Thanks for the pic! I love those Volk's. Cars a little too low for my taste. BTW, JDM....i saw an Orange 09 today for the first time. Great choice, can't wait to see yours with all of your great parts.

 

what about us folks who want to keep the 185/55R16 tires, with stock ride height? will +42 work?

 

those are nice wheel covers?

 

anyone have info on the wing on that car?!

 

J`s Racing makes it.. and it`s a grip of $$$$$....

 

I have serious doubts about using 185/55x16 tires on 16x6/42 wheels on an 09. The wheel and tire will 'push out' 11mm, or a little over 3/8", and on the 09 we got to look at that was very close to if not actually rubbing on the fender arch in front.
You can judge for yourself by using a ruler to see how far how the edge of your tire at the tread corner gets to the fender arch.
Or you can be precise by putting stacks of 1/2" ID washers on the lugbolts and reinstalling the wheel/tire. Each stack needs to be 3/8" tall' or a trifle more. DO NOT DRIVE ANYWHERE!!!! Jum,p up and down on the door sill and if it rubs, well, you decide if you want to mod the fender or do something else..
PS if you do this let the rest of us know as you will be helping a lot of 09 owners based on the PM's I've gotten.

 

All right folks, here is the update:

The 17/7-inch Enkei wheels I wanted to use will not fit without fender-lip modification. Discussing this with Tire Rack customer support, it was explained to me that none of the 17-inch wheels currently on sale at Tire Rack will fit the '09 without some amount of body work.

I would not be afraid of doing body work to make the 17-inch wheels and tires fit, but for us the Fit we just bought is meant for basic transportation, not track time. We need to be able to put bikes in the back, mulch, plants - that sort of thing. I have other hardware for the race track

We ended up going with 16x7 Enkei wheels and some decent Bridgestone Potenza 205/50 ZR16 tires, similar to those I use on my M3. The factory wheels, which are 16x6, do not offer hardly any good tire choices. Buying these wheels meant we had to spend an extra $900 (thank you, Honda), but at least we can now get decent tires. I do not mind doing it.

Hope this helps your wheel decision making...

 

So what was the size again.... 17x7 with a 45mm ET or 17x7.5 with a 45mm ET..??

I can see a 17x7 with a 45mm ET fitting just fine but with a 7.5 45mm ET it will be flush.. hmmm

 

One helpful site for you all looking to see what might work..

http://www.rims-n-tires.com/rt_specs.jsp?item=Wheel-Tire%20size%20comparer&showRim1=1&showTire1=1&sw1= 195&ar1=55&bd1=15&rd1=15&rw1=6.5&et1=55&showRim2=1 &showTire2=1&sw2=195&ar2=50&bd2=16&rd2=16&rw2=7.0& et2=40&text1=stock&text2=rota%2016`s

 

The 17x7.5 wheels with 45 mm offset will not fit. (Sorry for the oversight.)


But the other point I wanted to make is that when I sked tire Rack customer support for tips on other 17-inch wheels he said that all of the 17-inch wheels will have the same problem. Check with gavin@tirerack.com.

 

The 17x7.5 wheels with 45 mm offset will not fit. (Sorry for the oversight.)

But the other point I wanted to make is that when I sked tire Rack customer support for tips on other 17-inch wheels he said that all of the 17-inch wheels will have the same problem. Check with gavin@tirerack.com.

 

You can run both 195/50-16 and 205/50-16 on the stock wheels. There are some very good tires in these sizes.

 

We fit 17x7/42 mm offset wheels with 205/40x17 tires on an 09 and they just made it. Primarily because the diameter of 205/40x17 tires are 1/2" smaller than 185/55x16's but it was close.
And yes there are a number of 195 section tires for the 6" rim but the really good stuff 205's all need 7" rims.

Anything wider than 205's are not suitable tires because they really don't help a Fit in handling. Says the stop watch.

 

All the 205/50-16 tires I looked at (e.g. Direzza Star Spec) listed 6.5" as the reference rim, with a range of 5.5"-7.5". Those are very good tires.

 

So does that mean that most of the 17x7 wheels will fit if their offset is 42mm or greater? What about 205/45x17?

 

Yes, I think they're good too but 205/50x16's may interfere with the fender because they are so tall (24.1") same as stock) and because of the heavier weight won't perform as well nor get as good mpg.
205/40x17 tires on 17x7/42 - 45 mm will work. @05/45x16's on 16x7/42 -45 also work because the tire diameter is also much smaller. That makes up for the acceleration and mpg.

 

Biggest tires we could mount on the one 09 we we got in were 205/45x16 on 16x7/42 wheels or 205/40x17 on 17x7/42 mm offset. Anything bigger rubbed the fender. If you find them, 45 mm offset is insurance.
The reason is those tires are 1/2" smaller in diameter than stock and would just clear inside the fender arch on compression. And thanks to the smaller diameter didn't lose acceleration nor mpg. And 2% speedo/ odo error not a problem (1.2 mph at 60 mph).

Good luck.

 

Well... since the stock rims have 53 offset, I'd be pretty surprised if these interfered like 205 on wider rims with +43 or +45. Of course, wider rims with bigger tires are going to weigh more and sacrifice some efficiency too (not to mention tires that lower gearing significantly).

In any case, I'm not making any decisions yet on wheels. I'm pretty sure I'll go with Michelin PE2 195/50-16 on the stock wheels to start with since I expect that will be a very good setup. If I want to go faster, I'll drive my other car.

 

Sounds good to me, too. If you want some improvement you could put 1/4" spacers behind the wheels to give you the equivalent of 47 mm offset wheels. With those 195/50x16 tires you should be just fine. The smaller diameter will increase acceleration and mpg.
PS the adapters are readily available at most auto parts stores for under $50. Budo make sure you have enough lugbolt to screw the lignuts on, about 7/16" worth.

 

2 Q's.

I'm looking at 15x7 +41, thoughts? I want to run the close in diameter, and want to use 185/50-15 Altimax HP (17 LBS). Think fitment will be decent?

Also, if you are taking off the OEM's this much, any chance you could throw one on the scale?