Depends what your after, comfort/handling. Also depends on the condition of the roads you drive on. We run 205's. Auto X, 47psi front. Street use in Sonoma County, 33psi. A trip up 80 to Tahoe, 37psi.

 

Owners of the DWS are not looking for sidewall info. We can see the sidewall info just fine. It's not a matter of finding the max psi, which is 50psi for the DWS. What I'm looking to find is the ideal pressure for the DWS (handeling mpg and wear). I figured that was assumed...

 

That would be in the upper 30 range

 

I disagree with announc8's logic. This tire and size is designed for cars heavier than the fit. Therefore since it is carrying a lighter load, it would be in it's designed flex characteristics at the same or less psi as when it is used in its correct car. Every passenger car recommends between 30-35. Usually 32. The argument seems to rely on the false premise that conti will give you a psi. Guess what they dont, its up to the car manufacter. Please prove me wrong and find on the conti site where it tells you the optimal psi for this tire in this car.

So if you want to play the guessing game, logic and physics imply the direction you go is same or lower psi.

What people are getting at is they are enthusiasts and prefer the customized feeling from increased psi. You can make the same comments about the psi with the fit's oem sized tires . Nothing wrong with that, but just be clear it's an enthusiasist's recommendation, not something from a manufacturer

 

WHOA! Thread revived from the dead... or 18 mo. ago.

 

OK, I have the Continental 205/50/16 EC DWS. When I first had them put on, the dealer put in the door sticker recommended pressure. On the way home I thought they weren't sealed and going flat. I stopped,looked and appeared OK. Drove that way about a week until I hit an off ramp fairly fast and felt like the tires were rolling off the rim. I bumped up the pressure to 36,and it righted the rolling feel. First tire rotation I checked tread depth and noticed slightly more wear on the outside edges then the center. I bumped up the pressure to 38. Since that the wear evened out ,but the ride is a bit stiffer. I can deal with that to get good wear and eliminate the sloppy feel.

Fast forward to winter. Girl friend has same tires on her Scion XD. We had to take her car to the dealer during a snow. She is doing fine,I am having trouble. She runs stock tire pressure,I run higher. I thought maybe lowering the pressure would change grip,it Did. I dropped to 34 and I can go again. Can't really explain other a higher pressure had me riding on center of tire more,and reducing pressure allowed more grip including the edges of the tire,or increasing the flex of the tire?? Haven't driven enough to see outside edge wear show up at lower pressure. I will be pumping back up to 38 as that seems to be the best pressure for wear and prevent rolling feel when we are out of snow season.

PaFitter

 

I don't remember where I saw it, but I think the tire is basically triple sectioned for each part of DWS.

The middle, where there's a solid tread of rubber going all the way around the tire is for dry.

All the angled/curved voids/grooves (space between chunks of tread) are for wet.

And the outside, relatively blocky treads are for snow. Actually, it's also every "edge" (or corner of block) of any tread. Those edge/corners "bite" into snow (and some ice).

I also generally run higher than recommended PSI (38), in non-winter times. And closer to recommended pressure (35 or whatever it deflates to, when I'm not properly checking it often) for winter.

which reminds me... i should check the psi one of these days.

 

Go by the door sticker. I bought new Bridgestones, and my handling is different also. Gonna happen with different brands and tread patterns on the tires

 

Assume nothing in a forum! No facial expressions, no inflection, etc... very easy to misunderstand almost anything in a forum, at times.

Anyway, it seemed one of the questions was for maximum pressure allowed... as in, how far can I pump these puppies up. My bad if I assumed wrong or read too much into the original post. It almost seemed to me the questions were based on absolutely no knowledge of the tire at all. That's not an insult... some people seek limited info on certain topics and know even less on how to go about getting the info needed.

And as everyone knows, sometimes a forum is a place for people to bypass the info-seeking, saving time, and allowing others to inform them without HAVING to search for themselves.

As you know, I'm sure, Continental (and all tire producers) tests their tires under all types of circumstances for possibly months before releasing them. I doubt they test using a Honda Fit ... but all-around optimum tire performance IS what it IS for any given tire.

Personally, I would just stick to info from Conti themselves. Or, just experiment if one wishes to ignore that info/recommendation.

 

I more or less said or at least implied that in another post. Still, tire size is tire size. Don't you think Conti tests their tires on a decent lot of different cars? They're a good company. I'm sure they didn't get where they're at keeping themselves partially in the dark about their tires' performance characteristics in many varying situations and vehicles.

I'm just saying... when in doubt, I always seek out whatever a given manufacturer has to say about their wares. Then again, when I buy something, regardless of what it is, I tend to research the crap out of it before actually laying down any cash. Maybe even over-research... sometimes with a healthy amount of second-guessing.

 

That's basically right. I was going to buy the Conti DWS before I decided to try the Kumho tires I eventually settled on. The ones I settled on have as good or a better all-weather rating as the Continentals... snow and ice included.

