-
Want to remove ads? Register an account and login to see fewer ads, and become a Supporting Member to remove almost all ads.
Aftermarket Wheels on Model 3
- Thread starter kbecks13
- Start date
jkoya
NA2 NSX
Pretty sure they are about 21 pounds as they (V804s) are the lightest wheels VMR makes, i have the V710 that are a little heavier at 23 in the same size. These wheels are a great value, especially if you got the 25% off deal for black friday!
Yup. I got in on that deal And yes they’re about 21-22lbs. Honestly trying to spend another 2k for forged just to save another 1-2 lbs isn’t worth it. They have a good reputation and had a design, finish, and offset I wanted. Will post pics when they’re on!
jkoya
NA2 NSX
Xerious
Member
I went with
19x9.5” +35
265/35R19
Gave me a little more rubber with 265s. Looks like this...
They look great, i think the only concern (if you even want to call it that) is you will be more understeer with the larger rear tires. The car is already very well balanced with the even weight distribution and adding a lot more rubber under the rear means the front is almost always where you will lose traction first.
I’d like to get some WHITE rims to replace my OEMs (235/45 R18 aeros with -40 offset) as my regular rims. I Would then use my OEMs as my winter rims. I know very little about rims.
By getting white rims for my regular tire do I open myself to any concerns like getting scratched easier?
As far size, I want to stay with 18" bc of lower probability of getting damaged on Michigan potholes. Do I have to stay with -40 offsets or is there a range that fits?
Finally, when it comes to material, is there anything important that I should look for or stay away from?
Thanks in advance.
By getting white rims for my regular tire do I open myself to any concerns like getting scratched easier?
As far size, I want to stay with 18" bc of lower probability of getting damaged on Michigan potholes. Do I have to stay with -40 offsets or is there a range that fits?
Finally, when it comes to material, is there anything important that I should look for or stay away from?
Thanks in advance.
Things get scratched because of the hardness or durability of the coating, not necessarily the color - though they will be more apparent/harder to hide with white. A good white powder coat should be pretty durable though.
+40 is best to keep suspension geometry as designed, but you could go up or down 5mm without too much concern.
Uhh pretty much anything Aluminum
Cast is cheapest and heaviest and WEAKEST (the stock wheels), flow formed (sometimes called flow "forged" but that's a lie lol) is medium price and fairly light and then forged is most expensive and lightest (only a little lighter than flow form normally). Personally i'd suggest getting a pair of flow formed wheels to get the best trade-off between price, weight and strength.
Colgate2004
Member
Hi all,
My setup is definitely not as sexy as most of the ones being posted here, but I'm in snow country with a brand new baby in a carseat in the back, so...
Given the above, my primary concerns were traction and cost (I didn't need these to look good, I just needed them to keep everyone safe on slippery New England winter roads). After much debate about which snow tires to go with, I ended up buying a set of Hakka R3s at my local Tire Warehouse, then bought a set of Liquidmetal Shift wheels (and lug nuts) from Discount Tire, along with sets of TPMS sensors (worked great, link below) and aluminum hub rings (did NOT work! More on that below) from Amazon.
I hemmed and hawed, and ultimately decided to have the guys at the local Tire Warehouse mount and balance the tires/wheels/TPMS sensors, but not install the wheels on the car, because I was paranoid about them jacking up the car wrong and damaging the battery (they seemed competent and they probably would have done a fine job, but I didn't want to take the risk... the guy said they'd done a bunch of Teslas already, and maybe he was even telling the truth. I'm sure as time goes on they'll end up doing tons of Teslas and learn to lift them correctly, but I figure I'll let them learn on somebody else's car), then I installed the wheels myself.
ONE BIG NOTE TO OTHERS DOING THEIR MODEL 3 WHEELS THEMSELVES FOR THE FIRST TIME:
This is probably obvious to many, but it didn't occur to me: The Model 3 has lower ground clearance than my other cars, and the floor jack I had has too high of a minimum height to get under the car. So I had to wait a couple days to do the wheels until I could get to a Harbor Freight and buy a low-profile floor jack. So a word to the wise: If you're doing your Model 3 for the first time, check the minimum height of your jack, and the clearance to the jack points on your car (also remember to deduct the additional thickness of any lift pads/pucks if you're using them... I made my own out of hockey pucks, which are exactly 1 inch thick).
When I first started trying to get the Aero covers off I was worried I was doing something wrong and would crack the plastic and I actually stopped to read the owner's manual about how to get them off. Turns out just pulling gently on them got them right off no problem.
I was surprised to see the size of the OEM lug nuts... turns out they are 21mm nuts (also probably obvious to many, but it hadn't occurred to me to look that up). Thankfully one of the four sockets on my trusty, 40-year-old monkey wrench was a 21mm.
