Bent wheels, 3rd party wheel advice needed

[Far1]

Hi all, I'm stuck in the middle of nowhere with two bent wheels and limited options. I have a 2018 M3P with PUP. Local tire shop, Discount Tire, has TSW Sebring in stock for $350 a piece (replace all four), and also has a supplier that can send refurbished used Tesla wheels for $560 a piece (replace two).

Tire shop doesn't know if my two tires are also damaged or not, they said they don't look like they have damage but they'd need to put them on good wheels to know.

Has anyone had any experience with TSW rims? (Looking at the 20" with a 40 offset) Are these ones going to fit alright on a M3P? Will I be able to put the stock Michelin ps4s on them? Discount Tire | Tires and Wheels for Sale | Online & In-Person

My other option is to wait 10+ days with no car and order TSTs or wait for forum members and get some OEM tires and wheels.

Thank you.

 

[Sophias_dad]

I can't answer your question regarding TSW, but have you checked www.car-part.com for locally available used wheels? $560 a piece sounds super high.

 

[jjrandorin]

I can't answer your question regarding TSW, but have you checked www.car-part.com for locally available used wheels? $560 a piece sounds super high.

It does sound high, like someone is taking a bit of advantage of the situation... however the rims for a 2018 model 3P with 20s cost like $720 or $750 new from tesla. I (unfortunately) have personal experience with having to buy those from tesla myself.

Buying stuff on a road trip "in the middle of nowhere" sucks, and its one of the reason I still have AAA (25 years now) with 200 miles towing, so that I never have to make this type of choice again. As a young man, I was completely burned / taken advantage of, when I was on a road trip and "stranded" needing a car repaired in a small city, even in CA.

I swore that would never happen again, after paying basically $1500 for a repair that I found out later should have been $250-$300, and at that time, I had like $1650 to my name, and no credit card etc.

 

[dfwatt]

Hi all, I'm stuck in the middle of nowhere with two bent wheels and limited options. I have a 2018 M3P with PUP. Local tire shop, Discount Tire, has TSW Sebring in stock for $350 a piece (replace all four), and also has a supplier that can send refurbished used Tesla wheels for $560 a piece (replace two).

Tire shop doesn't know if my two tires are also damaged or not, they said they don't look like they have damage but they'd need to put them on good wheels to know.

Has anyone had any experience with TSW rims? (Looking at the 20" with a 40 offset) Are these ones going to fit alright on a M3P? Will I be able to put the stock Michelin ps4s on them? Discount Tire | Tires and Wheels for Sale | Online & In-Person

My other option is to wait 10+ days with no car and order TSTs or wait for forum members and get some OEM tires and wheels.

Thank you.

There are tons of OEM 20' wheels for sale for less than $560 a piece – Tesla's own gouging price is $700. Would the "local supplier" consider a more competitive price? Perhaps you can dicker with them. I was selling mine for 300 bucks but I'm not in New Hampshire (Where the wheels are) so it would be impossible for me to ship them to you unfortunately! The Sebring wheels are pretty nice looking, but when I look at the website I can't find weights? If they're less weight than the original boat anchors I might go in that direction.

All of this underscores the long-term prophylactic value of getting away from the brittle stock OEM wheels. We've had forged (VS Forged) and barrel rolled (Vorsteiner) wheels on our two performance model 3s in a 20 inch size and in 65,000 miles of driving have had one mildly to moderately bent rim (easily straightened by our ace local shop Merrimac Auto). If you go fully forged, obviously that significant money, but you really drop unsprung weight. Jova Wheels sells an amazingly inexpensive forged wheel in 20 inch size identical to the VS forged in appearance for about $350 a wheel with shipping included. VS Forged (Vertini) are roughly twice that.

But this kind of really painful event that I was hearing about on all the forums that you've just experienced up close and personal made us upgrade the wheels on both cars and we have not looked back or regretted the extra cost for a minute. And half the time we're driving on crappy New England roads, so i know we're getting some protection for our money to say nothing of an upgrade in appearance.

 

[Aggmeister2010]

Sebrings look great on the 3. Go that direction. 18s, 19s or 20's should fit (personally I'd do the 20's), and TSW has staggered width options in all sizes that'd turn this misfortune into a cool upgrade.

Or tow it back home and order some other wheels from ebay/craigslist or a local aftermarket wheel shop when you get back.

 

[Far1]

Sebrings look great on the 3. Go that direction. 18s, 19s or 20's should fit (personally I'd do the 20's), and TSW has staggered width options in all sizes that'd turn this misfortune into a cool upgrade.

Or tow it back home and order some other wheels from ebay/craigslist or a local aftermarket wheel shop when you get back.

