Options for replacing a cracked 3rd-party wheel. Are mixed wheels OK?

[ChadS]

After 40 years of driving, I have my first cracked wheel. It's not a Tesla wheel; it was one of a winter set that I bought from Tirerack.

Fortunately it's April, so I just put my summer tires back on. Now I'm set for 6 months, but before next winter I'll have to figure out what to do. I have 4 good tires and TPMS, but only 3 good wheels.

Just buy a replacement wheel, you say? Excellent idea! Too bad they are no longer available. Tirerack still sells the wheel (HERE), but they no longer have them in the right size for a P3D+. I asked if they might have an odd one or expect more in the future, and got a very curt "no". I couldn't find anyplace else that sells them. (A search found a few web sites that said they did, but when you try to pick a size, they route you to Tirerack).

So, what now?

1. I could throw all four wheels away, and replace with 4 same-sized wheels from another manufacturer. That sure seems like a waste, though.

2. I could sell the 3 good ones as spare tires to other people, and then buy 4 new sets. That would also give me flexibility to get another size if I want, although I don't, really. At least it's not as wasteful as #1, but selling and packing/shipping tires is generally a real pain. And it's likely to cost at least as much, given new wheel/tire/TPMS sets will go for a lot more than I can sell the singles for.

3. What if I find a same-size wheel of similar weight? I actually have one in mind, HERE. 18x8, just like the other set. 22.75lbs, which I think is exactly what the old ones were too. Could I buy just one, and have the tire and TPMS moved over to it? Well, obviously I CAN. What I am asking is - are there any reasons why I might not want to do that? Of course it won't look exactly the same; but perhaps I can overcome that by ordering TWO new wheels, and mounting them both on the same side. Nobody will ever see both sides at the same time...

Any other reasons why #3 is a bad idea, or why somebody like Discount Tire will refuse to mount mixed wheels?

Or...any other ideas?

Thanks!

 

[ChadS]

You can skip this post, as it's entirely incidental information. (Well, you can skip any post; but I hope somebody has some insight to my question above). Just in case anybody is curious about the experience of getting a cracked wheel:

1. How did I crack the wheel? Well, I don't know for sure, but I do remember hitting a pothole on the freeway about 10 days ago. It was a hard enough hit that I remember it, and it was on the correct side, but it was not hard enough that I figured there was wheel damage - I have had hits that hard and (I thought) harder before with no ill effects. I was especially surprised given that there no tire damage, and I got 18" wheels partly to avoid this type of problem that I have heard 20" owners encounter.

2. How did I know the wheel was cracked? On Tuesday my wife and I were driving in a remote part of NE Washington, and the car told me that the right rear tire pressure was 5 pounds low. All the others were correct, and all four had been within one pound of each other on Monday, so I figured I'd picked up a nail and had a slow leak. It was 20 miles to a town; I kept an eye on the pressure, but we didn't lose any more in that time. I stopped at a Les Schwab and asked them to check out the tire; they pointed out the cracked rim...you couldn't see it when mounted on the car; it was on the inside of the rim.

3. What did I do? Well, first I tried to buy a new temporary wheel from Les Schwab. Despite the Model 3 having been sold for 2 years now and having been the 5th largest-volume car sold last quarter, Les Schwab still doesn't have it in their database. They played with some wheels they had, and they found one that was close but hit that goofy bolt on the hub - they didn't want to remove the bolt given that Tesla doesn't say what it's for. I then asked about driving home on the cracked hub, as tire pressure loss was really slow. They very strongly advised against that - while it could be OK if I only drove on smooth roads, if I hit another pothole it could shatter. I took another look at the wheel and agreed with them. They suggested ordering a new wheel from Tesla or Tirerack and waiting in town for it to arrive, but I'm not that patient (especially given very long delays the last time I ordered wheels from Tesla AND from Tirerack). My 20" summer set was sitting in my Dad's garage while I tried to sell them...I was communicating with a potential buyer, but fortunately they hadn't sold yet. My Dad drove 200 miles to bring the 20" summer set to me - what a guy. Les Schwab mounted them, free of charge - kudos to them too.

 

[Daniel in SD]

I’m sure that any wheel of approximately the same weight and offset will be fine. I like the idea of having the two sides of the car having a different look. Nobody notices that angled spokes look different on the two sides.

 

[ChadS]

After digging around a little bit...it appears that the extra bolt on the P3D+ hub is a "locator bolt" used to align things during assembly. Supposedly (of course Tesla does not say!) it is not needed after assembly, so you can safely remove it. Tire Rack says so on their web site when you buy wheels for the P3D+, and the below video says the same at the 23-minute mark.

So, Les Schwab could have removed that bolt, and we could have driven off with their wheel that would have fit without it in place. I thought I had heard that before, but wasn't sure as I was standing in the Les Schwab parking lot in Omak...