anyone hear about this and does it work??
said to up fuel consumption and keep tires up better!

 

Your tires already have 78% nitrogen in them...its called air. I highly doubt another 22% will make any difference.

 

well first i dont think that it ups fuel consumption...might up fuel milage....

costco only fills tires with it, they have a hand out about nitrogen, give a few and i will see if i can find it online...

 

that is what costco says, i dont see any reason for them to lie as this is the only option for your tires there, meaning they are not trying to upsell you for more money.

 

Nitrogen molecules are larger than oxygen. supposedly they don't leach through the rubber as much. Also less moisture in nitrogen. More stable pressures.

 

If you can get nitro for free, go for it. Otherwise, it ain't worth it for the street (guys on this site DO check their tires every month..........right?).

Steve

 

As long as you rotate the air on a regular schedule, it won't matter.

 

^^^And never put Helium your tires. The additional lift will reduce traction to a dangerous level.

 

yup, I lost a car that way, just floated away....

 

And people called me crazy when I filled my tires with hydrogen.


For the most part I agree with Steina, if its free take it. You might see a 1/1000 mpg gain, but its nothing worth paying for.

I could see it as a benefit for those folks who either are unable to, or to stupid to, check their tire pressure. I'm always suprised at how many cars I see driving around with half flat tires these days.

 

That is what I was also told, with Nitrogen pressures don't raise with heat or lower with cold temps. I also agree if it is free great, but I'm not paying for it.
Craig

 

You were told a lie. Nitrogen pressures change with temperature just like air.

The small bit of truth here is that at high temperatures, where street tires do not operate, nitrogen filled tires do not gain pressure as much as air filled tires. That's because the nitrogen used to fill tires is dry nitrogen. Air has water vapor in it, and that expands quite a bit more than dry nitrogen once it gets above 212F. How often do street tires get that hot? Usually only after the car is on fire. Race tires are usually that hot, so it makes sense to use nitrogen in them.

 

Nitrogen filled tires have several benefits:

- Pure nitrogen doesn't leak through the tires as fast a normal air mixture. Sure, you should check the tire pressure just as often, but at least you won't need to inflate them as much.

- Nitrogen filled tires stay cooler. This is the primary reason airplanes, race cars and some emergency vehicles use it. Many street tires are only rated for 85 or 105 mph, and their actual speed ability degrades as they lose tread over time. A few degrees can mean the difference between having a blow out or not.

- It takes more caloric input with nitrogen verses air to achieve the same amount of expansion. Nitrogen filled tires tend to keep a more consistent PSI,.

- Cooler running tires have less tread wear. This can mean a mile or so difference on the track, or hundreds/thousands on the street.

- Oxidation of internal surfaces is greatly reduced because water and oxygen are displaced.

The only real con to nitrogen tires is the cost, and if they include it for free that's a non-issue.

Let's face it folks, statistically most people (and I'd wager that applies to the people on automotive forums as well) don't check their tire pressures as often as it is recommended, and therefore many tend to run with slightly under inflated tires. If that can be avoided, for free, why not? If there is a cost (even if its small) I don't think it's worth it for most folks unless they are the type who never check tire pressure.

 

Why is this? I don't understand.

I can tell you from my experience nitrogen didn't make our race car tires run cooler, and I'm the guy that's measuring tire temps during practice. We did see less pressure gain, but the temps are just about the same.

 

Nitrogen and air tend to expand about the same for the same temperature increase but nitrogen takes more caloric intake to raise that same amount. So, in your case, while the tires measured externally may be seeing about the same temps... this is just a guess... I'd bet that the internal gas temp is slightly lower, or takes longer to get to the same temps. I don't have any data backing this up, but going by what I know of physics, and the properties of nitrogen verses an air mix.

Question... what do you mean by "just about the same"? Because I'm not sure how it can be measured on a vehicle in a way that is verifiable as the gas mixture being the source for differing results. Track temps would vary from one run to another, so would vehicle temps, air conditions, etc. You can see differing results with just an hour time change. So, basically, if a tire ran at 135 degrees and 139 degrees (I'm just throwing out numbers), how would one tell what caused the difference, or is the difference passed off as trivial? Now, perhaps if someone out there has done a test lab with identical conditions we could have some results we know are valid instead of guesswork. I've seen Ford's tire testing equipment in Dearborn, maybe they've done such a test? It would be interesting....

I'm all for data, I'm very much into datalogging my vehicles, but I'm not sure how this could be done except in a lab. Even front to back and side to side the temps are going to differ with the same gas mixture due to load, and air flow.