I will never buy 21" tires again

[Xenoilphobe]

i own 7 cars currently and probably have owned 20 plus cars in my lifetime. never ever have i had a wheel crack in 30 years of driving. this car has been through three 21" in 23,000 miles. total cost of $3300 in less than two years. get 19" wheels or drive like a pachyderm.

 

[3mp_kwh]

We've had the 21" wheels since our first MS in June of 2013 and are quite pleased. The issue with the 19" wheel and tire is the massive difference in available traction, as noted with some of our service loaners IMHO. (And our 70D until the wheels are replaced.)

19's will take a bit more steering input, and be less responsive because of the higher profile, but once they "set" in a turn, the only actual traction difference should be the rubber compound. There, it may be a little unfair to contrast Primacy, to PS2, or other "summer" performance tires. Super Sports can be had in 245/40/19 (slightly shorter diameter, than 245/45%).

 

[MsElectric]

i own 7 cars currently and probably have owned 20 plus cars in my lifetime. never ever have i had a wheel crack in 30 years of driving. this car has been through three 21" in 23,000 miles. total cost of $3300 in less than two years. get 19" wheels or drive like a pachyderm.

You must not drive much in DC then! 2 of the 3 low profile wheel failures I've had were in DC. Some of the DC streets are so badly maintained that it almost feel like you are driving off road. Just the exposed streetcar track relics on some Georgetown streets are likely enough to damage the edge of a low profile wheel outer edge, as they sometime stick up a few inches.

One DC pothole was so bad I instantly had a flat tire with a bent rim. While stranded on the side of the road, I saw many other vehicles hit that same pothole and drive away without any issues. That was when I decided to ditch the low profile tires and promise myself I'd never get them in any car I own.

I am glad you've had a great experience with them and Hank has chimed in many times that he too has been fine. For me though I will never get the low profile tires if for no other reason than the fact that it reduces driving range by about 5%, makes the ride harsher and louder.

Now when I select wheels for the car, my number one criteria is to get the most durable wheels I can find...

- - - Updated - - -

19's will take a bit more steering input, and be less responsive because of the higher profile, but once they "set" in a turn, the only actual traction difference should be the rubber compound. There, it may be a little unfair to contrast Primacy, to PS2, or other "summer" performance tires. Super Sports can be had in 245/40/19 (slightly shorter diameter, than 245/45%).

This is a really good point. I think some compare the 21" summer tire performance with the 19" wheel all season tire performance. Given similar rubber compounds, the difference is likely going to even less...

 

[AnOutsider]

I've been driving happily on 19's for more than a year. Sadly, it looks like the X will be 20 or 22" rims only (that's what the sig is configured as anyway)

 

[StaceyS]

I'm curious, how hard do you have to hit these wheels to damage the tire or wheel? When you discover the damage (either to tire or wheel), can you think back and say "oh, yeah, that probably did it..."

We've had our CPO 2013 P85 for a little over 2 months and driven it 2,000 miles. We've driven it like its fine china being balanced on a stick (except for the occasional happy pedal stomp). I have been very careful to avoid any potholes or road debris. However, I recently had to take our car in for some warranty work, and on my 180 mile drive to the SC, a low tire pressure warning came on. When I stopped to check the tires, the highest pressure was over 40 psi, lowest was below 35. When I got back in the car, the light went out. When Tesla checked it, they said the right rear tire had a bubble in the side wall, and both right wheels were bent! When the person first told me there was "a bubble", I thought she meant the tire was defective. I had no clue they thought we had damaged the wheels.

I'm absolutely positive we hadn't hit anything. Both right wheels had some minor curb rash when we got the car. We didn't say anything about it because we just figured we were buying a used car, that's the way it was, and I wouldn't have thought the curb rash we saw would have amounted to bent wheels. Tesla insisted we damaged the wheels, we insisted we hadn't. Tesla offered us a deal: They would replace both wheels if we replaced the tire. Since I knew it was basically my word against theirs, there was no mention of the curb rash on any of the delivery documents, and the wheels cost far more than the tire, I accepted the deal and got 2 brand new 21" wheels and a brand new matching continental tire on the rear. (All 4 tires had been replaced recently before we purchased the car.) I appreciate the effort Tesla made to solve this, but I would really like to know what it feels like to damage these wheels.

For those of you that have had bubbles, bent rims, cracked rims, do you know what you hit?

 

[yobigd20]

I'm curious, how hard do you have to hit these wheels to damage the tire or wheel? When you discover the damage (either to tire or wheel), can you think back and say "oh, yeah, that probably did it..."

We've had our CPO 2013 P85 for a little over 2 months and driven it 2,000 miles. We've driven it like its fine china being balanced on a stick (except for the occasional happy pedal stomp). I have been very careful to avoid any potholes or road debris. However, I recently had to take our car in for some warranty work, and on my 180 mile drive to the SC, a low tire pressure warning came on. When I stopped to check the tires, the highest pressure was over 40 psi, lowest was below 35. When I got back in the car, the light went out. When Tesla checked it, they said the right rear tire had a bubble in the side wall, and both right wheels were bent! When the person first told me there was "a bubble", I thought she meant the tire was defective. I had no clue they thought we had damaged the wheels.

