what tires will fit.

[Sugarphreak]

Originally Posted by holloway2006

So, about anything under 43mm rubbing with a 205 tire... I'm running a 17x7 wheel with a 205 and a 40mm offset and I don't rub unless I have several people in my car.

Anytime you have loading, really push the car in a corner or hit a big dip on a highway you will rub, some people can live with it.... some people can't. I would even go with a higher offset than +43 to avoid rubbing personally. In fact, I would say if you want to run 17's with stock suspension you need at LEAST +45.

I ran 17's with a +42 and I wasn't happy. Lots of rubbing with a 205 tire. Swapped out for another 17" rim with +45, no rubs... then dropped the car down on GF210 springs.... the rubbing returned. I swapped out the 205 for a 195 and hasn't rubbed since regardless of how many people or how hard I push it through a corner.

[wagonsir]

I hope Jim@tirerack can respond to this, as it involves their products (although i would also welcome responses from anyone else).

I have some Kosai K1-TS wheels from my 93 Honda Civic hatch. The hatch was stolen last month, but fortunately it still had the winter wheels on it. I replaced it with a new Honda Fit last week and my plan was to put the Kosai wheels on the Fit. But I am a little dismayed to find that the Fit has much higher offset on the wheels than the Civic did.

I have the Kosai K1-TS 15"x7" wheels with 38 mm offset. I have seen a number of posts that say 38 mm offset has problems with rubbing on the Fit, but I am wondering if I can get away with it in my specific case (I don't wan't to have to buy new wheels when I have perfectly good ones already).

I will be installing 195/50R15 Bridgestone RE-01R tires.
I will be installing the Honda camber bolts, which will give me 40' (2/3 degree) negative camber.
I will not be dropping the vehicle.

If my calculatons are right, using 195 instead of 205 tires should gain me 5 mm additional clearance. The 2/3 degree negative camber should gain me another 3 mm at the top of the tire. Will this be enough to allow me to use my (15"x7") 38 mm offset wheels without rubbing?

If so, the K1-TS wheels came with plastic inserts to match the 93 Honda Civic hatch. Do the same inserts work with the Fit, or do I need new ones?

[mahout]

You just might get away with it.
You are correct, typically, that you reduce your tire section by 5 mm but it is the tread width that will rub, not the section. 38 mm is 4 mm less than the minimum non-rubbing we know, without lowering, so theoretically you have a mm to spare. That is helped by your fitting 195/50x15 tires. They are only 22.67" diameter and stock 195/55x15's are 23.44". So that should add some clearance.
Measure your read width and if it is less than 6 and 1/8" inches I'd say you have a better than average chance of making it not rubbing. You will of course have a 3.3% error in your speedo and odo (reads higher than actual or original)but thats pretty reasonable.
PS where are you putting the camber bolts on the rear? I don't think you'll need them anyway front or rear.
Good luck.

[wagonsir]

Originally Posted by mahout

Measure your read width and if it is less than 6 and 1/8" inches I'd say you have a better than average chance of making it not rubbing.

According to Bridgestone, the tread width of the P195/50R15 RE-01R is 7.2 inches. Thus, I sure hope you meant 7 1/8" instead of 6 1/8". I will try to get to Bridgestone and measure the tread width myself tomorrow.

Originally Posted by mahout

PS where are you putting the camber bolts on the rear? I don't think you'll need them anyway front or rear.

You are right, of course, The camber bolts only affect the front. I was going to get alignment shims for the rear. The stock rear camber already has negative camber (1.3 to 1.5 degrees?), so I thought I'd just get a 0.5 degree shim. Although, I'm not clear if the shims increase or decrease camber.

[mahout]

I agree that you should check the tread width.; 7.3" on a tire that is 7.67" section width seems a bit much but it can be that wide. Even so, I am reasonably sure you can install without rubbing thanks to the short tire if it is really 22.67" diameter. I haven't been to Bridge's site but check that the diameter is not 23.5" or so because you may then get rubbibg.