Hey guys, I have a used 2010 Fit Sport with one previous owner and around 37k miles on the factory Dunlops. The first owner never had the tires rotated and now one of the front tires (which was patched and plugged last spring) appears to have developed a slow leak. I took the car into the shop this morning and found that the rear tires are still effectively new while the ones on the front are down to 3-4/32s of tread. My fault for not getting them checked sooner, etc. etc. :D

My question to you as a first-time car owner is - what's the best next step? Can I replace only the two worn tires or would it be smarter to bite the bullet and replace the whole set? I've done a little reading on plus-sizing as it's apparently quite popular with the Fit but I'd really prefer not to purchase new wheels if at all possible. With that in mind here's what I've found in the OE size:

185/55R16

* Hankook Ventus V2 Concept H437: $78.97/tire (shipped)
* Yokohama AVID Ascend: $109/tire (shipped)
* Bridgestone Turanza EL470: $128/tire (+ shipping)
* Kumho Ecsta PA31: $75/tire (+ shipping)

Installation's gonna be around $20/tire no matter which I pick. What would you all suggest? I'm not a particularly aggressive driver but I do live in Florida so decent wet traction is a must.

Thanks for your time! :)

 

I deliberately left the Dunlops out of the above list because nobody seems to like them very much, though I'm certainly not opposed to leaving the good pair on the car if that's not a completely stupid idea.

 

If you can swing it I would replace all four tires.You can run a 205/50/16 on the stock sport wheels and there are lots of options in this size.

I run the Kumho ecsta 4x on my 2012 Sport and they have been great in all seasons with good wet traction.

I would also check out the Continintal DWS

congrats on your new Fit and others will be along shortly with some good info and thoughts to help you out.

 

I will make this as short as I can, to keep from boring anyone..

When I bought my Fit Sport, the one thing I really didn't care for was the road noise, harsh ride, and sucky wet weather performance of the OEM tires (Seattle)

Fast Forward to last week....
So I hit this pothole and get a pinch flat in the sidewall in one of my front OEM tires @ 15200 miles. I know it's shot, and not wanting to pursue locating another sucky OEM tire, I call my tire guy, I tell him my size is 185/55 R16 83H and that I want to buy a set for the front, he recommends the Hankook Ventus V2 Concept. So I have him order 2 for the front.

After getting them installed, I noticed right away that my Fit's ride is now smoother and quieter with a noticeable improvement in wet weather performance. I was so impressed with the way that only having 2 Hankook Ventus V2 Concept's in the front made my Fit ride/perform, that I ordered 2 more for the rear, tossing my 2 remaining low mile OEM tires (and it doesn't bother me one bit), I was glad to get rid of them. Maybe when the Hankook Ventus V2 Concept's wear out, there will be more tires to choose from? I really don't care, I would buy the Hankook's again without any hesitation

 

I normally would suggest that you put only two new tires on and save a couple of hundred dollars. That is what I did. Within 4 or 5 months a second OEM Dunlop developed a bubble and I said that is it.

I replaced the other pair and junked those Dunlops completely.

I used the Yokohama Avid Ascend tires all the way around. They have a high treadwear rating and are a LRR (Low Rolling Resistance) tire. They have excellent traction dry and wet with acceptable traction on snow. I think you are in Florida and do not care about the snow traction.

Based on my experience I suggest that whatever you buy I would go for all 4 and scrap those junk Dunlops. You are going to get all kinds of recommendations on brands and sizes. Good Luck deciding on which one you want. I went with the OEM stock tire size.

 

IMO if you want MPG and comfort, go with the Yokohama Avid Ascend in 185/55-16

 

I recently replaced the OEM Dunlops on 2011 Sport at ~28,000 miles. Because there are so few options in the OEM size of 185/55-16, I moved up to 205/50-16 and settled on the Continental DWS.

Great tread and tested it in Hurricane Karen rainfall event here in PA. Since these tires are oversize vs OEM, it is a bit of a guessing game on tire pressure. These tires are for a slightly heavier vehicle, so I would assume that the pressure chart on the door jam (185/55-16) might be at a higher pressure than needed. Because it isn't an exact match, I'm experimenting by running at least two tanks of gas at each different pressure (keeping all 4 tires at same pressure).

With 185/55-16 OEM at "door jam" pressure of 32-33 psi, I routinely got 34 mpg (hand calculated). With the 205/50-16 DWS at door jam pressure of 32-33 psi, I routinely got 32 mpg but it didn't seem like tire tread was making full contact with the road. I dropped it to 29 psi and now average 30 mpg but the ride is smoother and I can see that most of the tread is working on the road surface.

I guess the moral of the story is that if you want to keep it simple, staying with the OEM sized 185/55-16 produces "good enough" all-round results. And although there are few options in that tire size, almost anything will be better to some degree than the OEM Dunlops, which seem designed to allow Honda to make a few more mils of profit and get you out the door.

 

I also just put the Hankook Ventus V2 H437 on my Fit Sport. I haven't even used a full tank of gas on them yet, and just dry commuting miles, so I can't judge anything about performance yet. But they are a little softer riding than the OEM Dunlops. Right now, they fell a little "floaty" to me, but I always find that new tires with more tread feel that way versus well worn tires.

I definitely have no complaints with them.