Thank you. Inclined towards this option but two things is holding me back -

1. apparently putting third party wheels reduces car value for trade in or private sale, is that true?

2. I can't find any references if folks having used Sebring or any TSW wheels on their Tesla's. Are these reliable, and will they clear the M3P break calipers and be good with the bore size?

 

[Far1]

There are tons of OEM 20' wheels for sale for less than $560 a piece – Tesla's own gouging price is $700. Would the "local supplier" consider a more competitive price? Perhaps you can dicker with them. I was selling mine for 300 bucks but I'm not in New Hampshire (Where the wheels are) so it would be impossible for me to ship them to you unfortunately! The Sebring wheels are pretty nice looking, but when I look at the website I can't find weights? If they're less weight than the original boat anchors I might go in that direction.

All of this underscores the long-term prophylactic value of getting away from the brittle stock OEM wheels. We've had forged (VS Forged) and barrel rolled (Vorsteiner) wheels on our two performance model 3s in a 20 inch size and in 65,000 miles of driving have had one mildly to moderately bent rim (easily straightened by our ace local shop Merrimac Auto). If you go fully forged, obviously that significant money, but you really drop unsprung weight. Jova Wheels sells an amazingly inexpensive forged wheel in 20 inch size identical to the VS forged in appearance for about $350 a wheel with shipping included. VS Forged (Vertini) are roughly twice that.

But this kind of really painful event that I was hearing about on all the forums that you've just experienced up close and personal made us upgrade the wheels on both cars and we have not looked back or regretted the extra cost for a minute. And half the time we're driving on crappy New England roads, so i know we're getting some protection for our money to say nothing of an upgrade in appearance.

Thanks a lot! Given that any shipping will take a long time to deliver - is there a huge benefit for going with a forged wheel as opposed to say TSW Sebring? Wouldn't either option reduce the value of the car because, third party?

PS the local supplier is not really local, they're shipping them from out of state - apparently from salvage vehicles refurbished. Can't really negotiate pricing.

 

[Far1]

I can't answer your question regarding TSW, but have you checked www.car-part.com for locally available used wheels? $560 a piece sounds super high.

Thank you - closest option is 400 miles away and $400 from salvage vehicle.

 

[Far1]

It does sound high, like someone is taking a bit of advantage of the situation... however the rims for a 2018 model 3P with 20s cost like $720 or $750 new from tesla. I (unfortunately) have personal experience with having to buy those from tesla myself.

Buying stuff on a road trip "in the middle of nowhere" sucks, and its one of the reason I still have AAA (25 years now) with 200 miles towing, so that I never have to make this type of choice again. As a young man, I was completely burned / taken advantage of, when I was on a road trip and "stranded" needing a car repaired in a small city, even in CA.

I swore that would never happen again, after paying basically $1500 for a repair that I found out later should have been $250-$300, and at that time, I had like $1650 to my name, and no credit card etc.

Thank you, great points. I didn't know about AAA's 200 towing, will definitely look into that. I thought I'd be covered by having insurance, but these past few days I found out that hitting a pothole is actually considered an at fault collision accident and making a claim would raise my premiums by 50 60% which defeats the purpose of saving any money.

 

[Far1]

One more question - found the following and while mine are Silver so colors don't match, they are s other option. It does say they are for Front only. Are M3P front and back wheels different? New 20" x 8" Tesla Model 3 2018 2019 2020 Factory OEM Wheel Rim 96318

 

[dfwatt]

Thanks a lot! Given that any shipping will take a long time to deliver - is there a huge benefit for going with a forged wheel as opposed to say TSW Sebring? Wouldn't either option reduce the value of the car because, third party?

PS the local supplier is not really local, they're shipping them from out of state - apparently from salvage vehicles refurbished. Can't really negotiate pricing.

Thanks a lot! Given that any shipping will take a long time to deliver - is there a huge benefit for going with a forged wheel as opposed to say TSW Sebring? Wouldn't either option reduce the value of the car because, third party?

PS the local supplier is not really local, they're shipping them from out of state - apparently from salvage vehicles refurbished. Can't really negotiate pricing.

Yeah this is a classic definition of being in a bind. You're forced to spend money on something you may not want in order to get your car working. Obviously getting any of the high-end forged wheels is not an option to get you out of your current bind. So you have to make a tough choice between getting gouged to replace the OEM boat anchors which are crappy wheels anyway or getting the Sebrings. I don't know much about the TSW Sebring – I suspect they are so-called 'barrel rolled' which means they're probably stronger than stock (cast center with a quasi-forged rolled barrel), and probably a little bit lighter. I think they get decent reviews, and like I said if they're lighter (stock is like 28.5 pounds) and they're only $375 a corner, that's a pretty decent option. Overall that might be your best option given not great choices.

