Gray "Performance" Wheels are available to those who don't order a Performance Model

[Andrew Wolfe]

Would powder coating affect the wheel's sensors? (e.g. tire pressure sensor) I have no experience with either powder coating nor wheels with sensors (driving my 1999 Mazda Protege...yes, this will be an upgrade Although the wife has a BMW, I don't think it has tire pressure monitors - particularly give she shredded some run flats not knowing they wer actually flat......

Powder Coating is just a high-durability form of painting. It should not impact anything but color.

 

[Todd Burch]

Please post some pics once you've had it done. I love the dark 21" rims and their design but I know 19's would be far more practical!

I absolutely will.

 

[josh]

I just had a set of aluminum audi wheels powder coated. Mass Brothers in Livermore is a good place in the Bay Area, cost is ~$90/wheel for a basic color.

It's no problem for the tire pressure monitoring.

Powder coating is a bit like painting I guess, but as I understand it the wheels are charged electrically and then dipped, and the color is attracted due to opposite charge. Then they are baked in an oven to bake the color on. It's an extremely durable way to color the wheels. I may not have it exactly right but that's the gist of it.

There is a lively debate online which you can easily find using the google as to whether the heat involved in the PC process impacts the integrity of the wheels, esp forged aluminum wheels (not sure if tesla are -- the R8 wheels were). A lot of wheel companies come out an say not to PC their wheels, as when they do it at the factory they account for it in how long they heat their wheels etc. etc. There is a vocal set of voices (including some apparent materials science research data) that feels that at most it would affect the strength of the wheel by 1%.

I'm not sure who's right -- my Audi wheels are for racing so it matters more, I'm guessing for a daily driver there's no issue. Mass Bros does a number of prominent race team wheels, and those guys are stressing the hell out of the wheels, so I got comfortable that there was no material concern. But there is definitely a debate to be had.

Finally, there are quite a lot of color options to choose from -- many, many shades of gray and black. The ones i got done look spectacular.

 

[contaygious]

Just a heads up that I bought my last car with coated rims and I had problems with the coating affecting the tires. They would constantly lose air. This was about 4 years after the coating and I had to buy all new wheels to solve the problem. Hopefully places do a better job nowadays.

 

[olanmills]

Interesting. I wonder if that could have been caused by uneven coating.

Do you know, when they do powder coating, is a clearcoat typically used too, or no?

 

[contaygious]

Sorry not sure. I bought from a friend who had it power coated.