245 Pilot 4s on OEM aero wheels

[ElectricGhost]

Has anyone tried putting 245 pilot 4s tires on the OEM area wheels? Tire rack recommends 245 (not 235) on the the 8.5 inch wheels.

Should provide a much better driving experience and may help with curb rash.

 

[ElectricGhost]

OEM Aero wheels*

 

[ElectricGhost]

Also, would I need spacers for 245 tires?

 

[gilscales]

I had 235/45/18’s on my VW Passat and when I changed out to 245/45/18 the handling and comfort improved a lot, clearance will not be an issue at all, I am planning on 245 as well on my 19” sport wheels when original tires wear out

 

[BillO]

Has anyone tried putting 245 pilot 4s tires on the OEM area wheels? Tire rack recommends 245 (not 235) on the the 8.5 inch wheels.

Should provide a much better driving experience and may help with curb rash.

Let us know how it goes if you try it— I’m interested in that too.

 

[Adam3]

I thought I read 255s will fit fine with stock offsets.

 

[22522]

At least when I designed a vehicle the 245/18 was the foundation of the whole design. Most cars have snow chain clearance built into the design. Can't see Tesla not designing to accommodate that with their performance orientation.

 

[GetYourWheels]

going one size up to a 245/45/18 will be no issue as we do a lot of 19" upgrade with the 8.5 to 245/40/19 in term of fitting the car.

The only thing you need to take into considering is the 1% difference.

 

[RyanT]

I imagine the efficiency/range would take a hit too.

 

[matto]

The only thing you need to take into considering is the 1% difference.

Huh?

 

[ElectricGhost]

I thought I read 255s will fit fine with stock offsets.

255 on stock offsets? Very interested in this! Can anyone confirm this? This would keep the speedo pretty accurate and provide great traction for the P3D. Also would have no need to by new wheels unless I wanted 19's (potentially) or staggered. Pilot sport 4s in 255/35/18's are 0.3 inches smaller in diameter than the 245 MXM4, but have 1.3 inches more width, and a much stickier compound.

Tirerack is showing 245 as the correct width tire for a 8.5 in wheel, including the MXM4 and Pilot 4s (my guess is tesla went smaller for EPA estimates/range). Being that we are one under at 235, would going one over to 255 on an 8.5 inch wheels be much of an issue? I would think its not a safety issues being that Tirerack list it within the rim measurement width tolerances, just below the ideal of 9.0 for 255's.

Also, I'm not concerned about range at all. I can hear my tires sometimes reaching for grip even when accelerating through 50 mph on my P3D. Traction will open this car up, especially in the turns or when on the brakes.

Porsche 911's, Corvettes, Muscle cars; none of these come stock with all season tires and all of their base models are around a second slower than the P3D.

 

[Jedi2155]

Also, I'm not concerned about range at all. I can hear my tires sometimes reaching for grip even when accelerating through 50 mph on my P3D. Traction will open this car up, especially in the turns or when on the brakes.

So you have a P3D- and having traction issues? Interested to know since that will be my configuration. Keep in mind that anything other than the Tesla specced Pilot 4S will have a different stickier compound than the OEM 20" 4S and they will lack the acoustic foam that Tesla adds in theirs. I would expect some significant range loss going this route, and potentially louder tires.

 

[gilscales]

So you have a P3D- and having traction issues? Interested to know since that will be my configuration. Keep in mind that anything other than the Tesla specced Pilot 4S will have a different stickier compound than the OEM 20" 4S and they will lack the acoustic foam that Tesla adds in theirs. I would expect some significant range loss going this route, and potentially louder tires.

The stock tires on P3D+ have been shown to have the same 300 treadwear rating and not the 500 tire rack shows on their site

 

[Jedi2155]

The stock tires on P3D+ have been shown to have the same 300 treadwear rating and not the 500 tire rack shows on their site

Is it possible to have the same Treadwear rating but harder compound still? That is my impression but I'm not a tire expert. I was told that its not unusual to have the same model of tires but with different compounds based on OEM specifications.

 

[gilscales]

Is it possible to have the same Treadwear rating but harder compound still? That is my impression but I'm not a tire expert. I was told that its not unusual to have the same model of tires but with different compounds based on OEM specifications.

I’m definitely not a tire expert but my assumption would be that this is made a Tesla specific tire due to the acoustic foam added, looks like the tires weight at 1lb. more might show that is the case. The 4s is one of the only LRR performance tires and I’m guessing this is why it was chosen in the first place

 

[Adam3]

I thought I read 255s will fit fine with stock offsets.

I found this post, it's the one I was referring to Performance and dual motor are happening (per Elon)!

They are dicussing 20" wheels but I don't see how Aeros would be any different. 255 are only 10mm wider in both directions.

 

[Knightshade]

245s and 255 will both fit stock wheels.... honestly so should 265s (technically it's one step out of spec for an 8.5" wheel, but tons of folks with sport sedans all over run their cars that way)

The thing is- 245 and 255 will give you an incorrect speedometer due to being slightly different diameter than stock.. 265-40 however is exactly the same diameter as the stock 235-45 tire

 

[ElectricGhost]

So you have a P3D- and having traction issues? Interested to know since that will be my configuration. Keep in mind that anything other than the Tesla specced Pilot 4S will have a different stickier compound than the OEM 20" 4S and they will lack the acoustic foam that Tesla adds in theirs. I would expect some significant range loss going this route, and potentially louder tires.

I wouldn't say traction issues, I don't want to give people the wrong idea here. I have good traction but there are times when I could have more.

The traction control works well but ideally you never hit traction control because you have full traction. I can't really feel the traction control (definitely cant look down to see if its on) but I can sometimes slightly hear the tires reaching for grip, which makes me believe traction control is going.

Overall very happy with the awd and its traction management, but just ok with the tires for a performance vehicle as I am used to summer tires. Turning and possible braking would show a good improvement with summer tires like pilot 4s.

The P3D that vbox'd a 3.18 secs 0-60 mph was running pilot 4s tires. Without I think P3D's are putting down around 3.5 sec to 60 mph.

For reference a model 3 on the all seasons put down a 1.807 0-60 foot, which shows it still has better straight line traction than most ICE vehicles even on all seasons.
2018 Tesla Model 3 AWD Performance 1/4 Mile Drag Racing

Not concerned about the foam tires. I think the foam is to compensate for having a high PSI tire with a harder tread. I think pilot 4s tires will actually be quieter due to softer tread compound but I have no evidence for that. Low rolling resistance tires are not usually the quietest tires.

Also I'm not worried about the tread rating. Again, no one puts eco tires on a Porsche. You dont spend all that money for a faster car then limit it by trying to save a couple thousand on tires over several years..

Also not too worried about being a couple mph off. Worth it if I can get better performance just by buying higher performance tires. Performance model 3, without performance tires?... no.

 

[ElectricGhost]

I found this post, it's the one I was referring to Performance and dual motor are happening (per Elon)!

They are dicussing 20" wheels but I don't see how Aeros would be any different. 255 are only 10mm wider in both directions.

This thread is awesome! It's answering all the questions I've ever had about the P3D! Thanks for posting this!

 

[Knightshade]

The P3D that vbox'd a 3.18 secs 0-60 mph was running pilot 4s tires. Without I think P3D's are putting down around 3.5 sec to 60 mph.
.

Wasn't the 3.5 with draggy, not vbox?

which means those are nearly identical times since draggy doesn't include rollout and vbox does?