Need help to raise the car with big winter tires

sunny786

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i feel like civic is not high enough to deal with heavy snow in winter times. Anyone used big winter tires or to raise few inches with any modifications etc? Please advise regarding this issue.
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hondo

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Wouldn't using larger throw off the speedometer and things like traction control?
 

Ultrafrozen

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I wouldn't oversize too much if you have Honda sensing. That can cause issues I hear.

Buy the HR-V or CR-V if you need greater ground clearance. I live in North-Eastern Ontario where we get an average of 120 inches of snow (twice as much as Calgary) and I've never had a problem with too much snow in my old 2006 Civic. The old one is even lower than the 2016 Civic. I do use proper studded winter tires.
 

CdnColin

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I'm having my Civic delivered with Michelin X-Ice on steel rims. I'm dropping down from 17" to 16". Have done the same on our HRV. The 16" supposedly is more effective in cutting through snow than the 17". Downsize don't upsize.
 

C Note

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Not sure you're going to find springs lift kit for the Civic, ever. Any aftermarket springs are going to be for lowering, not raising. You could upsize your tires but like some others have said it will throw off your speedometer and traction control because the overall wheel/tire circumference will be increased compared to factory. If you decide to do it anyway, make sure to at lest keep the factory tire width or decrease it. Increasing the tire width will give you worse performance in snow.
 

Ultrafrozen

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I'm having my Civic delivered with Michelin X-Ice on steel rims. I'm dropping down from 17" to 16". Have done the same on our HRV. The 16" supposedly is more effective in cutting through snow than the 17". Downsize don't upsize.
Original tire size: 215/50R17, my winter tires: 205/60R16

Many different things being discussed here, I agree, narrower tires are better in mud and snow. I'm going with 205mm width instead of the 215mm stock width for my Touring. Rim diameter is irrelevant to winter performance so I'm going with 16 inch rims to get cheaper (more common) tires. The overall diameter is critical in respect to speedometer and Honda Sensing tech so I'm selecting an aspect ratio that closely matches the original diameter. Original is 50% so moving up to 60% keeps the diameter within 1% of original. As a nice by-product the higher profile tires give a smoother ride over the all too common pothole and expansion crack in the pavement. Before all this tech was common, I used to size for a larger diameter. This would reduce torque to the snow and help prevent the wheels breaking loose as well as give a little more ground clearance.
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