Honda Fit Wheels and Tires

Comments

• pantsdontfit Member Posts: 5

  November 2013 edited November 2013

  You could call me a "sensible risk" as I often take note of how tires are wearing, & keep inflations maintained & rotate my own tires often.
  The dealer grade tires my Fit came with were junk, as I expected them to be. I only got about 39,000 miles out of them, before they needed replaced. If I could have found Michelin's that would have fit my Sport model when I purchased tires about 8 months ago, then it would have them on it now instead of Yokohama's.
  On another note I have an old 90 Mazda pickup that is about to turn 300,000 miles. I have a set of Michelin's on it with 107,000 miles on the tires (honest to God), & never have had the wheels aligned since back when the previous set of tires were installed. I have had alignments done in years past where the alignment was better before it had been messed with, & I ended up taking the vehicle back to have it done over.
  I am not against alignments, but one needs to use common sense & pay attention to any abnormal wear patterns.

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• PF_Flyer Member Posts: 9,372

  November 2013

  As my buddy who owns a tire/shop garage says, there's no such thing as a perfect alignment. Once the alignment is to spec, regular rotation is definitely the way to go.
  
  I'm with you on the tires that come with new cars. Generally they are NOT the best of the best. 25 - 30K is about all I ever get out of those, but I'll get 55-60K out of a set of anything I chose to replace them with. (Usually Coopers)

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• jimmy61167 Member Posts: 1

  December 2013

  You are dead on. I thought how could the back tires wear out first. I thought I was losing my mind. Great job,

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• jdlm1 Member Posts: 2

  September 2014

  OK, this is going to be a stupid question, but I need to see if I have a problem or not. I just got 4 new tires Guardsman Plus P175/65R14 81S put on my 2007 Fit. They seem to seat differently on the rims than the previous tires.

  I am used to having the hubcap sit almost flush against the rubber tire, but now I can completely see the outer edge of the rim on all four tires.

  Shouldn't the new tires fit the same as the previous tires if they are the same size? Do I have an installation issue that could potentially be dangerous? Or am I worrying over nothing?

  Thanks.

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• PF_Flyer Member Posts: 9,372

  September 2014

  I'm pretty sure you're worrying for no need. I suppose that it's possible that the design of the new tires is slightly different right at the bead of the tire than what you had on before and thus you are noticing more of hubcap/wheel rim. But I think that what's going on is that you're simply noticing something that you didn't before. It's also possible that the rims and hubcaps got cleaner around the edge when the new tires got put on and again, it's catching your eye.

  The tires have to seat themselves properly on the rim to hold air. You can do a poor job of installing tires, like putting them on a corroded or dirty rim so that they'd leak, but I think it would be really hard to seat them on a rim incorrectly with the machines they use.

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• capriracer Member Posts: 907

  September 2014

  Some tires have what is called a "rim protector" - a ridge of rubber near the rim edge that sticks out beyond the edge of the rim to protect it from curb damage. Not all tires have that feature - and not all tires that have the feature have it to the same degree (some are big and heavy, and some are shallow and light).

  So, no, the important parts of the tire may sit the same on the rims, but they may look completely different.

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• PF_Flyer Member Posts: 9,372

  September 2014 edited September 2014

  Not to mention that wheel covers sometimes don't quite seat the same as they originally did. The plastic and retention ring can get a little softer from being removed and pressed back into the rim, and the wheel cover might not sit as snug to the rim as it used to.
  My daughter's 2007 Versa lost all 4 original wheel covers at about 90,000 miles because they simply didn't fit as tight after all the tire rotations.

  Good illustration of Tire/Rim Protectors at Tire Rack

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