Too bad you're not in Southwest Florida I have set of wheels that I'm trying to sell (Advanti – one of the first aftermarket barrel rolled wheels available for the car and only 23 pounds!), and I could run them right over! Just googled Panama City and Damn it's over 600 miles from where I am at!

 

[dfwatt]

One more question - found the following and while mine are Silver so colors don't match, they are s other option. It does say they are for Front only. Are M3P front and back wheels different? New 20" x 8" Tesla Model 3 2018 2019 2020 Factory OEM Wheel Rim 96318

Nope there is no difference. I have no idea why they say front only maybe they only have two?

 

[Gauss Guzzler]

Also Tesla has never made a wheel that looks anything like this. The closest thing was the 2020 Performance wheel but it's metallic gray with a satin finish, not plain gray with a gloss finish. Pretty sketchy that this shop is selling some junk refurbished wheel that has surely been straightened, welded, bondo'd and painted as "new". And they even put the little yellow heavy side sticker on it to try to make it look legit! Sheesh.

Here's what that wheel is supposed to look like:

 

[dfwatt]

Thanks a lot! Given that any shipping will take a long time to deliver - is there a huge benefit for going with a forged wheel as opposed to say TSW Sebring? Wouldn't either option reduce the value of the car because, third party?

PS the local supplier is not really local, they're shipping them from out of state - apparently from salvage vehicles refurbished. Can't really negotiate pricing.

Yes that's the whole Bugaboo of the post Factory modification being great for some people and not so great for others. In general I would say in a private sale if you significantly improve Wheel and Tire compliment you are going to find somebody who's willing to pay you for that such that if you are patient, a buyer particularly in today's market where Tesla's are selling like hotcakes no matter how they're configured you will find a buyer who's willing to give you some of your aftermarket upgrade investment back. This also goes for some of the more popular suspension coilover kits like the Mountain Pass Comfort kit. On the other hand if you're going to sell the car back to Tesla, they may try to argue that this is a d-provement. That's of course BS but you might be swimming uphill in your argument with a minimally sophisticated technician or Tesla sales rep.

If on the other hand you go pretty radical and lower the so that it looks slammed or you turn it into a track monster Etc you are going to need a specialty private buyer who's looking for exactly what you've done to get your value back. Obviously it's all supply and demand. I do think that lighter weight and more attractive wheels that are more durable should be an easy sell to anybody as an upgrade. But even there, some buyers are going to want the 18in Factory Aero wheels so they can squeeze every drop of range that they can out of the car, appearance and handling performance be damned. So I guess you can say it all just depends on the audience, what they're looking for and also their sophistication about the car. The more sophisticated the buyer the better off you are in terms of getting some of your investment back, assuming you've done intelligent and high quality component upgrades.

 

[Far1]

Yes that's the whole Bugaboo of the post Factory modification being great for some people and not so great for others. In general I would say in a private sale if you significantly improve Wheel and Tire compliment you are going to find somebody who's willing to pay you for that such that if you are patient, a buyer particularly in today's market where Tesla's are selling like hotcakes no matter how they're configured you will find a buyer who's willing to give you some of your aftermarket upgrade investment back. This also goes for some of the more popular suspension coilover kits like the Mountain Pass Comfort kit. On the other hand if you're going to sell the car back to Tesla, they may try to argue that this is a d-provement. That's of course BS but you might be swimming uphill in your argument with a minimally sophisticated technician or Tesla sales rep.

If on the other hand you go pretty radical and lower the so that it looks slammed or you turn it into a track monster Etc you are going to need a specialty private buyer who's looking for exactly what you've done to get your value back. Obviously it's all supply and demand. I do think that lighter weight and more attractive wheels that are more durable should be an easy sell to anybody as an upgrade. But even there, some buyers are going to want the 18in Factory Aero wheels so they can squeeze every drop of range that they can out of the car, appearance and handling performance be damned. So I guess you can say it all just depends on the audience, what they're looking for and also their sophistication about the car. The more sophisticated the buyer the better off you are in terms of getting some of your investment back, assuming you've done intelligent and high quality component upgrades.

All great points, thanks a lot!

I ended up ordering two used M3P wheels from eBay for a reasonable price (since not using insurance and not sure how much longer I'm holding the car, wanted to go with the most cost effective option), waiting for them to arrive to have the tire shop mount and then see if I need new tires too or not. Gave the shop a ring letting them know that I ordered privately and they didn't seem to like it too much, and said you can't ship them here but welcome to bring them over

Have learned a ton from everyone here, thank you.