I'm very happy with the Kumhos, btw. They did GREAT in the snow the 2 times I drove in it. They're like glue in the rain too. Given the price, they rock! I would buy them again without a second thought.

 

A minor update to my experience with the PSI on these tires:

After upping the PSI to 35 as I mentioned earlier in the thread, it was a lot better but still squealed in certain situations (such as a >90 turn or taking a quick turn after stopping at a stop sign). I've upped them to 37 now and haven't heard a squeal since

Side note: tread life is disappointing. It's been almost exactly 2 years and around 30,000 miles and my fronts are at 3/32 :/

 

Have to revive this thread, as I think it's better than starting a new one on the SAME topic.

At Honda recommended PSI the 205/50R16 DWS on my stock sport rims feels like it's going to pop off the rim. Responsiveness and precision is gone and the sidewall flex and overall "squirminesss" is unbearable. I drive the car very aggressively, with quick lane changes and turns at the limit of the grip, so perhaps if you drive like a 100yr old man going 5 under the speed limit and taking your turns at 3mph then 35psi is perfect.

I am pretty disappointed so far because even at 45F/42R there is still a lot of sidewall flex and squirm, enough to unsettle the rear end during quick maneuvers. These handling characteristics make more sense when you look at the tire and see the considerable bulge away from the rim.

 

I found these online for $104 each (even cheaper than tire rack price) and had my local Tires Plus price match them. Had them mounted and balanced, then got a 4-wheel alignment.

Acceleration is down, so is MPG. I wish I had picked up lighter 17" rims and gone with 205/45/17's or something along those lines (whatever would be close to stock overall diameter), because the sidewall flex is nearly unbearable for my driving style.

Either due to the increased width, extra weight, or both, acceleration is noticeably slower. To verify we broke out the equipment and found 0-60 time has increased from 7.8 to 8.1 seconds. That may not seem significant but I believe there are a LOT of cars in that 0-60 range so it immediately became noticeable when run of the mill econoboxes started hanging with me away from lights, ones that I am used to pulling away from. Yeah maybe I shouldn't be dropping the clutch at every traffic light but I bought this car to enjoy not to put on display in my living room.

I immediately had to adjust tire pressure up when I left the shop, as the tires felt way too soft and wobbly. I have since upped them four different times, slowly making my way up to 45F/42R, and I'll probably up them to 47F/45R today to try and remedy this squirmy feeling.

Since I live in Florida I very seriously considered an extreme performance summer tire, but I drive TONS of miles (have 50K on my 2013 Fit Sport, purchased December 2012) and I go to Chicago and Ohio several times a year. Keeping a second set of rims/tires for my winter trips is a pain so I figured with all of the positive reviews on the DWS they would be the best option.

Florida also gets torrential downpours all the time in the summer and I couldn't even use cruise control with the stock Dunlops in the rain, my TC light would just be on half the time with the car wandering all over the road. I actually like the Dunlops, they provide fairly adequate dry traction and the limits of the tires can be felt quite well, but wet traction was terrible. They even performed GREAT in the snow, to my surprise.

I will probably go for very lightweight 17's and a tire that actually fits the rim when these things start to go in 40-50k.. Wet and dry traction are better than the Dunlops, but the tires don't communicate as well and it's not as obvious when you're pushing the tires the limits of their grip. They feel so squirmy all the time that when you start to lose grip they don't feel all that different, as opposed to the stock Dunlops where I had no problem feeling the limits of the tires.

I am hoping that with more miles (currently less than 200 on them) I will get more used to the annoying squirmy feeling and more used to the less communicative tire so that I can safely explore the limits of grip. The drops in MPG and acceleration are likely here to stay though. I usually average 35mpg mixed driving and so far the DWS look like they have dropped my MPG to about 32. If MPG was my main concern I would get 185 width LRR tires and would have gone base not sport, but it would be nice to be getting something in return for the drop in MPG (like um, better handling, not just slightly more traction).

I hope this information is somewhat useful for anyone considering a 205 size tire on their Fit!!

 

As tires get wider more pressure is needed to 'flatten out' the tread. We took a poll here among the hard nosed and the consensus is 38 to 40 psig for 205/50x16 tires on 6 to 7" wide rim is best.
The maximum pressure before wearing the center is probably 45 psig, unless of course its accompanied by lots of high cornering effort that wears the edges. The two here running 205/50 tires agree that they wear out edges as quickly as center because they don't believe in that braking stuff.
Its the weight of the tire that counts most because the weight is farther from the axle so choosing a lighter tire is more important than wheels

 

34PSI is what I run

 

45/42 is too high... lol if you cant stand the tire response a 38/35, then you bought the wrong tire for your liking. i have the DWS as my winter set. i run RE760's in the summer time 35psi all around cold.