14" winter steel wheels on a 09 Fit Sport

[hankim68]

We'll see how the winter goes this year. We typically drive up the Cottonwood canyons 3-4 times a week because both my kids ski race. Last year, the Cottonwoods got 600" (Utah, greatest snow on earth). Most of the driving will be in a Toyota Sienna AWD with Blizzaks, but there will be the odd occasion when I will drive the Fit. I've always liked how small Hondas handle in the snow, and that's why we decided on FWD instead of AWD for the second car. I honestly don't think the benefits of AWD outweigh the drawbacks (weight, mileage, complexity), at least for my purposes. Besides, the scariest part of driving in snow is driving DOWN the canyon, and AWD won't help you at all going downhill. Although if they sold that AWD Fit that they offer in Japan here in the US.....

I think the point about being able to spin the tires a little bit to get out of deep snow is a very good point. To be able to "rock" out of a slippery spot is partially dependent on spinning the tires a bit. Now, I'm assuming that VSA and traction control go hand in hand, since they're both built on the ABS system, correct? So if VSA is on, then traction control HAS to be on. Am I correct?

[halfmoonclip]

Originally Posted by clicq

Well if you really want to know the bad news, the behavior seems similar on all Honda models I looked up.
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1. Buuuuut... I suppose if you really had to disable VSA, you could just pull the VSA fuse. Of course, I don't know what else shares the VSA circuit, so maybe it's not such a good idea...

clicq, thank you so much for the info. I'm still not sure what the solution is...the reprogramming tool gets mixed reviews on its own site...I'll need to do some more checking. Talk about making an easy thing hard.
Moon

[canuck901]

185 65 R15 is perfect and Michelin X ice 2 makes them so I would stick with that size

your oem wheel is 185 55 R16

[mahout]

Originally Posted by hankim68

I usually get a wheel one size smaller in diameter for winter wheels, but I just spoke to Discount Tire, who recommended 14" wheels for my 09 Fit Sport with 185/65R14 rather than 15" wheels with 175/65R15. I've never gotten wheels 2" smaller than stock. Any thoughts?

The key is the overall diameter of the tires.
As long as the wheel fits the size of the tire controls. 185/65x14 tires are about the same diameter as 176/65x15 tires. 23.4" vs 24" if my quick math is right. The 23.4 is same as stock so speedo and odo aren't affected.
A change of a half inch won't affect them that much, say 2%, or 61.2 mph at true 60 mph for the larger tires.
However, narrower tread tires work better than wide tread for snow travel as they have less width to 'cut' thru the snow. Ditto for larger diameter as the 'ramp' is lower for larger diameters to roll up over oncoming snow. A little extra ground clearance doesn't hurt either.
.
My guess is 175/65x15 tires weren't handy so they recommended what they had but I have experience with 175/65x15's in snow and they are excellent.

[JFit317]

I currently have 15's on my car and they look a little tiny but not too bad(I'm also 2inches from the ground). but 14's are going to look really small especially the higher your car is.