Nitrogen isn't free?

[resdwells]

Working in the "racing industry" I can add this:
Race teams spend more time purging tires to remove moisture than anything. They use a hydrometer to measure the moisture content in the air in the tire. It normally takes 10 times of filling the tire with pure nitrogen and purging to achieve the lowest number. They are seeing temps in the 250deg range on a typical short track which does make pressure build an issue. I HIGHLY doubt any of us push our cars hard enough to build up that much tire temp. Long story short.....Reg air is perfectly ok.

[Warpaint69]

Originally Posted by Fuel Fire Desire

Nitrogen is used in aircraft and racing tires, but for slightly different reasons. I can only comment on the aircraft side of things.

The reason we use nitrogen in larger aircraft tires is not only because nitrogen is dry (no water vapor which is susceptible to temperature fluctuations), but also because engineers are worried about the oxygen content inside of a 300 psi rubber tire being exposed to extreme heat during an aborted takeoff (usually results in overheating the brakes and a possible fire). The lack of oxygen inside the tire will not feed a fire should the internal rubber temperature of the tire gets close to its kindle point, and when the tire deflates from the safety valves opening (the tires are designed to blow off their air when a certain internal temperature is reached to prevent the tires from exploding), the escaping nitrogen, devoid of oxygen, wont feed the brake or wheel fire.


As for use in a street car, the only real advantage is that pressure wont fluctuate as much when the tire temperature changes. Its a minute difference (a PSI or two), and one that doesnt really matter on a passenger car. Its one of those geeky gimmicks. What they advertise has truth behind it, but its more for selling more product and getting the "wow" factor than actual performance.

I come the from dirt track racing world. We stopped using regular air in our Hoosier tires because of tire pressure fluctuations, we tended to gain air pressure on hot days with dry slick track conditions. We run a specific tire stagger on the car and air pressure settings the nitrogen has proven much more stable. Something like tire stagger and air pressures out of wack drastically effects how car turns.

[rsflyer]

Originally Posted by dwinva

Oh boy, here we go again. Nitrogen does NOT improve the ride of a car in any way. It doesn't matter what tire/wheel size your using. Using pure nitrogen does do two things. One it will reduce the oxidation/breakdown of the inside of your tires by not have oxygen in the tires (really very little oxygen...no one mounts tires in a vacuum). Given the technology in tires today, this really isn't too much of an issue (changes in vulcanized rubber technology, etc). Also, if you think back to your high school chemistry classes, you may remember that nitrogen molecules are larger than oxygen molecules. This means a tire filled with pure nitrogen will loss pressure much more slowly than a tire filled with normal air. Another thing to remember, as stated in a previous post, the air we breathe is mostly nitrogen (about 78%).

Hope this helps.

...precisely the kind of answer that debunks (gently) & informs (factually) at the same time...

Kudos to you sir

[mulehead7]

I stopped to look at some Camaros in a dealer lot last month and the dealer was upcharging $300 for nitrogen and wheel locks. I guess if you don't know any better...

[Macrackie]

From working at a tire shop for three years now I believe have a very dry air source is more importat than pure nitrogen. We haven't sucomed to the nitrogen salesman yet. I personaly just perfer my extra dry blend of 70-78% nitrogen and oxygen. You should see the standing water in so many tires we remove. Also wrecks havoc on the tpms monitors.