Well, I had my snow tires and steel rims put on yesterday. The HX rims with the Summer tires are off until the Spring

 

So its getting close to the time to put the HX's back on. They came with a box of lug nuts, but two were missing. The HX's lugs are shorter than the lugs I have for the steel rims so I went to NAPA today to get two of the shorter ones.

I couldn't believe it, $10.49 for TWO lug nuts

 

What size are the summer tires on your HX rims? Cause you could just run HX rims with 185/65-14's year round. It'd save you the hassle of switching wheels every winter, and you'd still have the nicer wheels.

I was in a similar situation as you were. I wanted to get rid of the stock steelies and replace them with 14" Alloys (since I already had bought new tires for the steelies). I looked, but no OEM Honda wheels really blew my mind, so I went with a nice set of 14" Kosei K1 TS's (You can't argue with 9.3 lbs each!) I'm going to run them year round. I could have gotten bigger rims with summer tires (and keep the steels for winter) but I decided to save some hassle and just get a nice year round setup.

(Hope I don't sound like I'm criticizing.)

 

I run studded snow tires in the winter and regular tires in the summer. Instead of remounting the tires twice a year, I figure keeping one set of tires on one set of rims and the other on the other set of rims makes the most sense.

I also want to protect the HX's because the the roads are terrible in Maine year-round and they get atrocious during the winter. I try to avoid as many potholes as I can, but when I do nail one, I feel better nailing it with a steel rim that I don't care about.

 

Makes sense. I just have to be really **** about not running my Kosei wheels into potholes.

 

I have a question about MPG, but its related to the HX wheels.

I put the HX rims with regular summer tires on them on my Civic about a week ago. On my way home from getting them put on, I filled up the gas tank. On that tank I got 27MPG in the city. With the sutdded snow tires and the heavy steel rims, I got 28MPG in the city on the last tank that I had with those wheels/tires.

What gives? I lost 1MPG. I've actually been driving a lot easier with the HX's than I did with the steels. In the past month or so, I've run a bottle of Chevron Techron and Lucas Fuel treatment so it has to be the wheels/tires.

 

It could be anything. Try checking your tires, see if they are properly inflated.

 

I'll have to check this, but I usually run 31psi in the front and 30psi in the rear. Is this where they should be?

I checked my air filter (AEM Short Ram) and it is a little dirty, but very little. I cleaned it back in September.

 

the factory pressure for hx is 29 and 30 psi on 185 65 14 tires

 

My Civic is a DX though, I'm just running the HX wheels on it.