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Those with the M3P

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What’s the likely of a tire blowout with the Uberturbine wheels? Is it a small problem which is blown out of proportion? Or a legitimate concern?

I have a LR on order, but really want the M3P. Only thing holding me back is the possibility of a blow out via a pothole and cost of tires.

This will be a commuter car, traveling 100+ miles a day on Southern California freeways.

Thoughts?
 
What’s the likely of a tire blowout with the Uberturbine wheels? Is it a small problem which is blown out of proportion? Or a legitimate concern?

I have a LR on order, but really want the M3P. Only thing holding me back is the possibility of a blow out via a pothole and cost of tires.

This will be a commuter car, traveling 100+ miles a day on Southern California freeways.

Thoughts?

Wheels and tires shouldn't be a roadblock to you buying a Performance. Just buy a set of smaller wheels and tires, and when your car comes in, switch them out and sell the Uberturbines. They are pretty easy to sell and should offset the cost of the new wheels. A little effort but you get the Performance model without worrying about the wheels.
 
What’s the likely of a tire blowout with the Uberturbine wheels? Is it a small problem which is blown out of proportion? Or a legitimate concern?

I have a LR on order, but really want the M3P. Only thing holding me back is the possibility of a blow out via a pothole and cost of tires.

This will be a commuter car, traveling 100+ miles a day on Southern California freeways.

Thoughts?

The only thing you can really get here is anecdotal accounts, with people who have had an issue responding (for the most part). With that being said (incoming anecdotal account) I have had my model 3 Performance since december of 2018, driving 80 miles a day commuting from Temecula to Oceanside.

I have lived in Temecula for 9 Years, and worked at the same location for 16. Point is, I drive the same roads to and from work, and have done so for quite some time, through multiple cars.

Before my model 3 P I had a BMW 435, and had 1 flat tire during its 3 year lease period. That car had run flat tires so I was able to drive to the dealer and get it replaced.

Since my model 3 P in Dec of 2018, I have had 3 flat tires I have needed to replace, as well as 3 rims. Uberturbines did not exist when I got my car. 2 of the rims were the tesla 20 inch silver factory rims, and 1 was a tesla 20 inch zero g referral rim, which happened about a week after I finally got my referral tires from the referral program.

For the 2 20 inch "regular tesla" rims, that was the same pothole on a street close to my job that was pretty large, that I did not see because the car ahead of me swerved out of the way at the last minute. I hit it with both tires on the passenger side, and both tires AND rims were damaged.

For the 1 zero g rim, that was a bolt I drove over that not only punctured the tire, but the rim.

I feel I have both been unlucky with this car, and that the 20 inch rims are more susceptible to damage than any car I had previously. I dont regret them though, I like how they look, so I just am more careful scanning the road now.

Does that mean there is a real problem? Shrug. I wouldnt "not buy" the car because of it. If it really bothered me I would get some 19s or something, but I like how the 20s look. Wheels can be swapped.
 
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What’s the likely of a tire blowout with the Uberturbine wheels? Is it a small problem which is blown out of proportion? Or a legitimate concern?

Do you go off-roading in your cars?
Practice Evel Knievel jumps?

If yes to either of the above, then yeah, you may have problems. Otherwise, your chances of picking up a nail in 20" tires are as good as that of any other car.

I have a LR on order, but really want the M3P. Only thing holding me back is the possibility of a blow out via a pothole and cost of tires.

Tires don't really "blow out". That's a misnomer.
You can hit a really deep and really sharp pot-hole, at speed. In which case, you are more likely to bend a lip of a 20" wheel then 18" wheel, because the former is separated from impact with the ground by a narrower (though stiffer) tire wall. So, you are more likely to pickup damage to the wheels with low profile tires.

If the wheel damage is severe enough, you will start loosing air, then you will need to pull over to sort out the situation. BTDT.
For all other tire damage scenarios (debris on the road, curb rash, etc), your 20", 19", and 18" Model 3 wheels and tires are equally (un-)likely to have a problem.

This will be a commuter car, traveling 100+ miles a day on Southern California freeways. Thoughts?

If you want to have fun behind the wheel, TM3P is the ticket.
If you want to save money on the tires, and be a responsible adult, buy anything else.

HTH,
a
 
@Steve2121 If you're stressed about the Uberturbines just swap them out for smaller wheels and call it a day. That's what I did, I ordered 18x8.5" ET35 wheels for my M3P before I even picked up the car.

