quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:

quote:

Originally posted by agony:
That's what I figured.
The salesman made a big deal out of it.
I was just like, 'here's the bottom line, gimme the car for this price or I'm walkin.' "

They put that undercoat on at the factory, y'know...

Oh yah? Yah

snake oil.

Nitrogen does keep you from having to top off the air in your tires each time the weather turns cool. I have to top off my wifes and daughters tires each time it cools down for the year. My truck came with Nitrogen and I've never had the low pressure light come on and require a top off when it cools down.

If the parts of air (except for nitrogen) leak out, and I keep adding air, eventually I'll have mostly nitrogen in my tires.

Not that I care.

I live in Wi. and drive a 2018 GMC Sierra with Nitrogen filled tires. It was 10 degrees this morning and my on board pressure gauge said the tires were low. I topped them of last week when it was 50.. Guess they are affected by temperature. Take it to the bank!

quote:

Originally posted by Hawgster:
I live in Wi. and drive a 2018 GMC Sierra with Nitrogen filled tires. It was 10 degrees this morning and my on board pressure gauge said the tires were low. I topped them of last week when it was 50.. Guess they are affected by temperature. Take it to the bank!

Charles' gas law. For any gas. For those who say this doesn't happen, they must be using some magical gas mix. Maybe unicorn fart gas?

Compressed air will be just as clean and dry as the clean and dry nitrogen after is passes through a filter and moisture separator. The only difference is on the molecular level but you should be checking your tire pressure whenever you have seasonal temperature changes anyway.

quote:

Originally posted by Hawgster:
I live in Wi. and drive a 2018 GMC Sierra with Nitrogen filled tires. It was 10 degrees this morning and my on board pressure gauge said the tires were low. I topped them of last week when it was 50.. Guess they are affected by temperature. Take it to the bank!

I experienced similar when my truck was new with nitrogen. Also, it was a pain in the butt to find nitrogen to fill the tires. All the dealers in my town don’t have nitrogen so I just use regular air now.

on the first really cold morning my Nitro filled tires on the Cooper S were all showing low pressure,

so they got filled with,,,,,


guess what


regular air,


never noticed a difference

Isn't plain old Air 70% + nitrogen? I air up mah tires, I'll stick with air.

I had nitrogen for a while. I found that i'd still lose the normal 2 psi a month and have to take them somewhere to be refilled. I didn't see any benefit to them and after 2 years, just started topping off with air.

Airplanes it's mandatory to use nitrogen because the landing (going down in altitude quickly) would cause the tires to overheat and sometimes even catch on fire with normal air in them from what I've been told. But on a normal passanger car/truck I haven't seen any benefits of nitrogen. I also live in South Florida where it doesn't get really cold.

quote:

Originally posted by DoctorSolo:

quote:

Originally posted by feersum dreadnaught:

quote:

Originally posted by DoctorSolo:
Depends.

Normal day to day joe-shmoe duty, you will not notice a difference.

But, in rapidly changing conditions when the tires are being thrashed to their limits, a nitro fill will be more stable and consistent WRT pressure changes from temperature swings, high level drivers can feel this.

Having said that, I still use normal compressed air when at the track. When you race you should be monitoring tire pressure anyway, irregardless.

I see the nitro thing as just another high performance application being twisted to squeeze
money out of shmoes when they do their highly infrequent minimal maintenance.

really? I thought PV=nRT, no matter what the gas is.

Straight nitrogen fill, depending on source, might exclude some water vapor, and that is probably helpful. But, if the fill is all "gas", whether N, O, He or dry air, I'd expect it to react to temperature changes the exact same as 78% N.

Here we go. Compressed air has a lot of dirt and moisture in it. Dirt and water are not gas. As the proportions vary, so can the pressure variance. Is it enough for a non F1 driver to notice? No.

Water vapor is a gas, and reacts to temperature changes exactly like nitrogen, oxygen, argon, and all the other trace gasses in the atmosphere. I've never understood all the hoopla about nitrogen fill. It might have a marginal effect on oxygen degradation of the tire on the inside, but what are you going to do about the exterior?

For a passenger car - mostly hype. All the info about the N2 being cleaner, dryer, less reactive due to no O2/moisture (like air has), more consistent pressure on a track, better for interior of the tire, less permeation - is all true. But in the end just check your tire pressure 1X/month - especially when the cold/hot seasons change. Air is cheaper than N2 and you don't have to go to a special place to fill (unless you have an N2 gas bottle in your garage). If you stay on top of your tire pressures - 32 psi of air and 32 psi of N2 is the same.

If you have an air compressor at home and put a moisture separator on it - pretty close to same effect. If you use gas station air, just let an air blast out (to check for moisture) before putting on your valve stem.

Some people may think they don't have to check their tire N2 pressure, and that would be worse for the tire/gas mileage than air and a 1X/month pressure check.

If you are going to track you car and want the more consistent pressure during your track session - go for it. But most of us aren't fast enough to need/notice this.

In the end it's your money spend it how you want.

quote:

Originally posted by smlsig:
In theory yes there is a slight benefit to filling with nitrogen as the molecules are slightly bigger so the tires will leak slower and the gas itself is inert. This is beneficial if your driving an F1 car...

BUT for us mere mortals there is no practical difference.

Nitrogen is not inert.

Real men use calcium chloride in their tires!

quote:

Originally posted by mbinky:
I believe that in extreme cold weather (like Alaska cold) nitrogen is preferred because it is temperature stable and inert. Not sure what benefit it would be outside of that environment.

Nitrogen follows the same gas law with regard to its pressure/volume/temperature relationship and all other small molecule gasses, including oxygen. Nitrogen fill for passenger car tires is a fraud.