It seems a shame to waste good tires. I have no problem switching the tires out myself (and saving the $100 or so they would probably charge). And I guess afterward I'll take the car over for the suspension adjustment (assuming they'll agree to do it with the new tires), but I was very surprised that they would balk at installing wheels with highly rated tires that fit perfectly and are far safer in the rain than the slicks I'm currently running. Has anybody else run into this problem?
I checked through some tire ratings sites and the Michelins are supposed to be very good both dry and wet, and there is definitely a lot of tread left on both the Michelins and the AD07s. It seems a shame to waste good tires. I have no problem switching the tires out myself (and saving the $100 or so they would probably charge). And I guess afterward I'll take the car over for the suspension adjustment (assuming they'll agree to do it with the new tires), but I was very surprised that they would balk at installing wheels with highly rated tires that fit perfectly and are far safer in the rain than the slicks I'm currently running. Has anybody else run into this problem?
FYI the A048's aren't even rated to be STORED in freezing temperatures - it will ruin the rubber.
This is the one and only area where Tesla service is unfortunately inferior to the "dealer model". I think this decision comes from their legal department; they are no doubt worried about legal liability. They'll only install tires that their engineering department has validated and approved.
Fortunately tires can be easily handled by any competent shop. Since they're on rims you can easily swap them yourself, although you will have to get Tesla to reset the TPMS sensors. (Or you can ignore the TPMS warnings.) Just get a good low profile shop jack and a torque wrench.
This is the one and only area where Tesla service is unfortunately inferior to the "dealer model". I think this decision comes from their legal department; they are no doubt worried about legal liability. They'll only install tires that their engineering department has validated and approved.
Fortunately tires can be easily handled by any competent shop. Since they're on rims you can easily swap them yourself, although you will have to get Tesla to reset the TPMS sensors. (Or you can ignore the TPMS warnings.) Just get a good low profile shop jack and a torque wrench.
The same is true of the AD07's, but not quite as bad. They cannot be stored below 14 deg F (-10C) for even a short time before it ruins the rubber. I recently bought a set of them from Tire Rack when they were on sale but waited until a stretch of warm weather was forecast between here and their warehouse before placing the order.
Fortunately my garage is insulated and doesn't get quite that cold. I need to have wheels on the car...
Just to close the loop on my previous post about switching out the wheels on my roadster.
So before I even jacked the car up, I tried loosening the lug bolts. Despite using a standard cross wrench and a pipe as an extender, on the driver’s side I was only able to get 4 lug bolts off. On the other side only two bolts loosened. I was puzzled, since they were only supposed to be tightened to 77 foot-pounds and I was sure I was generating much more torque than that with the wrench/pipe combo. I put the bolts back on and decided to take it to a local tire shop where they could break out the power tools. Finding a shop that was willing to jack or lift the car correctly was a little bit of a challenge but eventually I was able to take it to a small local shop I had used before to find specialty tires for one of my other cars. The guy there put the star tool into his impact driver and tried to loosen one of the lugs. Lots of loud noise but it didn’t budge. He tried another bolt but no dice. Now I was really confused (and a little concerned). I thought maybe the bolts turn in the opposite direction (like the ones on my 1963 Checker) but then I remembered that I actually had been able to loosen 6 already. The mechanic said his impact wrench was generating something north of 900 foot-pounds so obviously someone had WAY over-torqued the bolts when they put the A048s on. I asked him to try once more and he did but instead of the bolt loosening, the star tool started to back out. When we looked at it the metal tool was partially twisted. That’s when he said he wouldn’t touch the car again as he was afraid he’d break the tool or worse, the bolt.
Now I was worried. This guy wouldn’t (and I couldn’t) get these bolts off, and Tesla wouldn’t swap the wheels since the winter tires on them aren’t approved by the company. This is where the folks at the Westchester service center really came through. I called them up and asked what I should do. They still couldn’t install the other wheels but offered to loosen all my lugs and then retighten them to the correct torque so I could do the job myself. I drove over there and, of course, they couldn’t get the lugs off and the star tool was getting more twisted. One of the guys said he knew “some tricks” to loosen stuck lugs but now the tool was too bent to be usable. The nearest replacement tool was in Queens but this was Saturday so I would have to bring the car back on Tuesday to give them time to pick up the tool. Of course it snowed on Monday so I had to wait until Wednesday before I felt it was safe to drive over there on the A048s, which I did. The guy who knew the “tricks” wasn’t coming in until later so I left the car and took a rental to get to work, but I got the call at the end of the day that the job was done. I went over to pick up the car and not only had they loosened the bolts but they had washed the car and replaced the windshield wiper. And even though it took them more than 3 hours they only charged me for the wiper and new star tool – labor gratis! I asked the guy how he did it and he said something like “You don’t want to know” and I didn’t push it. He did say that it might be a good idea to get a whole new set of lug bolts as these had been severely stressed.
I brought the car home and put the new star tool in my wheel wrench and wouldn’t you know the first bolt wouldn’t budge! I leaned on it – hard. The star tool actually started to twist again. After I finished cursing, I brought out the 2x4 and hammer and finally got it loose. Fortunately the other bolts came off relatively easily. I swapped the wheels and put the bolts back on with my torque wrench. To me, 77 foot-pounds didn’t seem like much compared to the force I needed to remove the bolts, but I stuck with the recommended torque. One thing I have noticed is that the all-season tires make for a much smoother ride.
Random thoughts: Why did the previous owner over-torque the bolts? Maybe he did a lot of auto cross and was afraid of the wheels coming off. I don’t know, but I now understand why the performance tires were still on the car when I took delivery in November. I’m going to need another star tool and I think I will replace all the lugs after all. The folks at the service center were outstanding and live up to the reputation that Tesla service has developed. But I really think that Tesla should make the tool out of hardened steel instead of what appears to be forged aluminum. Anyway I thought I’d post this at least for the amusement value. Anybody have similar experiences.
I'm surprised your bolts didn't break. It was probably corrosion that froze them. If salt gets in the threads, which it does pretty easily around here, and then sits for a year you can have experiences like this. My son broke two lug bolts on his Subaru last fall after heavy use in the winter and then over a year before removing them. They were never over-torqued. The star tool is not forged aluminum and is probably designed to bend before the bolts break.
Incidentally, it's a good idea to check your bolts to make sure they're tight a couple days after any tire work. They came loose on one of my wheels and I know they were properly torqued a few days earlier. It's a common problem with alloy wheels. Many garages now will make you sign a form that says you will return after 1-3 days to re-check the torque or they won't be responsible for what happens.
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