The uberturbines are too wide for the tire, heavy, and ugly. I agree, on an otherwise great car I don't know what they were thinking with that wheel choice. I am gonna stick with a 20" but go back to 8.5" wide and try a forged TSportline wheel... hopefully I will have better luck with that because I do love the looks of a 20" rim and low profile tire on the car.
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Hit a pothole and got 2 flats on my Model 3 Performance
- Thread starter Alan2000
- Start date
ElectricIAC
Good-Natured Rascal
If it was about Maximizing range, they wouldn’t have made them so heavy for how brittle they are.
jackmott
Member
Turns out wheel mass doesn't really affect range appreciably. Yes I know it is rotational weight, yes I know it is unsprung weight, yes I've done the math. Yes I can show my work. Once you know that the choices of OEMs seem a lot less crazy, when it comes to wheel mass. Better places to spend money than super light wheels.
ElectricIAC
Good-Natured Rascal
jackmott
Member
They could have gone forged like Polestar did.
Suppose they added $500 to the cost of the car to drop 15lbs of wheel mass. That would improve highway range by about 0.3 miles. Now there might be other good reasons to go forged, like so when people hit a pothole the rim is bent instead of cracked, which maybe can be repaired safely. *shrug*
I'd gladly take the Zero-G rim as an upgrade outside of the track pack... I'd pay $500-$1000 more to have that over the ugly ass uberturbines. Screw the extra range, if I wanted that I'd get the RWD/AWD on 18's
jackmott
Member
Y'all got all kinds of objections to the Uberturbines but here is mine:
Needs to be left and right versions, one side has to be less aero than the other as is!
(nevermind that my current wheels have the same problem)
Needs to be left and right versions, one side has to be less aero than the other as is!
(nevermind that my current wheels have the same problem)
heavyD
Member
Yeah that's another move likely to cut cost to reduce overhead of ordering/inventorying one wheel. They really should be left/right side directional.
@jackmott It feels like the wheel and tire were spec'd by different people with different goals.
The Uberturbine wheel priority seems to be "look cool like a concept car wheel" while still being cheap to make (cast).
Tire priorities were probably efficiency, rolling noise, and price, within the confines of the "max performance " category. Clearly actual maximum performance wasn't the priority or they would've fitted a better tire, even just staying with the PS4S surely would have been better, and would have chosen a tire width more suited to the 9" wide Uberturbines.
Also seems possible whoever spec'd the new tires wasn't even told the wheels were changing to 9" wide!
jackmott
Member
Could be too that supply line issues kinda threw a wrench in things. Like they wanted to keep Pilots but the price got to high or they couldn't get them at all.
You guys are over thinking it. What really happened was the engineer in India that doesn't own or drive a car, and who designed the UI and tiny horn button on the yoke, also designed the rims. Tesla then used the smallest tire they could stretch over the rim to save some money on the cost of the tires.
I made it 62500 miles before my first flat caused by a pothole in my 2018 P3D with 20's and I live in Ohio. I've driven through Pennsylvania several times as well as Michigan and a PA pothole finally got me last month in the Pocono Mountain region. It damaged the rim and tire in the same relative spot so am positive one of those potholes caused a slow leak. There is even a gaping hole in the sidewall of one of them that I missed for about a week. I suspect it wasn't big and grew over time and the TPMS sensor alerted me to the pressure had dropped to below the setpoint. It was still a slow leak.
It is a combination of bad luck, heavier than normal vehicle, low profile tires, cast wheels, and something nobody mentions - autopilot. Normally when you drive, you see bad sections of road ahead and shift slightly to avoid it. AP will just go right through and the areas we drive over when centered in the lane are statistically more likely to have more wear on the road. It's just a nature of the beast.
With that said, I've switched to forged 18's and love the look and performance even with downgrading from PS4S to PSAS4 (all seasons). I have noticed when driving with my winter 18's the past week a big improvement in efficiency. I made it from Norwalk, Ohio to Tiffin, Ohio with just 11% usage. I've never seen an efficiency so low and my battery range at 100% is around 280ish (started at 310). I had the same efficiency returning. I just put the slightly lighter Titan T-S5's on and haven't driven that route yet, but did notice no appreciable improvement over the 20's going to Toledo and back so some of it probably has to do with the geometric shape of the rims. The winters are flat faced 5 spoke so there is a decent amount of see through on it, but much less than the new ones. The less wind that can get into the rim probably has the bigger impact, which is why the covers are used on aeros.
It is a combination of bad luck, heavier than normal vehicle, low profile tires, cast wheels, and something nobody mentions - autopilot. Normally when you drive, you see bad sections of road ahead and shift slightly to avoid it. AP will just go right through and the areas we drive over when centered in the lane are statistically more likely to have more wear on the road. It's just a nature of the beast.
With that said, I've switched to forged 18's and love the look and performance even with downgrading from PS4S to PSAS4 (all seasons). I have noticed when driving with my winter 18's the past week a big improvement in efficiency. I made it from Norwalk, Ohio to Tiffin, Ohio with just 11% usage. I've never seen an efficiency so low and my battery range at 100% is around 280ish (started at 310). I had the same efficiency returning. I just put the slightly lighter Titan T-S5's on and haven't driven that route yet, but did notice no appreciable improvement over the 20's going to Toledo and back so some of it probably has to do with the geometric shape of the rims. The winters are flat faced 5 spoke so there is a decent amount of see through on it, but much less than the new ones. The less wind that can get into the rim probably has the bigger impact, which is why the covers are used on aeros.
OP,
I didn't read all the messages in the thread, so this may have already been suggested...
Buy the new tires at TireRack instead of at the Service Center. TireRack offers a road side guarantee that would have cover this situation for you.
I had a situation that a tire was unrepairable, they cut me a check for the original price of the tire.
I will not buy tires anywhere else.
I didn't read all the messages in the thread, so this may have already been suggested...
Buy the new tires at TireRack instead of at the Service Center. TireRack offers a road side guarantee that would have cover this situation for you.
I had a situation that a tire was unrepairable, they cut me a check for the original price of the tire.
I will not buy tires anywhere else.
Attachments
The only option now for the S are the stock 19" rims or for $4,500 more the 21" rims. I would have preferred 20" for the S for aesthetics but the 19" with he car set on the low suspension height setting is not too bad and more protection from snake bite flats. I removed the wheel covers as they don't really help on efficiency in city driving which is 95% of my driving.
Correction, Low Profile tires and Potholes don’t get along.
UncertainTimes
Active Member
Who says we are not?
New owners (and maybe the OP) should know there is a BIG difference in potholes and the profiles of tires.
I’ve never had a pothole take out a tire in 40 years and a two car house hold. And I live in pothole haven. I have had a pot hole pop the bead though. Just refilled and was on my way.