Years ago I went through fighting Tesla to replace a cracked 21" wheel on my S P85, a very similar big cast wheel + thin sidewall tire (245/35R21) as the M3P setup. Also tires for bigger diameter wheels are more expensive, it doesn't take many tire replacements to pay for a basic set of smaller wheels. We downsized the S to 245/45R19 and never looked back. Same thing with our new M3P, downsizing from 235/35R20 to 245/45R18. Any wheel can break of course, but I've read enough stories of bent and cracked 20" M3P wheels that I very much believe they're a similarly fragile setup as those Model S 21s.

Are you going to have pinch flats and cracked wheels all the time with the Uberturbines? Probably not. Overall you'll be fine, but yes it may happen, and it's definitely more likely with the Uberturbines than if you downsize to get some extra sidewall. If you'll be really annoyed at life / your car / Tesla / Elon Musk / whomever because you got a flat or cracked wheel that probably wouldn't have happened on 18s, then go ahead and swap to 18s before that happens.

Note the OE Model 3 18" wheels do NOT fit on the M3P (or so I've read, I never tried). There are aftermarket options though, some machined specifically for the M3P stepped hub, and others that just need a centering ring or 3mm (I believe) "step delete" spacer.

I'll also mention that downsizing the wheels was actually a handling upgrade for me, which I wasn't expecting. I was expecting slightly more grip based on my tire choice - I actually got quite a bit more grip (Potenza Sport vs OE-spec PZ4) - but what I didn't expect was how much better the M3P feels with the lighter 18" setup. The ride is a little smoother of course, that is expected, but it also feels more nimble in quick back-and-forth turns, and the power steering feels better, almost like it was struggling before with the weight of the Uberturbines.

Note older M3P like @jjrandorin's came with different 20" wheels and tires. I believe those wheels were not quite so heavy as the Uberturbines, and the old OE tire selection (Tesla-spec PS4S) are widely considered better than the new OE tires (Tesla-spec PZ4), so on an older M3P there's probably less handling benefit to be gained just from downsizing wheel diameter. (But maybe still some?)
 
I own a 2021 LR, and purchased the Tesla uber turbine wheels. I commute about 160mile per day in Southern Cali traffic, so I'm very familiar with the freeways. The tires I went with are the Toyo Proxies Sport extra load that is rated for 50k miles. I have 10k on the tires now with a lot of thread left. They are holding up quite well. I also mostly drive in chill mode.
IMG_1232.jpg
 
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@Steve2121 If you're stressed about the Uberturbines just swap them out for smaller wheels and call it a day. That's what I did, I ordered 18x8.5" ET35 wheels for my M3P before I even picked up the car.

Years ago I went through fighting Tesla to replace a cracked 21" wheel on my S, a very similar big cast wheel + thin sidewall tire (245/35R21) as the M3P setup. Also tires for bigger diameter wheels are more expensive, it doesn't take many tire replacements to pay for a basic set of smaller wheels. We downsized the S to 245/45R19 and never looked back. Same thing with our new M3P, downsizing from 235/35R20 to 245/45R18.

Are you going to have pinch flats and cracked wheels all the time with the Uberturbines? Probably not. Overall you'll be fine, but yes it may happen, and it's definitely more likely with the Uberturbines than if you downsize to get some extra sidewall. If you'll be really annoyed at life / your car / Tesla / Elon Musk / whomever because you got a flat or cracked wheel that probably wouldn't have happened on 18s, then go ahead and swap to 18s before that happens.

Note the OE Model 3 18" wheels do NOT fit on the M3P (or so I've read, I never tried). There are aftermarket options though, some machined specifically for the M3P stepped hub, and others that just need a centering ring or 3mm (I believe) "step delete" spacer.

I'll also mention that downsizing the wheels was actually a handling upgrade for me, which I wasn't expecting. I was expecting slightly more grip based on my tire choice - I actually got quite a bit more grip (Potenza Sport vs OE-spec PZ4) - but what I didn't expect was how much better the M3P feels with the lighter 18" setup. The ride is a little smoother of course, that is expected, but it also feels more nimble in quick back-and-forth turns, and the power steering feels better, almost like it was struggling before with the weight of the Uberturbines.

Note older M3P like @jjrandorin's came with different 20" wheels and tires. I believe those wheels were not quite so heavy as the Uberturbines, and the old OE tire selection (Tesla-spec PS4S) are widely considered better than the new OE tires (Tesla-spec PZ4), so on an older M3P there's probably less handling benefit to be gained just from downsizing wheel diameter. (But maybe still some?)

I found you get more precision with the 20 inch wheels but ultimate grip seems to be the same and you do feel the slightly "lighter" feeling of the car in general. The ride quality improvement though is a HUGE upgrade and I seem to be getting slightly better range (but nothing earth shattering).

