Asking the Hive- Other OEM wheels on a Tesla 3 Performance

I'm looking to buy a spare set of wheels for my Model 3 Performance but it's difficult due to some of the odd choices that Tesla made for the center hub. This article explains all of it, but in short a model 3 performance (and performance only) has a stepped lip that takes the hub diameter from 70.1mm closest to the car, to 64.1mm. Before looking at used Tesla wheels, I was hoping to look at what stock OEM wheels from other manufacturers might fit that (just to be cheap and have easy spares for racing), but I cannot sort them by hub diameter or search by that stepped lip. Does anyone know of something that could fit? Current 19" Performance wheel size is 19×8.5 with 235/40r sized tire, and form tends to follow function for me personally.

Thanks!

Paging 84FSP to the courtesy phone 

This should give you everything you need...

https://bolt-pattern.com/#bolt-pattern

In reply to Driven5 :

Thanks for the link. Seems that for this (which is outdated, it doesn't even list the Model 3 as an option) the only vehicle in the US that uses the same wheel stud and bolt pattern is the Gen 6 Mustang 2015-2018(?) But it has 5mm more on offset and the center bore is 70.5 instead of the 70.1.

Looking for this is demanding both my brain cells work and it SUCKS

Can you get a thin spacer and basically bypass the step and just go straight to the 64.1mm bore? Then you can use regular Model 3/Y wheels.

Tire Rack has 65 different wheels that should fit. If all you want is a spare set of wheel, then I would go for the cheapest ones and call it a day.

I've found there are quite good availability of wheels that are good with the stepped hub and the offset.   The thing to watch out for is the 14mm stud holes as many are 12.5.  

There is pretty good width capability for them in terms of what fits.  I'm running 20x9 235/35/20 and 20x10..5 rear 285/20/20 (should have gone up to 295 as they are a tad stretched).

Pending offsets/lowering you can run up 9.5/10 square.  Most of the Autox types run 18x10 square vs the staggered setup I settled on.

Very interested in this topic.  My in-laws are very unhappy with the expense and lack of comfort with the OE wheel & tire combo.  Each Michelin Pilot Sport 4S is costing them nearly $500 installed -- since new they have replaced 6, and are due for 2 more.  I'd love to put them into a set of wheels/tires with more sidewall and less expensive tire options.

In reply to 84FSP :

Thanks man. The more I try to learn or settle, the more I seem to discover in doing so- I feel information paralysis setting in as I type.

I'll keep poking the marketplace for 18-20 inch wheels, have you found any issues just getting wheels with larger center bores? I've frankly never had to mess with center bore measurements that much. I'm also looking to make these the summer and autocross wheels, so I'd love inspiration there too.

On the RWD Model 3, Honda wheels fit. 

GIRTHQUAKE said:

But it has 5mm more on offset and the center bore is 70.5 instead of the 70.1.

You need the wheel diameter (and spokes) that will clear the brakes, wheel width (and diameter) to fit your desired tire size, offset to not rub inside or outside, and center bore that is 70.1 or larger... Alternatively get 3mm spacers (also reducing offset difference to 2mm) and run aything 64.1mm or larger bore.

For gross center bore differences you may be able to get appropriate hub centric rings. If it's close, don't bother. The hub center is for rough installation alignment, and does not do final (torqued) alignment nor carry any load.

Okay, good to know it's for alignment; I DO know that once, discount tire refused to do a job because I lacked "hub centric rings" but it was on swapping stock OEM wheels back onto my car- I think they just didn't want to and made up an excuse.

Already finding some interesting stuff near me. Someone is selling these Fifteen52 Integrales for $900 with a 30mm offset and that would lend to the all black look I was thinking of.

Another is these XXR wheels in Bronze, but only for $800 which isn't a great deal. Ugh, decisions.

Driven5 said:

GIRTHQUAKE said:

But it has 5mm more on offset and the center bore is 70.5 instead of the 70.1.

You need the wheel diameter (and spokes) that will clear the brakes, wheel width (and diameter) to fit your desired tire size, offset to not rub inside or outside, and center bore that is 70.1 or larger... Alternatively get 3mm spacers (also reducing offset difference to 2mm) and run aything 64.1mm or larger bore.

For gross center bore differences you may be able to get appropriate hub centric rings. If it's close, don't bother. The hub center is for rough installation alignment, and does not do final (torqued) alignment nor carry any load.