But note on the pricing. Your price for those appears to come from Discount Tire Direct. When I ordered mine in late August, they were $10 less per tire plus $50 off a set of 4, so it was quite good deal. At their current pricing, they do have $25 off a set of four. But with the price increase on the Hankooks, the Yokohama Avid Ascend which also have a manufacturer rebate become a pretty competitive option. But all of these deals and discounts only apply to sets of 4. Discount tire does have better deals periodically - you're buying when the total price is a little higher than the best you could get if you were able to wait.

As far as getting 2 or 4 tires, I'd replace all four if you can swing it. I just think handling will be best with matched tires. I'm also curious that you said the rears are "effectively new". I would expect that even without rotation, they'd be down to 6/32 or 7/32, e.g., no more than half of their tread left. Are you sure they're not worn more than you thin? Did the shop actually check tread depth on them, or do they just look newer than the worn front tires?

 

I too would start out with 4 new tires. As the saying goes 80% of your problems occur in the last 20% of the tread life. Two more tires are less than $200 versus crashing a ~$15,000 car ($200=1.3% of the total). Why not give yourself the best fighting chance to lessen probability of blow out on a deserted road in winter or a monster road like 495 around Washington DC?

 

One more thing I want to add about my discussion to go with the Hankook's was the fact that they are not a high mileage tire. High mileage tires are made from a harder durometer rubber that wears better, but because of the hardness of the rubber, traction tends to suffer. My first question to my tire guy after he recommended the Hankook's was..."are they a high mileage tire?" if his answer would have been "yes", they would never have been considered. Every tire makes more road noise the closer you get to it's carcass, what I want is to spend as little time at that point in a tires life as possible. If I get 40,000 or less out of a tire I am happy...out with the old, in with the new. Tires are a WORLD of compromise.

CCPDYMMV

 

On my Fit, I have kept my factory style Dunlops when I replaced the tires. The original ones lasted over 50k miles when properly rotated. My new ones are on pace to do the same as they about about 40k miles on them now. I am sure that there are better riding tires out there, but this has sufficed me well and are quite economical.

 

There are many good advice and good reasons here on replacing the Dunlops. Depends on OP's priority, if you don’t want to get new nicer tires, you can check on Craigslist or other boards to see if anyone selling the OEM’s. There should be a good supply and inexpensive. You may be able to pick up a whole set of 4 from newer FITs.

 

OP: please do your own research on sites like tirerack.com. I know us Fit owners have some difficulties finding ample choices in our tire size, but the first thing you will notice when you peruse the Survey Results tab on their website is that there are a lot of JUNKY tires on the market and very few outstanding ones. The Hankooks mentioned earlier aren't even listed on tire rack. I have Hankook 727s on my Hyundai and they are pretty good. Since I own Hankooks best tire, I would not recommend any other version of Hankook, especially for light snow driving. If you plan on getting snow tires, then your options for spring through fall driving increase greatly since you can throw out the low ratings for snow and ice. One of the best tires on the road, the Michelin MXV4, has done me well, yet I have tried to find something better. My Michelins are plagued with the typical Michelin cracking on the side wall, and don't perform well as the tread gets low, unlike Firestone/Bridgestone tires which keep their grip throughout the life of the tire (Uni-T). While people are well meaning on giving tire advice, I'd still rather see you do your own research so you are getting the tire that meets your local weather and driving conditions (light snow/ice belt of northern Florida, or always warm and rainy southern Florida). Tire Rack is about the best there is for that research. Best of luck on your decision.

 

TireRack will always have glowing reviews on tires they sell, when it comes to winter tires they always downplay Nokian, why....because they don't sell Nokian. There is a lot of good info there, but it is biased to what they sell

 

I love my Yokohama S-drives since it's a "performance" tire I was concerned about road noise but my Yokos aren't noisy AT ALL! Even quieter than the crappy bridgestones that are standard on canadian Fits. I nearly never spin out on hard accelerations once my tires are worn and the wet traction is excellent. Not necessarily a soft ride but that's not my priority.

 

Thank you MT, that seals the deal on my tire choice. I was worried about wet traction so that's good to hear.

 

BTW, I meant "warm" not "worn". If it's cold out the tires will have slightly better grip after a few minutes of driving.

 

Update and still wondering about correct tire pressures
I have since dumped the Continental DWS tires (2015/50-16) which wore out in 20K miles. I now have General R43 Altimax (205/50-16) on all four over the last 1.5 yrs. These appear to be lasting and I've never had noise, hydroplaning, or poor winter performance - I like them.

The mystery is what is the correct tire pressure. I've searched on line and inside FF topics but I haven't found the "golden rule" explained.

Reason this is coming up again is that Pennsylvania as well as the Midwest / New England was hit with sub-freezing temps and my tire pressure alarm went off.

So just asking if anyone has a math formula since doing "chalk" method is out in sloppy winter.

 

1psi change for every 10F change. That is the general rule.

Since you're not running snow tires yet u can run a tad higher psi like 36-37 and you should be fine for winter. Make sure to let air out when it gets warmer.

 

I was going to answer your question with some fancy math to explain the correct pressure and how I arrived at it. Then I looked up your size tires and the OEM tires specs. It turns out that they are almost exactly the same. There is a one pound difference in weight carrying capability of the same maximum inflation pressure.

So the answer without the math is:

"Use the car manufacturer recommended inflation specification"