I'm absolutely positive we hadn't hit anything. Both right wheels had some minor curb rash when we got the car. We didn't say anything about it because we just figured we were buying a used car, that's the way it was, and I wouldn't have thought the curb rash we saw would have amounted to bent wheels. Tesla insisted we damaged the wheels, we insisted we hadn't. Tesla offered us a deal: They would replace both wheels if we replaced the tire. Since I knew it was basically my word against theirs, there was no mention of the curb rash on any of the delivery documents, and the wheels cost far more than the tire, I accepted the deal and got 2 brand new 21" wheels and a brand new matching continental tire on the rear. (All 4 tires had been replaced recently before we purchased the car.) I appreciate the effort Tesla made to solve this, but I would really like to know what it feels like to damage these wheels.

For those of you that have had bubbles, bent rims, cracked rims, do you know what you hit?

it's VERRRRRYYYYY easy to make a low profile tire "bubble" or blow out completely on simple potholes at low speeds. you really have to have absolutely perfect roads to make it worthwhile driving around on those.

 

[Firewired]

I'm curious, how hard do you have to hit these wheels to damage the tire or wheel? When you discover the damage (either to tire or wheel), can you think back and say "oh, yeah, that probably did it..."

We've had our CPO 2013 P85 for a little over 2 months and driven it 2,000 miles. We've driven it like its fine china being balanced on a stick (except for the occasional happy pedal stomp). I have been very careful to avoid any potholes or road debris. However, I recently had to take our car in for some warranty work, and on my 180 mile drive to the SC, a low tire pressure warning came on. When I stopped to check the tires, the highest pressure was over 40 psi, lowest was below 35. When I got back in the car, the light went out. When Tesla checked it, they said the right rear tire had a bubble in the side wall, and both right wheels were bent! When the person first told me there was "a bubble", I thought she meant the tire was defective. I had no clue they thought we had damaged the wheels.

I'm absolutely positive we hadn't hit anything. Both right wheels had some minor curb rash when we got the car. We didn't say anything about it because we just figured we were buying a used car, that's the way it was, and I wouldn't have thought the curb rash we saw would have amounted to bent wheels. Tesla insisted we damaged the wheels, we insisted we hadn't. Tesla offered us a deal: They would replace both wheels if we replaced the tire. Since I knew it was basically my word against theirs, there was no mention of the curb rash on any of the delivery documents, and the wheels cost far more than the tire, I accepted the deal and got 2 brand new 21" wheels and a brand new matching continental tire on the rear. (All 4 tires had been replaced recently before we purchased the car.) I appreciate the effort Tesla made to solve this, but I would really like to know what it feels like to damage these wheels.

For those of you that have had bubbles, bent rims, cracked rims, do you know what you hit?

Since I got my car in December I have been hyper vigilant of avoiding any potholes or rough streets due to all the reports I had read on threads. I don't recall every hitting anything, and despite that had one bent rim, and one other wheel was fine but that tire had a sidewall bubble and needed to be replaced.

 

[jerry33]

19's will take a bit more steering input, and be less responsive because of the higher profile, but once they "set" in a turn, the only actual traction difference should be the rubber compound. There, it may be a little unfair to contrast Primacy, to PS2, or other "summer" performance tires. Super Sports can be had in 245/40/19 (slightly shorter diameter, than 245/45%).

Correct. Tread compound and casing construction would make the 19" traction as good as or better than the 21" tires. Actually, off the line, the 19" tires should always outperform the 21" tires all thing being equal (which they seldom are). At the dragstrip, you could lower the 19" tires' pressure more to get way more traction (assuming a performance 19" tire and not caring too much about tire life for the sake of quicker times).

 

[rns-e]

i own 7 cars currently and probably have owned 20 plus cars in my lifetime. never ever have i had a wheel crack in 30 years of driving. this car has been through three 21" in 23,000 miles. total cost of $3300 in less than two years. get 19" wheels or drive like a pachyderm.

Never had issues either, so just called Tesla and ordered the 21" winter tyres

 

[jerry33]

Never had issues either, so just called Tesla and ordered the 21" winter tyres

Let me guess. You check tire pressure regularly.

 

[Khatsalano]

I wonder if the Model X 20" wheel set will work on our Model S's .... hmmmm ... possibilities.

- K

 

[rns-e]

Let me guess. You check tire pressure regularly.

???

 

[jerry33]

???

My hypothesis is that some-to-many, but not all, of the 21" tire and wheel damages can be traced to low tire pressures--and they don't have to be all that low. A couple of psi might do it. Many folks don't check the tire pressures regularly and seem to feel that the vehicle placard pressure is a maximum (it's more like a minimum).

 

[rns-e]

My hypothesis is that some-to-many, but not all, of the 21" tire and wheel damages can be traced to low tire pressures--and they don't have to be all that low. A couple of psi might do it. Many folks don't check the tire pressures regularly and seem to feel that the vehicle placard pressure is a maximum (it's more like a minimum).

Ahh, ok I understand what you are saying and think you may be right.

I actually never check the pressure, only when changing between summer and winter tires. But with the tyre pressure indicator in the Tesla, shouldn't prevent running with to low pressure, even for the most non-car oriented users?

 

[jerry33]

Ahh, ok I understand what you are saying and think you may be right.

I actually never check the pressure, only when changing between summer and winter tires. But with the tyre pressure indicator in the Tesla, shouldn't prevent running with to low pressure, even for the most non-car oriented users?

Unfortunately, no. The TPMS (as implemented in North America) only tells you when you are grossly underinflated. If you wait until it tells you, the tire is probably already damaged. If it showed the pressures the way the Roadster's TPMS does, it would be useful.

 

[Xenoilphobe]

I didn't realize 3 PSI is "grossly" under inflated. That's when my TPMS went off.

I think it has more to do with Potholes