As soon as I got the first wheel off it was apparent how much rust was on the wheel hubs (which was a little surprising, given that the car is only a year old):
I knew the tolerances on the hub rings were going to be tight, so I decided to try to wirebrush off the hubs before I put the hub rings on. After a steel bristle brush and then two grades of steel wool, I was only slightly successful:
It then occurred to me that if I was putting aluminum hub rings on these hubs it would be a disaster if I then couldn't get them off when I needed to switch back to the summer wheels, so I decided to lube the hubs before putting on the hub rings. I couldn't find any grease around the garage, so I lubed them with oil instead. Even with the oil, the aluminum rings I bought on Amazon DID NOT FIT (these are the ones I bought... DO NOT BUY THESE, THEY DON'T FIT!). Maybe it was the rust on the hubs. Anyway, luckily along with the aftermarket lug nuts, Discount Tire included some plastic rings in their "installation package," so I used those, which fit just fine:
I got all four wheels changed over, added a bit of air to each to get them up to 40 PSI, went for a short drive, and in just a couple of minutes the car picked up the new TPMS sensors automatically, asked me which size wheels I was using, and started displaying the new tire pressures. These are the TPMS sensors I got... they were nice and cheap at $140 for the set, and I can confirm they work beautifully.
At that point I noticed that the pressures were still a bit low (my cheap old tire pressure gauge must not be very accurate ) so I added more air to get the pressures as read by the TPMS up to 40 PSI.
I'm generally happy with how they look; I may look in to getting some lug nut covers, but I'm not super concerned about it.
Here's my baby with her snow boots on!
My setup is definitely not as sexy as most of the ones being posted here, but I'm in snow country with a brand new baby in a carseat in the back, so...
Given the above, my primary concerns were traction and cost (I didn't need these to look good, I just needed them to keep everyone safe on slippery New England winter roads). After much debate about which snow tires to go with, I ended up buying a set of Hakka R3s at my local Tire Warehouse, then bought a set of Liquidmetal Shift wheels (and lug nuts) from Discount Tire, along with sets of TPMS sensors (worked great, link below) and aluminum hub rings (did NOT work! More on that below) from Amazon.
I hemmed and hawed, and ultimately decided to have the guys at the local Tire Warehouse mount and balance the tires/wheels/TPMS sensors, but not install the wheels on the car, because I was paranoid about them jacking up the car wrong and damaging the battery (they seemed competent and they probably would have done a fine job, but I didn't want to take the risk... the guy said they'd done a bunch of Teslas already, and maybe he was even telling the truth. I'm sure as time goes on they'll end up doing tons of Teslas and learn to lift them correctly, but I figure I'll let them learn on somebody else's car), then I installed the wheels myself.
ONE BIG NOTE TO OTHERS DOING THEIR MODEL 3 WHEELS THEMSELVES FOR THE FIRST TIME:
This is probably obvious to many, but it didn't occur to me: The Model 3 has lower ground clearance than my other cars, and the floor jack I had has too high of a minimum height to get under the car. So I had to wait a couple days to do the wheels until I could get to a Harbor Freight and buy a low-profile floor jack. So a word to the wise: If you're doing your Model 3 for the first time, check the minimum height of your jack, and the clearance to the jack points on your car (also remember to deduct the additional thickness of any lift pads/pucks if you're using them... I made my own out of hockey pucks, which are exactly 1 inch thick).
When I first started trying to get the Aero covers off I was worried I was doing something wrong and would crack the plastic and I actually stopped to read the owner's manual about how to get them off. Turns out just pulling gently on them got them right off no problem.
I was surprised to see the size of the OEM lug nuts... turns out they are 21mm nuts (also probably obvious to many, but it hadn't occurred to me to look that up). Thankfully one of the four sockets on my trusty, 40-year-old monkey wrench was a 21mm.
As soon as I got the first wheel off it was apparent how much rust was on the wheel hubs (which was a little surprising, given that the car is only a year old):
I knew the tolerances on the hub rings were going to be tight, so I decided to try to wirebrush off the hubs before I put the hub rings on. After a steel bristle brush and then two grades of steel wool, I was only slightly successful:
It then occurred to me that if I was putting aluminum hub rings on these hubs it would be a disaster if I then couldn't get them off when I needed to switch back to the summer wheels, so I decided to lube the hubs before putting on the hub rings. I couldn't find any grease around the garage, so I lubed them with oil instead. Even with the oil, the aluminum rings I bought on Amazon DID NOT FIT (these are the ones I bought... DO NOT BUY THESE, THEY DON'T FIT!). Maybe it was the rust on the hubs. Anyway, luckily along with the aftermarket lug nuts, Discount Tire included some plastic rings in their "installation package," so I used those, which fit just fine:
I got all four wheels changed over, added a bit of air to each to get them up to 40 PSI, went for a short drive, and in just a couple of minutes the car picked up the new TPMS sensors automatically, asked me which size wheels I was using, and started displaying the new tire pressures. These are the TPMS sensors I got... they were nice and cheap at $140 for the set, and I can confirm they work beautifully.
At that point I noticed that the pressures were still a bit low (my cheap old tire pressure gauge must not be very accurate ) so I added more air to get the pressures as read by the TPMS up to 40 PSI.
I'm generally happy with how they look; I may look in to getting some lug nut covers, but I'm not super concerned about it.
Here's my baby with her snow boots on!
That load capacity is a definite NO.
You will bend your rims just from weight of the car.
Similar threads
- Marketplace listing
- Marketplace listing
