My dealer is pushing putting Nitrogen instead of air in the tires. Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Rick

 

Do it, I have an 82 Firebird that I don't drive much, tires last longer and the weather does not effect the psi.
I've been meaning to do it to my other cars.

 

I have nitrogen in my tires, 100% nitrogen that is. The air we breath is 78% nitrogen anyway, so when you top up the pressure with air at the local gas station you are only adding a few percent oxygen.
Frankly I suspect the benefits are quite minimal, dry air, free of water, is probably nearly as good, lets face it the outsides of the tires are surrounded by air every day, plus all the other pollutants you can think of.
If the price is right do it, if not tell your dealer you will try a test drive with it and if its that good you will notice and then come back to pay him in a few weeks.

Edit: Of course the weather temp and the tire temp affect the pressure in the tire, air and nitrogen are gases and obey the laws of physics (Boyles Law). There is nothing magical about nitrogen, no matter what the dealer says.

 

Nitrogen is what i use in my xf tire. Many places offer this for a small fee some charge nothing. I have heard some dealers charge 150.00 dollars. Nitrogen should keep your tps sensor stable. Because it is not affected by temp. I believe that nascar use nitrogen. I have my own nit tank and regulator.so it is easy for me. You should not mix nitrogen with pump air if you want to maintaine the benefit of nitrogen. Nitrogen will leak out over time just like air even if you do not have a punture. So if you are not doing high speed driving say 90 are above for long periods , air should be fine just keep the pressure right. Nitrogen maintains a stable pressure at all tempertures which will keep your tires at correct pressure at any temp . I feel my tires are safer with nitrigen so thats my thouhts. OMG I am going to shut up!

 

Maybe your tires last longer because you do not drive it much.
That would work on all your cars.

 

Dealer wants $45 for it. sounds like ost of you say it isn't worth it, but you have done it anyway. Hmmmmmmmmmm.

 

If you are changing your tires over to nitrogen, do you need to remove 100% of the air? If so, how do you do that? Is holding the valve stem open until nothing else comes out enough?

 

texas t

Nitrogen does not promote oxidation so it is good in that regard and is why I use it. The nitrogen must be free of moisture however.

It is affected by temperature as it is a gas and any claims to mpg improvement with nitrogen are at best dubious and at worst ludicrous, take your pick.

Correctly inflated tires are the best bet for higher mpg, tire wear and safety using air or nitrogen.

PS, I got the nitrogen free, so I have no complaints. I would like a cylinder though, how much would that cost?

 

lol, what a waste of money to pay to have nitrogen put in your tires.

 

They let the air out and then fill with and empty the nitrogen a few times before filling and setting the pressure.

 

Oh, OK. Kind of like washing out the air.

 

Even if you do not drive a car the tires will dry up and rot with nitrogen they will last longer no moister inside the tire.

 

As for the stability issue I beg to differ. I've had nitrogen in my tires since I had my wheels put on last spring. Usually (with air) when the weather changes my light comes on and I have to put a few lbs in the tires. Well I made it through summer, fall and I'm thinking this stuff really does work . Well the temp drops to 10-15 a couple of times and on comes the light. I get it topped off at my son's garage and I figure I'm ok. Two weeks later the light is on again. Each tire was about 3 lbs low. No leaks I can see but again temperature swings. So I topped them off this time with air. In a few weeks I'll have my new tires mounted and we'll see what happens, the shop uses nitrogen but so far I'm not impressed with it. If it costs you money I would say stick with air.

 

I think that there is a potental problem with valve stems and caps when adding nitrogen, somehow tied into the TPMS system, corrosion comes to mind. AH time to do a search

 

Free? Have them put it in (Cosco does it for free).

Pay for it? Only if you plan to land your car on an aircraft carrier in the future and are concerned about fire when the rubber hits the landing deck.

And, as an aside, how do you know he deflated all your tires and replaced the air with nitrogen? Just put some green caps on them and move on (smile).

 

Wikipedia
Nitrogen (pronounced /ˈnaɪtɹəʤɪn/) is a chemical element that has the symbol N and atomic number 7 and atomic mass 14.00674µ. Elemental nitrogen is a colorless, odorless, tasteless and mostly inert diatomic gas at standard conditions, constituting 78% by volume of Earth's atmosphere.

I do not think we need to worry about oxidation with nitrogen, only from oxygen and oxygen compounds, water, salt and ozone, acid rain etc.

 

Your tires will be a little bit heavier, filled with oxygen or hydrogen they will be a bit lighter. You could test with a lighter if you checked for those gases.

 

They are trying to milk money from you.

Tell them that you're not interested.

PAYING for nitrogen in tires is the dumbest thing I've ever heard of.

 

Paying too much for nitrogen in your tires is a waste of money. Most people will top up the pressure with air anyway.
The benefits, if any, are hard to determine but it is probably easier on the TPMS transmitters.
Nitrogen acts just like air, expanding and contracting the same for a given temperature rise or fall.
It will not attack your inner tire surfaces, but after four years or so they are scrap anyway but they will have pristine inner walls, so what.
It may leak through the tire wall slower, so add air a bit more often.
`They' say it keeps the tires cooler and more stable, how?
So where are the benefits?


These people say its the best thing to come along since sliced bread;
http://www.getnitrogen.org/
I count these people among the `They'.
I think they are on shaky grounds and it it for their own ends, money.

Best idea, keep the tires properly inflated all the time.

 

Here is a link or two I found when looking for the benefits.

The best quote from this site, straightdope.com, is this one.

(More for those that don't want to go to the link)

As for moisture, changes in humidity affect tire performance two ways. First, the density of humid air fluctuates more with temperature than that of dry air, so removing humidity can keep your tire pressure more consistent, especially when the temperature climbs over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. That may be a legitimate concern in Formula One racing, but it's not much of an issue if you're just tooling around town.
Humidity can also be a factor in wheel maintenance - since pure nitrogen doesn't have moisture in it, supposedly your wheels won't rust as quickly, which could lead to improved wheel performance and air sealing. The question is, how big a problem is wheel rust these days? According to a few tire and wheel shops we contacted, not very. Seriously rusted wheels are uncommon in typical steel-wheeled cars, and many high-performance cars have alloy wheels that don't rust at all. One exception is work vehicles such as dump trucks, which are exposed to a much harsher environment.



Another claim I've seen is that since nitrogen is slightly lighter than air, you'll save weight and get better performance. However, we're talking about a weight difference of less than 4 percent of the gas in the tire - in other words, a difference of less than an ounce for most vehicles. A possibly more realistic benefit is that nitrogen is largely inert chemically at low (i.e., normal) temperatures, so it won't attack the rubber in your tires like oxygen does. Oxygen attack is something both the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Ford Research have studied, and can be a problem for tires used for a long time or in rough conditions.


Now here is a couple of links from the Getnitrogen.org web site.

Science

Why

To me, unless you can get it for free, it just doesn't seem worth spending the money on. Sure at some filling stations you have to pay to use their air pumps, so why go with nitrogen if it is going to keep you away from the pay pumps. I guess that is logic some can live with, but I've never had to add air to my tires (second set) and if I did, the gas station near me has it for free.

So if you want to go with it because you 1) feel better about using it, 2) have concerns with wheel rust out, or 3) don't mind a minimal cost, then happy driving. I add this bit, $150 is not minimal when you consider the tread life on the tires we use on this car. To me that money is better saved towards replacement tires.