I will say this, on every car I've ran aftermarket wheels that needed hubcentric rings a few times I didn't have them yet when the wheels went on. Neither I or a tire shop could get them on properly without them vibrating something fierce at highway speeds. 

Hubrings have always fixed it. 

GIRTHQUAKE said:

Okay, good to know it's for alignment; I DO know that once, discount tire refused to do a job because I lacked "hub centric rings" but it was on swapping stock OEM wheels back onto my car- I think they just didn't want to and made up an excuse.

That's probably not uncommon at tire shops. Costco won't even install non-factory size tires. It's just their liability comfort level combined.

In reply to z31maniac :

That's a good point. Hub centric fitment or rings are certainly more ideal if available. In addition to installer error, hub centric rings will mask certain manufacturing errors in either the hub or (especially when aftermarket) wheels. Namely the (tapered bore) bolt circle being out of (or too loose) tolerance in diameter or concentricity.  If it's bad enough you're getting a 'fierce' vibration from them, with the hub centric rings they're likely then placing an undesirable bending load on the wheel studs.

There are a variety of people running OEM wheels from Nissans, Honda's, and Ford Mustangs.  There are some nice options in the Mustang parts bin in terms of running wide, available, lightweight 18's.  The base model 3 wheels are quite light and are pretty cheap amongst the forums like Teslamotorsclub and other FB groups.  I seriously considered running the forged Rays GTR wheels as they are pretty available and affordable.  From memory they would need bolt holes drilled out but that didn't particularly concern me.  

Most of this will sadly be on you doing some research as the Tesla guys seem be less comfortable with anything not explicitly perfect and approved by everyone.  

Driven5 said:

In reply to z31maniac :

That's a good point. Hub centric fitment or rings are certainly more ideal if available. In addition to installer error, hub centric rings will mask certain manufacturing errors in either the hub or (especially when aftermarket) wheels. Namely the (tapered bore) bolt circle being out of (or too loose) tolerance in diameter or concentricity.  If it's bad enough you're getting a 'fierce' vibration from them, with the hub centric rings they're likely then placing an undesirable bending load on the wheel studs.

I don't think it was anything with tolerance issues, just no matter how many times I tried just slowly tightening the lugs, could never get it quite right. Hubrings, instantly solved it. The set in particular I'm thinking of were SSR's. 

So it's not like these were cheap, knock off wheels. 

In reply to z31maniac :

Your description is exactly that of having a non-conforming part somewhere in the assembly. I've had to figure out similar manufacturing and assembly problems countless times in my career. The hub centric fitment just masked it by moving the problem to a less obvious place, but did not actually 'fix' the root cause.

Almost all 18's will clear the Performance brakes including all the various Tesla m3 wheels.  I see tons of the mustang 18's and 19's for ~$500 and for track purposes 18's are far cheaper and more available.

84FSP said:

Almost all 18's will clear the Performance brakes including all the various Tesla m3 wheels.  I see tons of the mustang 18's and 19's for ~$500 and for track purposes 18's are far cheaper and more available.

Hot damn, that's exactly what I'm looking for. I'll poke around on the Tesla forums to see what they've used, because I'll need sidewall to deal with my cities potholes.

Yeah sidewall and tire options are a huge bonus of 18's.  You'll also find a pretty significant improvement to range that corresponds to the significant reduction in weight they offer. 

Okay, bringing this up again just to stash all my findings; might be useful for someone else.

Summit racing has plenty of Hub Centric rings available, and these it looks like would allow me to use stock Tesla 18inch wheels. Takes the diameter from the 70-70.1mm of the Performance down to the stock Model 3's 64.1mm. At least I think these would work, I'm in uncharted territory here lol. These might be preferable- I could also gain the aero covers for slight range improvements (and go for a sleeper look) and they seem to be overall cheaper.

Account on Tesla Motors Club pages still has not been made  Just been busy.

This page from On All Cylinders is excellent and shows close-up details of offset. They claim 31-32 is perfect and 35mm is a little too far; Using a local listing for 2017 Mustang wheels as an example (235 50 R18s) From Wheel-Size dot com, they still have 38-42mm of offset; None of the mustang sites state if the OEM wheels are positive or negative offset, but the Tesla Wheels appear to be stock at +40 offset so they're equal? I think if I'm reading this right, that either they're a straight swap or they're using a spacer to be able to use stock mustang wheels.

I'm very confused.