What is the general consensus of using Nitrogen in car tires. My son and daughter have switch to nitrogen. Both their cars have tire pressure monitors and they are a really pain, especially in the winter. Last winter my son filled his tires once a week as the warming light would come on. During the summer my daughter had her warming light come on about twice a month. Both have new cars with new tires. Since they switched to Nitrogen no warming lights. My X seems to hold air well especially in this winter cold. I hadn't checked my air since September and when I checked them last Friday two were at 32psi and 2 were at 31.5psi so I topped off the two low ones. I have Continental Pro Contacts on 17 inch rims.

I have read several articles about Nitrogen and the pros and cons are about even. One article did say contrary to popular belief Nitrogen will leak as air does, not as fast but they will loose pressure so if your not near a Nitro equipped station you are going to put air in the tire or tires, so the benefits are gone. Plus the cost factor air is .50 cents to operate the pump and nitro is about $10 a tire. Some shops will fill your nitro tire for free after the first filing.

 

Air is 78% nitrogen. What exactly are people being told the extra 22% will get them? The benefits for street cars don't come anywhere near the drawbacks. Nitrogens major benefit is that no moisture enters during filling and is the main reason that pressures stay more consistant during tempurature changes. But a good compressor air filter will also remove a lot of the moisture in air.

 

At COSTCO, if you get your tires there, Nitrogen is FREE, and if it is as good or possibly better than air, why not? I have Nitrogen in all my cars, and find that they heat up less. Anyhow, Costco is near my house. so...........

 

I have nitrogen in all but one of my cars. The last will have nitrogen once I put new tires on it this spring/summer.

Generally, I paid the first time. The subsequent times are included. In urgent situations, I would top off with air and the next time I take the car to service, have them bleed and refill with nitrogen.

I especially liked the possible issues moisture may cause with the sensors in longer term.

 

My Camry Hyrbid has TPMS and has been using regular air in its tires for all its 60k miles. I've never had the warning light go off on me and I only ever need to top it off when adjusting for the extreme temperature changes here in the Midwest and to and to pump it up when I have a heavy load.

You are not going to notice the major benefits of nitrogen in road cars. If you paid for it then you're getting ripped off. When was the last time you heard of a tire, rim, or sensor failing due to corrosion caused by the moisture using compressed air anyway?

 

They use nitrogen in aircraft tires. Why cuase when going from a sub zero atmospheric temperature to a runway where the plane is travel 150 km/h plus it dosent suffer from expansion as normal air.

The only real benefit it its lighter, and contains no moisture unlike normal compressed air. Which could cuase problems for sensors.

 

In practice, aircraft tires do change pressure with heat. I know, I've worked on aircraft for over 20 years. In fact Goodyear says you'll have a 1% pressure change for each 5 degrees F.
The reason we use dry nitrogen is that it reduces moisture, resists corrosion, and more importantly, displaces oxygen. More than 5% oxygen in an airliner type tire can spontaneously combust as a result of hydrocarbons present in the tire.
Don't read too much into aircraft nitrogen use. Those tires are very complex as compared to cars, and they face entirely different stresses and use.
For myself, I wouldn't bother with N2. It takes several purge cycles to reduce the air content, and I'm not sure how many tire shops would do that anyway. However, I don't have TPMS.

 

If the sensors can't work with regular compressed air they are pretty poor tire pressure sensors, I fall into the camp that says if you get the Nitrogen free use it if you wish, but I certainly wouldn't dip into my hipper for it.

 

TPMS functions fine with air and average moisture content. I've never heard of a sensor failing due to moisture before the battery died. Most people I know will replace sensors with every other tire change since you can't replace the battery.

As an argument against using nitrogen in passenger cars, I'd go as far as saying the average person doesn't check the pressure often enough. Meaning in most cases tires are under-inflated. However, as air/moisture heats up it gets closer to the recommended pressures. An under-inflated nitrogen filled tires pressure won't rise at the same rate so they're driving around for longer periods at lower pressures causing more wear and poor handling. So it's MY opinion that nitrogen actually works against the people who need the most help maintaining tires. As far as I'm concerned, just driving out of ones way to get nitrogen makes it lose its appeal.

Race car tires=An edge using science
Street car tires=An unnecessary expense

 

+1 I always go to Costco.

 

if you need to pump up your tires, it means you have a leak.. sheesh. I do check my air pressure occasionally, but for the most part it does not change over even a whole year.

I had a car in storage for 9 years and the tire pressure was fine. maybe down 2 psi over 9 years.

So if you are losing air.... fix the leak!

Nitrogen in tires it a total waste, although harmless. May as well put helium in there make the car lighter and save fuel. Whenever I see a car with the green caps on the valve stems, I just roll my eyes....

 

+1. Only thing I might add is that you need to have tires installed by a professional, otherwise you end up with what Adam said about his kids. Tires aren't hard to put on but improper use of the machines will lead to nicks, on steelies or chrome rust and simply a bad seal on any wheel. Of course when temps drop you need to add air but you should be checking your tires monthly anyways. Not just for air but for the overall condition of the "rubber".

 

Nitrogen is actually lighter than Oxygen; atomic weight 14 vs. 16 for Oxygen. Additionally, both nitrogen and oxygen in air are molecules, not simple elements; that is, N2 and O2, making them larger. As both elements are next to each other on the periodic table, the structure of the orbital electron shells is very similar (both have partially filled p shells). As a result, I expect that the molecules are close to the same size. N2 is formed with 3 electron bonds and O2 with 2, making N2 more tightly held. This probably results in the N2 molecule being slightly smaller. All of this said I see nothing that would suggest that N2 will leak slower than O2. As suggested in earlier posts, moisture content is likely the biggest effect. Therefore, using regular air, as long as it's dry air, should be as good as using N2.

Mark

 

1% wow i thought it would be way more. Hmmmm

 

What a wonderful group of comments on the Nitrogen issue. Personally I don't see any real benefit with it. I am however going to keep a closer eye on my tire pressure. As tires do loose air and not have a leak, what the science behind this is I don't know, but it happens. I remember that almost every car I owned from the 59MGA when I was 17 to my X and I am 64 and will be 65 on March 7. I declare a holiday for everyone on the board.

 

Excellent idea.

 

The above statements are incorrect. N2 molecules are actually larger than O2 which means they don't infiltrate through solid rubber as quickly as O2.

As my above statement points out, O2 or N2 can pass directly through rubber over time. I'm sure you've witnessed a party balloon slowly shrink over the course of a few days even though there is no apparent leak.

Think of rubber as a bunch of spaghetti fragments clumped together. Imagine each piece of spaghetti is glued to another piece at every intersection. Layer upon layer you can't see the bottom of the bowl. But if you pour sauce on top it's going to eventually make it all the way through.

Given enough time and pressure, O2 molecules get caught in between the polymer strands and eventually find their way through the web. N2 will too but since they're larger it takes more time for them to find the correct path to exit.

It's a little depressing really... Poor molecules trapped for years just because they wandered too close to a compressor one day.

 

More research does confirm that O2 is smaller by 0.3 x 10^10 times, and therefore leaks faster than N2. See the following article:

http://www.getnitrogen.org/pdf/graham.pdf

Mark

 

Remember, we're talking tire temp, not outside air. I regularly saw a 101 psi tire read 106 or more upon arrival at the gate.

 

Good info, but no one fills their tires with O2. Air only contains 20% oxygen.