I'll apologize up front, because this has surely been covered in threads before (the trouble is searching and finding them).

But I'll try to keep this simple.

My girlfriend, a poor professor, needs help with snow tires for her '09 Fit Sport. Tires for her stock wheels are 185/55 R16. So, we're faced with a few issues:

- If she goes with the same size wheels for her snow tires, she has essentially one option, though not a bad one, Bridgestone Blizzaks. But at the 16 size, they're $117/a piece at the Tire Rack.

- Since she needs new wheels anyway, she could get 15" wheels, which, as a more common size, gives her more options, and even the Blizzak drops in price to $85/a piece.

- Since she needs nothing fancy, but does need to save money, my instinct is to find her 15" wheels through a junkyard or similar. And while the non-Sport Fit has 15" wheels standard (yes?), she's not restricted to just Fit wheels, right?

- So, I believe that 15" wheels/tires will work fine, and she doesn't have to get Fit wheels, but the other consideration beyond wheel size is bolt pattern, correct? Is there a site/page/resource someone can point me to that would inform me which other common cars have 15" wheels and a compatible bolt pattern?

- I've not bought through junkyards before. Any tips on locating a decent, but cheap, set of wheels?

- Lastly, any recommendations for the best 15" snow tire?

If you have any further thoughts on things I may have overlooked (clearance issues, ensuring the overall wheel/tire combo has the same diameter as her current 16" Sport does, etc.), I'd be grateful for the input.

Thanks so much,

ELB

 

I've read that the civics and elements use the same tire rims bolt pattern, but you'd better check that out with someone else.
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My suggestion is what I did with my problem and my 09. I went to Town Fair Tire. They fitted me with some 15" after-market rims and some Sunny(chinese) snow tires. The complete set cost less than $150 a tire. This is without the TPMS sensors... I let the light blare at me during the winter months. The rims are beautiful looking... I think, better than the stock rims. The tires are really great in the snow, are true when running down the road, and make minimal, although expectedly, more noise than the OEM tires.
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That's my suggestion. I looked around, first, at junkyards for rims and they were asking $60 each (beat up metal), and new tires were almost $100.

 

Einstein,

Sounds like a distinct possibility. I'll look into it. Thanks very much for sharing your experience.

 

Bolt pattern is 4 X 100 (4 bolts, 100 is the distance between).

Another factor is called offset, which is essentially how far the rims stick out from the attachment point (or maybe it's measured differently, but it's a number to look for).

Third factor is rim width.

You may be able to find steel wheels on craigslist. Or, the earlier version of the Fit (08 and earlier) used 15" alloys on the Sport model. I've seen those on CL too but at least around here they seem to mostly be stolen, judging by conversations with the sellers and/or "I don't know anything about them, I'm just selling for a friend" claims.

 

What is the offset for 2011 Base wheels?

 

I like the Town Fair Tire suggestion, but they aren't located where my girlfriend lives (Wisconsin). Still, perhaps I can get a comparable deal at a similar place.

Otherwise, I'll have to look out for those rim specs; thanks, Brain Champagne.

I know TFT will mail order, but that may negate some of the savings, since installation, balancing, alignment are all thrown in.

Still reading,

ELB

 

I used 15 inch wheels from an old Civic. I forgot what model the Civic was, I'll look it up later. They work great and are Honda wheels, so it looks OEM.

I recommend the Blizzaks. I have used Blizzak WS-60s (the older Blizzaks) for the last three years. I've never had a problem with snow, and even drove the day after we got 23 inches of snow last year. I'll probably get the new WS-70s next year because I liked these so much.

I'm actually putting them on tonight! I can post a picture if you'd like.

 

14 inch rims will also fit, I just put on 185/70/14 General Artic Altimax on steel wheels from Tirerack. The total price mounted, shipped and with TPMS was $680. If you don't go with the sensors you can save $144.