BTW, i hit a pretty big pothole...about the same size as the one that took out my last 20 inch tire and it did nothing to the new 18 inch PS4S tires i have now. I was pretty happy about that :D
 
I found you get more precision with the 20 inch wheels but ultimate grip seems to be the same and you do feel the slightly "lighter" feeling of the car in general. The ride quality improvement though is a HUGE upgrade and I seem to be getting slightly better range (but nothing earth shattering).

BTW, i hit a pretty big pothole...about the same size as the one that took out my last 20 inch tire and it did nothing to the new 18 inch PS4S tires i have now. I was pretty happy about that :D
I think these Potenza Sports have very, very stiff sidewalls, and they're just all around excellent for a performance tire, wheres the OE PZ4 I was switching from were kind of mediocre. (I didn't hate the PZ4, but they really didn't excel either.)

Your car came with the PS4S right? Maybe easier to pinpoint loss of precision from the sidewalls when comparing with the same tire. Also my impression from tire reviews is PS4S sidewall isn't quite as stiff as Potenza Sport. (Which is not to say the PS4S is too soft in any way! I was actually going to try the 245/45R18 PS4S but they were on backorder everywhere. I've no doubt the PS4S are also much better than the PZ4. The old PS2 were quite good street tires for their day, I just haven't used the newer PS4S yet.)

I think if the M3P suspension and bushings were a little more responsive/stiff, I would've felt a sidewall precision downgrade more. The steering has very noticeable rubberyness and turn-in delay even 100% stock with the skinny stretched tires. That delay is still present on my car with the 245/45R18 Potenza Sports, it just didn't get any worse that I could tell.
 
@Steve2121 On the flip side, if you can tolerate a little extra risk vs most car's wheel & tire setups, it's not like the Uberturbines are going to fly off and kill you! They look awesome and you can absolutely keep running them if you want.

I just know my and my wife's tolerance for wheel issues. And these days our driving is mostly city roads (think surface of the moon) and rural roads (the low traffic ones get repaved basically never), not to mention long gravel and dirt driveways and such in the rural areas. Even if the Uberturbines would never break on us, 235/35 tires just don't make sense for our driving. YMMV!
 
So far after 4,000 miles, I've gotten 2 flats on my M3P. Both of them were from screws at low speeds (supermarket parking lot and bumper to bumper traffic). My E90 335i with 18" rims was a flat tire magnet. I went through 26 tires in 12 years from blowouts from potholes. I may have only had 1 or 2 of them from screws. I didn't have a single tire on that car retired due to wear. The suspension on the M3P seems to handle potholes better than my 335i.
 
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I've had the 20" wheels on my 2018 Performance model for over 66,000 miles now, and had zero blowouts or damage from potholes. I love the look of the 20" wheels, and see no reason to swap them out, but maybe I'm just lucky enough to have avoided deep potholes. Heck, I could hit one later today and have my first blowout. Who knows, but I can speak from experience that for me it has been a non-issue for the last 3+ years.
 
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I’ve driven cars with 30,35,40 sidewall tires for the last 20 years. I’ve never had a blowout from a curb or pot hole. Mostly it’s an overblown risk to worry about. Ive lived in places with bad roads where winter freeze and thaw destroy the pavement too. I have had some close calls with holes that would swallow you whole but try to be conscious of road conditions, and not hit them.

It’s a complaint of Mercedes too, with their low profile tires. Corvette, GTR, Panamera, RS7, SRT8 (3 models ) not one blown tire. Maybe I’m lucky and if so I’ll take it!

Likewise I don’t get all the weight concerns on the 20”. They look way better than the 18-19” wheels on a model 3 with no discernible ride difference to me. There is about 4 lbs of weight savings per wheel between my stock 20” Tesla wheels and my aftermarket 19” with snow tires. Unless you’re buying a $6000 set of true forged wheels, which I am not interested in doing, you aren’t saving 10lb at every wheel. The 20” Tesla wheels are within 2-3 lbs of the stock wheels that came with my last two $150,000 German sedans with 20”.

Tires weight is much higher when you need heavy XL weight rated tires for your phat car.
 
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3500 miles in Los Angeles area.
1. Sticky tires/summer tires.
Good for grip but picks up debris easier

2. 20 inch rims. Good for looks. Bad for comfort and tire protection.

3. Narrow tire. Good for range. Bad due to stretched sidewall makes it prone to damage.

can’t have it all. But swapping out rims/tires can solve the issues. If you are use to performance cars it’s actually no different.
 
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I have a 2022 M3P, 3K miles with 20" ubers... a couple weeks ago I hit a 5 inch deep 2 ft wide pothole and 2 tires got impact buldge damage but the ubers were just fine. Pirelli warrantied the 2 and they were replaced for free. I was pleasantly surprised the ubers took the crazy impact unscathed. Very happy with how they performed during the worst of the worst pothole impacts at about 40 mph