I recently replaced my 09 Honda Fit Sport's stock tires with 205/50R-16 General AltiMAX RT43s and within 3 weeks got a momentary tire light(the orange tire shaped light accompanied with an exclamation point) and felt the steering wheel get awfully heavy in a turn immediately following the light. The light flickered on a couple of times over the course of a 3 hour drive and the heaviness that accompanied it was only momentary. The owners manual talks about the light coming on and staying on if you have an ECS issue but I am wandering if the flickering on and off could be related to the new,wider tires creating an extra load on the ECS system as opposed to the system actually being broken. The car only has ~90k miles. Any advice is greatly appreciated!

 

did u check your tire pressure?

 

The light I am getting is an orange steering wheel(I just realized that in my OP I said tire shaped light, whoops) with the exclamation point.

 

I doubt the tires are directly related; they aren't that much bigger than the stock tires, and the amount of force needed to turn the wheels is much greater when the car is standing still than when it's rolling along. It may be something simple like a loose connection or a dirty sensor in the system; hopefully some helpful code was recorded that a reader could read out.

 

I sincerely hope you are right. I have read that the part is expensive to replace. Thanks for the help. I am planning on taking it to a honda dealer next week, just wanted to gain some wisdom before going in.

 

Be sure to report back how it went. I plan on upgrading to 205's at some point also.

 

Just to be clear: The tires have been balanced (on a machine) and the cold tire pressures are in spec?

 

I have been running on 205's for four years now, have had zero issues with the steering.

 

Steering wheel with exclamation mark = Power Steering failure

Dashboard Details | 2009 Honda Fit | Honda Owners Site

 

There is a service bulletin about 2007 & 2008 steering failure (#313820). Google it. There may be some warranty extension and/or goodwill repair possible.