 

How does the TPMS on the new tires get picked up by the car? Does something have to be plugged in or programmed.....?

 

TPMS sensors from the stock wheels go into the new wheels, then you need to take it to Honda to have them programed, until then the TPMS light will be lit. That's the $144 I think they charge. If you keep the 15" wheel size, but change the tire only the sensor will not need to be reprogrammed, least my new tires went on with no TPMS problem,
i kept the stock wheels but changed the tire size.

 

Thanks, KC! What about new wheels that have their own TPMS? Will those have to be programed by Honda?

 

How do the smaller wheels affect mpg and odometer readings?

 

The outside diameter of a 185/70/14 is almost the same (within 2/10ths of and inch) of the stock 185/55/16 so the effect on the speedometer is almost nothing. Since the rolling resistance of the snow is more than the stock tire your mpg will go down a little.

 

If you use the TPMS from the stock wheel you won't have to reprogram, but that requires you to take the tires off the wheels to get to them. With the new sensors I got from Tirerack I had to bring the car in and pay $49.95 to have them matched to the car. As far as I know there's no other way to get the car to learn the sensors.

 

So you put 185/70/14 snows on 14" rims and new sensors and Honda programed them for $50. You're keeping the stock wheels and tires for summer.

What prompted you to come up with that combination, overall price? Interesting solution.

I lived through four Syracuse winters when I was going to college. Snows are a must, in fact Syracuse was the last place I mounted dedicated snow tires.
Albany only gets the tail end of those lake effect 'flurries' ;-)

K_C_

 

I'm keeping the stock wheels for summer. I went with the 14" wheels for both price and from my experience having a little extra sidewall is a good thing. Helps prevent bent rims while navigating ski area parking lots and the inevitable potholes that show up at the end of winter.

 

In this case, the TPMS is only for air pressure, right? The new tire size will still affect mpg and the odometer? (Yes, I guess I do have a little obsession about that!)

 

I want to thank folks for all the responses and useful input. Thanks.

Just want you to know that, yes, I am still reading.

Regarding my girlfriend's Fit, I don't think we'll be doing the TPMS runaround. It sounds expensive to have Honda adjust/connect/etc. each time one swaps tires for Winter/rest of the year.

I hope I'm correct that the TPMS will be disabled (light will be on) when we mount the snow tires/wheels, but that it will work again (be re-enabled) when she switches back to the stock Fit Sport wheels she has now (since we didn't adjust for the snow tires).

We're going to go with investigating both approaches: seeing if anyone has an affordable tire/wheel combination package, and looking at the cost of getting used wheels, quite possibly off a different model, on which we could mount a more common snow tire size (cheaper).

Thanks!

ELB

 

Yes, I've done this for the last few years. The TPMS light will go on after a short while of running your snow tires without the TPMS senors. Do like I do, put some black tape over the light on the dash... it's annoying to me. When you reinstall your TPMS regular tires in the Spring, the light will go out in a short time, sometimes takes a day... the computer does not check for the TPMS constantly, only periodically.

Honda dealer here in CT charges $100 for calibrating TPMS. I found out later that Town Fair Tire will do it for $25. But, you still need two sets of TPMS sensors or change them out each tire changeover. The computer can not keep two set of TPMS sensors in memory.... too bad... you'd think Honda would think of how to do at least two sets of TPMS sensors!!!! Hey, it makes money for the dealer.

 

No, a new tire size will not affect the odometer if properly selected. See this link at miata.net (my other car).

Tire size calculator

As long as the outside diameter is the same you can use any size wheel that fits over the brake calipers (for the Fit the smallest size wheel is a 14", anything smaller will interfere with the caliper). Play around with it, you can use 195/40/18 tires (if you can find them) if you want to go with bigger rims. Won't affect the odometer or speedometer one bit.

As far as mpg is concerned if you go to snows you'll always get lower mileage. Not much, I'm seeing 1mpg less.