Notches inside 3 wheels only?!

[afeudale]

2020 Model 3, SR+ with 18" Aero Wheels

Went to the mechanic to swap winter wheels/tires to summer wheels/tires and they discovered something very interesting/strange...

On three of the wheels, there are "notches" on the inside. On the fourth wheel - no notches!

At first, they thought it was 2 of each and that one set was for the front and one for the rear, but to have 3 of one and 1 of the other doesn't make sense...

Anyone else notice this or have a guess as to the reason? Pics attached.

 

[Dolemite]

have a guess as to the reason?

Tesla.

 

[lbowroom]

Balancing?

 

[afeudale]

Tesla.

Thanks. That's the best I could figure as well...that maybe it was wheels with the same part # internally for them, but two different batches, where they switched to using notched ones (or to using un-notched ones).

Tesla....lol...

 

[Casmium]

Speed holes

 

[afeudale]

Speed holes

Too bad one wheel will be slower then as it has no holes

 

[mongo]

Too bad one wheel will be slower then as it has no holes

Put that one toward the inside of the track.

Notches? We don't need no stinkin' notches!

 

[afeudale]

Put that one toward the inside of the track.

Notches? We don't need no stinkin' notches!

True! It will run slower on the inside wheel, so it's like an external diff! Maybe Tesla did it so that they could save some money not putting a real diff in this car? Genius!

In all seriousness though, does anyone have a clue why one wheel is different? Is it just different batches? My mechanic was stumped...

 

[MasterC17]

Hard to say why it is different other than a production change at some point for some reason. It is not going to affect the car in any noticeable way, so I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[afeudale]

Hard to say why it is different other than a production change at some point for some reason. It is not going to affect the car in any noticeable way, so I wouldn't worry about it.

Thanks MasterC17! I guess I just have to accept it, like I do for all the body panel gaps everywhere...lol. Tesla quality

 

[67King]

Probably what the industry calls a "running change," which is a change that is made in the middle of a production year that has no impact, visual or functional, on the product. Can be for different reasons, supplier change, cost savings, production efficiency improvement, etc. Pretty regular thing when a company is trying to focus on something. More common early in a vehicle's life than late. Pretty common thing I dealt with when I was at Ford.

 

[dmurphy]

I guess I just have to accept it

Sell the car immediately.

 

[G26okie]

I made a post about this same thing a month ago when I was rotating my tires. 2020 Stealth performance with the aeros, 1 wheel has no notches and the other 3 had them.

 

[Dolemite]

Are they all Chinese and/or Mexican?