directional wheels

[SByer]

I am purposefully not clicking on that link!

AFAIK, Blu-Ray players don't have the bug when playing DVDs, and most DVD players made since '05 should be OK. Except for very few players, almost everything made before '03 had the bug. I suspect the bug may live on here or there.

But yeah, it's one of those can't un-see things. I had a player that had the bug when playing 480i but not when playing 480p - was great for showing off the bug.

 

[S-2000 Roadster]

So, they have two different wheel designs for the same car (clockwise and counter-clockwise) Isn't that a bit unusual?

Nope, not unusual at all for a performance car. Many have wheels that act like fan blades to cool the disk brakes. Even though braking reverses the forces on the wheels, they're still rotating the same direction - provided you don't accelerate to 70 mph in reverse!

I still own a vehicle where I mounted directional tires on sided wheels. This means I can never rotate my tires without going to the shop for unmounting and remounting.

 

[strider]

I still own a vehicle where I mounted directional tires on sided wheels. This means I can never rotate my tires without going to the shop for unmounting and remounting.

In that example the sided wheels have nothing to do w/ the need to R&R the tires - it's the directionality of the tires that requires that otherwise they'd be turning backwards when you switched them.

 

[S-2000 Roadster]

In that example the sided wheels have nothing to do w/ the need to R&R the tires - it's the directionality of the tires that requires that otherwise they'd be turning backwards when you switched them.

It really depends on what you call 'rotating' the tires. If you have sided wheels, you can never move a left tire to the right side of the car, or vice versa. For best longevity and evenness of wear, you want each tire to spend time in front and back and left and right. In the past, I've alternated, such that one rotation would simply be front <-> rear without R&R. But every other rotation would be R&R so I could move left <-> right without putting the wheels on backwards.

If you're happy only moving front <-> rear, which isn't an option on cars with different sizes in front and rear, then maybe sided wheels are not an issue.

 

[kgb]

I haven't had that problem yet. I wear out the tires before I get a chance to rotate them. :wink:

 

[pgwoosley]

If I understand correctly, the very early cars had forged wheels that were unique to each side of the car, but at some point they started using wheels that are the same on both sides. So on the very early cars the wheel spokes remind one of a circular saw blade rotating properly as the car drives (the spokes spiral forward from the hub to the rim), but on later cars one side reminds one of a circular saw blade rotating backwards.

Do we know when the change was made?

 

[NigelM]

If I understand correctly, the very early cars had forged wheels that were unique to each side of the car, but at some point they started using wheels that are the same on both sides. So on the very early cars the wheel spokes remind one of a circular saw blade rotating properly as the car drives (the spokes spiral forward from the hub to the rim), but on later cars one side reminds one of a circular saw blade rotating backwards.

But the later cars 2010 2.5's with the "turbine blade spokes" are directional (i.e. different on each side of the car). On some occasions even the Rangers have gotten confused and put them on opposite sides. Here's some to show the difference:

 

[TEG]

I think sometimes they were unintentionally backwards. Sometimes someone would "rotate the tires" and not pay attention to differences in left/right wheels.

The later "turbine"/"pinwheel" wheels made it more apparent as it looks like the wheel is a fan blade designed to blow air in or out depending on the spin direction. On the older wheels it was more about angle of the "spokes".

By the way, related threads:

• directional wheels
• Need a Wheel
• Right hand / Left hand 21 Wheels

 

[TEG]

Ancient EP6 with the wheel spin mixed up:

(non standard blue paint by the way)

VP13 when we said "hey those wheels are backwards!" (usually the "spin" is the other way for the 2008 wheels):

Notice the "spoke lean" angle on the VDS picture:

 

[TEG]

The later cars 2010 2.5's with the "turbine blade spokes" are directional (i.e. different on each side of the car). On some occasions even the Rangers have gotten confused and put them on opposite sides...

That has basically been true all along. The earlier cars had the "spoke lean" in the opposite direction from yours. I guess they switched spin style when they went to the new pinwheel.

Although... It seems that many cars with the original black painted forged wheels (including VIN#100) may all be the same orientation, so perhaps they didn't try to keep left and right sets of those...

 

[TEG]

#1153 wheel spin oops (brand new at the assembly shop!):

(I think that is a custom pearl/white)

 

[Tex EV]

The Roadster's wheels are truly directional - spokes are angled toward the direction of forward rotation on both sides, unlike the turbine wheels on the S that are the same all around (spokes lean forward on one side, backward on the other). More trivia!

 

[TEG]

Roadster wheels were inconsistent. Some had the same rotation of "spokes" on all 4. (So one side faced "forward" and another "backwards")



I think they intended to have left and right forged wheels, but sometimes they were maybe low on inventory of one type, so they just put the same type on both sides.

 

[Tex EV]

Roadster wheels were inconsistent. Some had the same rotation of "spokes" on all 4. (So one side faced "forward" and another "backwards")

Interesting! Wonder if this happened more regularly on the later VINs... i.e. cutting costs by producing only 2 unique wheels versus 4.

 

[Msjulie]

Now I'm gonna be all those-wheels-are-on-the-wrong-side! I'll look on both sides and see what I learn

 

[wiztecy]

The Roadster non-sport forged wheels are not functional as compared to the 2.5 sport wheels which have the curved lipped spokes. The curve / roundness to the spokes on one side aids to keep the brakes cool, especially with spirited driving. The non-sport forged wheels don't have this lip, so it is just cosmetic regards to the direction of rotation. But the 2.5 sport wheels are indeed true directional wheels.

2.5 Sport forged wheels:

Roadster non-sport forged wheels:

And the front 2.5 nose should I believe pull air from the front lower left vent (black) that's in front of the wheels, forcing cool air into the rear wheel which then the wheel, pulls this cool air in (mixed with the hot air pulled in from the front of the wheel) from the rear of the wheel and out. Not sure if that vent is cosmetic or really functional, I'd suspect if it was truly functional the front inside wheel-well cover would have though vents to allow the cool air pass to the inside of the wheel. Also the front air scoop should allow some air to be directed towards the wheels to be totally efficient in cooling down the rotors.

But honestly, based off the Lotus Elise forums (talking about brakes) and people who track the Roadster is that these cars are not heavy enough to generate excessive amount of heat to the brakes. Note the Roadster is 900lbs+ heavier than the Elise, so we are affected more with the physics of braking forces. Only time I saw issues with heated brakes on the Roadster was with running the crappy stock Brembo brake-pads that went into the trash can @ 6k miles. And having functional directional wheels on your car won't help help you there too much.

 

[bart513]

I'm still looking for a set of front black forged wheels for my 2.5 if anyone knows of any.....

 

[TEG]

...

Roadster non-sport forged wheels:

...

Actually those are the Sport/forged wheels too. Just the 1.5 & 2.0 variety before they switched them to the "pinwheel" design.

Early 1.5s all came with those original forged wheels, but typically in the silver finish variety. They started offering black painted optionally later on.

Near the start of 2.0 they changed the forged wheels to be optional and introduced the non-directional cast (base) wheel that looks like this:

 

[gregd]

Apparently two different versions of the early 2.x wheels. My 2.0 (#834) has the original Lotus-badge-based logo in the center.

 

[TEG]

The center cap is just a separate piece, easily replaceable. Tesla changed/upgdated the logo during Roadster production.