Never had an issue with the original wheels but have been getting intermittent vibration issues with the slipstreams which I've been driving on for only the last month. It just hit me as I was washing my car that water must be pooling in the groove and causing my vibration issues after it freezes solid in there. I may have to get cyclones for winter driving. Anyone else experience this?
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Slipstream wheels design flaw
- Thread starter agloutney
- Start date
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- Driving Dynamics Model S
I understand your desire to take good care of your car, but washing in freezing temperatures is a terrible idea for about 1000 reasons.
JER
Member
To be fair, washing isn't the only way to encounter liquid water in subzero conditions. If water can collect in there and stay long enough to freeze when the car is stationary, I would also consider that a design flaw.
I was not washing it in freezing conditions. It was nice out and was washing it in above freezing conditions. That's just when it hit me that the cause of the vibrations was due to water collecting in the wheels. It often snows overnight and then the sun comes out and melts the snow leaving a puddle in the wheel which re-freezes when the temperature drops again. Third winter and never had issues with the original 19" wheels.
JER
Member
This flaw isn't unique to Tesla's Slipstream design; I've seen the same problem on certain factory rims for the Mercedes AMG, for example.
"Mercedes did it too" doesn't really excuse having such a seemingly daft design feature though. Is there any advantage to having a groove there?
"Mercedes did it too" doesn't really excuse having such a seemingly daft design feature though. Is there any advantage to having a groove there?
SabrToothSqrl
Active Member
When I had my Wrangler, and would on the regular drive though 4 feet of mud/snow/fun you'd get all sorts of highway vibrations which turned out to be mud/snow/rocks/sticks lol
The groove is probably there to give it rigidity and keep it relatively light weight. I think they are more aerodynamic than the original 19" wheels so I'll probably keep them for summer driving and throw some after market wheels on there for next winter. I was hoping to use them for winter and going with the Tsportline wheels in summer as I don't like the look of the slipstreams. Tsportline wheels are too nice for winter so I'll probably get Replika R187 wheels.
JER
Member
I can see mass reduction being plausible, but perhaps marginal.
I don't see how a groove does anything good for rigidity. It doesn't widen the section.
Would it be easier to make with this groove? I don't know, but since it's cast I would've guessed the opposite.
The only other reason I can think of is aesthetics. That's fair, but not a good enough reason to ignore a potential safety flaw.
I don't see how a groove does anything good for rigidity. It doesn't widen the section.
Would it be easier to make with this groove? I don't know, but since it's cast I would've guessed the opposite.
The only other reason I can think of is aesthetics. That's fair, but not a good enough reason to ignore a potential safety flaw.
Another reminder, Tesla doesn't understand weather.
I wonder how much water gets trapped in there AS you're driving in the rain. Between the water and all the dirt caught up in it, will probably remove the paint from the groove in short order. Good thing I bought those wheels for winter tires.
I wonder how much water gets trapped in there AS you're driving in the rain. Between the water and all the dirt caught up in it, will probably remove the paint from the groove in short order. Good thing I bought those wheels for winter tires.
Anytime designers win over engineering and testing... you get these goof-ups.
There's good reason to design wheels that don't hold water, or dirt build-up, in the spokes. Not only on the visible side of the wheel, but on the back side too.
Mag spokes with cavities on the rear facing side are great muck holders. Out of balance easily. Too many wheels on the market do this!
Pro side: it saves weight (and material) to scoop out pockets of metal that aren't adding to the structure or beauty of the wheel.
There's good reason to design wheels that don't hold water, or dirt build-up, in the spokes. Not only on the visible side of the wheel, but on the back side too.
Mag spokes with cavities on the rear facing side are great muck holders. Out of balance easily. Too many wheels on the market do this!
Pro side: it saves weight (and material) to scoop out pockets of metal that aren't adding to the structure or beauty of the wheel.
No, I bet it's engineers that made these. But inclement weather is out of sight out of mind for these people. You can tell that in MANY other aspects of the car, which are trivially broken, in software. Tesla insists their engineers must live or move to CA. Group think.
I think I agree with you..
wipers are an example that don't work well with much snow. Even the windshield spray pattern.. has a very narrow margin of successfully hitting the windshield. But this is all hardware.
but what do you mean by this software statement?
A list of 10-20+ complaints. All the crap that doesn't work well for absolutely no reason in the winter. Like it doesn't remember heated wheel settings, or doesn't preheat *any* surfaces for comfort or defrosting while preheating the car. Or the the dumb regen taper under reduced regen. Limited regen to 30kW? Well let me taper your current regen at your current speed to 3kW, because ???. Or the fact that you can't preheat the battery remotely to get out of limited regen, even when plugged in.
No, I'm not a "have you told Tesla" kinda guy. I tell it like it is in these forums. They read these forums, we're tellin' 'em here!
I see what you mean. Ya, I live with that stuff too and have devised work-arounds. But your point is taken..if the gears creating these cars had truly lived in a cold zone... these features would start appearing in the software.
FYI - my experience is that heated seat settings (front 2 only) *are remembered* when you leave the car.. and later turn on climate from the app the heat the car... I arrive and see those 2 front seats also glowing at the number I last left the car. You just have to leave the car w/o turning them off.
And of course, my work-around for battery heating is to "save 10% charge room" for the morning. I wake up and bump the battery to 90% which starts the motions that will start drawing power from the wall to heat the battery... I can usually get to a state of having "some" regen capability by the time breakfast is done and I'm baking out of the garage. The last 10 minutes of wait time in the house is when the climate goes on to heat cabin... It's a ritual.. WHICH IS PERFECT FOR SOFTWARE (call it "AI") to do for you. Call it machine learning, or call it a macro... just do these steps for me please App, please, with a button: "Prepare car for cold launch".
My beef on regen in cold weather is that it is set to zero after a nice long cold soak so the beefy motors-come-generators do *nothing* to help the car with a frozen battery. The most obvious thing would be use the regen power to heat heater elements that warms the battery.. duh. You know, warm up the damn coolant!
Now we're WAY OFF TOPIC sorry.
Heated wheels anyone, to melt away ice?
I see what you mean. Ya, I live with that stuff too and have devised work-arounds. But your point is taken..if the gears creating these cars had truly lived in a cold zone... these features would start appearing in the software.
FYI - my experience is that heated seat settings (front 2 only) *are remembered* when you leave the car.. and later turn on climate from the app the heat the car... I arrive and see those 2 front seats also glowing at the number I last left the car. You just have to leave the car w/o turning them off.
And of course, my work-around for battery heating is to "save 10% charge room" for the morning. I wake up and bump the battery to 90% which starts the motions that will start drawing power from the wall to heat the battery... I can usually get to a state of having "some" regen capability by the time breakfast is done and I'm baking out of the garage. The last 10 minutes of wait time in the house is when the climate goes on to heat cabin... It's a ritual.. WHICH IS PERFECT FOR SOFTWARE (call it "AI") to do for you. Call it machine learning, or call it a macro... just do these steps for me please App, please, with a button: "Prepare car for cold launch".
My beef on regen in cold weather is that it is set to zero after a nice long cold soak so the beefy motors-come-generators do *nothing* to help the car with a frozen battery. The most obvious thing would be use the regen power to heat heater elements that warms the battery.. duh. You know, warm up the damn coolant!
Now we're WAY OFF TOPIC sorry.
Heated wheels anyone, to melt away ice?
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