Last night, I stopped at a fast-food place to get a cup of coffee to keep me awake on the drive home. The drive-thru lane in most fast-food places has a pretty tight left turn -- which I'm well aware of, I've seen people ding their left-rear wheel on the curbs on these things, and I'm usually careful to make sure I give it room. Well, last night, I slipped up -- and dinged my wheel!

Minor ding -- I drove home without incident, another 100 miles or so, and everything was fine, no vibration or anything, seal is fine. If it were an old car, you might not even do anything. But I'd rather fix it.

If I end up having to replace the wheel (as seems likely -- these days, it's hard to find someone who will just take a tire off, bang the wheel back to true with a mallet, put the tire back on, and send you on your way), I'm looking at TireRack, and they have no fewer than 77 wheels for a 2019 Fit LX. I can get a new wheel and tire, mounted and shipped, for under $300 -- not bad. But... are there any other favorite options for ordering a wheel/tire combo that I can just jack up the car and put on myself? Ideally, I'd just like another stock wheel, or one that looks the same (or can look the same, with a stock hubcap). But an aftermarket wheel that looks similar but not identical is not going to bother me much.

Urb

 

Go to Facebook Market place to find a stock Fit wheel. In fact you can upgrade to a stock Fit EX wheels on all 4 wheels. Most Facebook Market place sellers sell wheels as a complete 4 wheel set. Rarely can you buy just 1 wheel. Finding 1 Fit wheel matching your other 3 wheels is rare.

I bought a set of Black Fit Sport wheels for my EX stick on Facebook Market place last summer.

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Those look great - but... I'm not about to replace all four of my wheels because I dented one of them! I'll stick with established channels. If I can't get a stock wheel, something close will do - it's my daily driver, not a show car. Still, that's a nice look!

 

First, are you talking about a steel wheel or an aluminum/alloy wheel? You mention 77 available combos at Tirerack (suggesting you're looking at aluminum wheels) but then mention hub caps, suggesting that you have steel wheels. Steel wheels can be repaired pretty easily (and tend to bend rather than crack), but you're not going to repair an aluminum wheel with a mallet.

Second, when you say "minor ding," do you mean a scrape from rubbing against the curb (aka curb rash), a larger chunk or gouge out of the lip of the rim (or hubcap?), or an actual deformation of the wheel? Those are very different in terms of repair options (or if repair is even possible), and again those repair options differ between wheel types.

Before buying new, it's probably worth your time to check at some wheel and tire businesses if you have any nearby. As mentioned above, if you're dealing with a steel wheel they can probably fix it. If you dealing with a scrape or minor gouge on the lip of an aluminum wheel, that can be fixed as well, although the cost will be higher.

If you have steel wheels and need to get a new one, it should be pretty easy to get a matching hubcap from Honda. Your other hubcaps should have identifying information on them somewhere. The underlying steel wheel doesn't need to match perfectly (obviously it should be the same size) if it's covered by a hubcap.

 

Here's what it looks like. In the cold light of day, pretty minor -- in the "do I even need to do anything?" category. Steel vs. aluminum? It's a stock wheel from a 2019 base model Fit LX, which (not afraid to advertise my ignorance) I'm taking a wild guess is a steel wheel.

 

Yep, steel wheel and hubcap. I would visit a tire/wheel shop and have them assess, but it doesn't look serious.

On the scale of possible repair routes from cheap to relatively still cheap:
1) Rustoleum paint on the bare metal of the wheel to minimize rust, slap the damaged hubcap back on;
2) get the wheel repaired, put the damaged hubcap back on or get a new one;
3) buy a new steel wheel, get your tire transferred over, slap on a new hubcap.

Here's one option from discounttire.com, although I would advise checking locally (including junkyards) to avoid paying shipping for a rather bulky/heavy item. Note: disregard the 5 bolt pattern in the picture of the wheel, as it says it's 4x100 bolt pattern which is correct.


As I mentioned before, the hubcaps should have some sort of identifying information on their backside, so it shouldn't be too difficult to find a new one that matches.

 

Always good to have options! I might run it by the Goodyear shop around the corner - they're not cheap, but I've bought a tire or two from them, so at least they know me a little... Back in the day, a junkyard would have been my first call, but I don't do much work anymore - especially since I started driving Fits, which tend not to need much. My Dad's old Jag, different story....

 

These black sport wheels from the Honda Fit Sport are exactly the same design as my chrome EX wheels. So no problems with clearance or spacing.They hold up very well on the occasional potholes.

The steel wheels from Discount Tire should hold up well against potholes.

However the other Discount Tire wheels may not.

 

+2 to everything above. That's a steel wheel and any good tire shop should be able to massage it back into shape. That's only minor damage.

I hit a really bad pothole in my Chevy Cobalt and it bent one of the wheels, about ten times worse than yours, bad enough it was leaking. I took it to the shop and they straightened it out and it never leaked again for the 10+ more years I had that car. Steel is surprisingly elastic and will bend (and can be straightened) instead of cracking.

 

Thanks, guys -- excellent info, as always from this group. I'll take it over to Goodyear soonish (I'm at 15% oil life anyway, so might as well do that) and ask them to fix the wheel, and we should be good to go. I still like those Chitown wheels, though; very stylish!

Urb

 

My 2015 EX came with chrome wheels.

When the Fit Sport came out around 2018 with black wheels I had to find a set. The Sport wheels really set off the color of my Fit. I even opted for the Sport Grille. And got the hood Carbon Fiber wrapped with two black stripes on both sides.

I was lucky to find a set near Milwaukee Wisconsin through Facebook Market place.

I didn't want my Fit to look like every other Fit.

 

I bought a set of Honda Wheel locks to prevent my black sport wheels from being stolen.

 

I thought those wheels looked familiar! I also have a 2021 Subaru WRX base model and your wheels look almost EXACTLY like the OEM wheels my car came with. Other than the 4 vs. 5 lugnut issue obviously.

I finally had to pull up a picture of my car as-delivered to see the difference. Where your wheels have the double vs. single spokes (thick vs. thin), the Subaru's are opposite. The double spokes are the thin ones.

 

Here's a closeup picture of the wheel.

 

I did the same thing to my 2018 LX a couple years ago. Steel wheel, and my damage was worse than yours because I was travelling at a good clip when I hit a curb. There was no air leakage and nothing else was affected. I could have hammered it out but didn't feel confident in the outcome so I ordered a new replacement black steel wheel from Costco online (here in Canada) and when it came I went over to my local NAPA and they switched the tire over for me, and balanced it. All together everything cost me a little over C$125. Only problem was that the new steel wheel is slightly different and the plastic wheel cover is a tight fit to the wheel and I usually have to use a rubber mallet to get it on.