Let's see, after a 4 month TDY, I came back and my MINI hadn't lost any pressure in the tires. Source of inflation: Nitrogen.

 

What was the ambient air temp when you checked before TDY and what was the ambient air temp after TDY?

 

I haven't had to put air in my tires in 6 months and I check them bi-weekly

they are filled with

AIR

 

I had about 5lbs of seep &/or temp variance when I checked two days ago. Luckily I just poped a tip onto my household nail gun compressor, bam 33lbs again.

I could go either way. Nitrogen is cheap enough that if it is convenient to fill my tires with it, I will. But Im not going out of my way to do it.

 

Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "blowout".

 

We have a few other cars with Costco purchased tires (currently the MINI does not) but if you get to know one or two of the tire techs, they will fill your tires for free!! I can drive up and get a refill on all fours (38 lbs.), but it does take a while for the pressure to drop 2-3 lbs. at that after 6 months. Make sure they bleed out the regular air first.

Costco also uses a pretty accurate digital gauge on their hoses.

It is nice to only check tire pressure every few months with nitrogen.

 

Checking pressure every few months is a bad idea, regardless of what you've got in the tire. Suppose you've got a slow leak? Or some kid in the neighborhood has messed with your valve stems.

Nitrogen is a waste of time.

 

Actually a time saver for me... My Jaguar had Continental Tires and they lost air constantly. I was always looking for an air hose. Quite a pain in the rear! After I had Nitrogen put in they hardly needed the frequent attention they were getting before.

 

Air, it is 78% nitrogen. Therefore, I am using nitrogen in my tires right now!

 

http://blogs.consumerreports.org/car...en-tires-.html

Consumer reports own testing above....

Using most gas stations air does have plenty of moisture and oil crap in it....next time, blow off the crap by blimping the nozzle a couple of times and you still get moisture, you can see it.

With Costco's own generator they get the moisture out (thru a dryer) and the oil droplets (thru a filter) so that you get clean dry nitrogen.

+1 with MOTE.

While I have never worried about prankster kids letting air out of our tires, even if they did, I'd go back to Costco to refill for free. We have a few other cars (89' Acura, 06' Accord, 99' Jeep GCL, 04' M3) all with nitrogen and only needs a small top-off every several months and do that when we go to shop Costco.

 

Is it safe to assume since I have green tipped air valve caps on my newly purchased 2008 clubman s that I have nitrogen filled tires? This is new to me, any info would be helpful. Thx

 

Yes, green caps indicate nitrogen.

 

Our local Discount Tire fills and checks with Nitrogen FREE.

The compressor set-up takes your preset and fills it automatically.

They have a stall dedicated to just FREE Nitrogen checks and fills, you just pull right in.

Makes it pretty much a no-brainer, especially since I fell out of love with Les Schwab.

Now if only you could scroll thru the dash read-outs on a MINI and see the PSI in every tire like you can on my GMC truck. Love that feature before a trip.

 

The feature that racers love about nitrogen is that it is not as likely to increase pressure with temp increases.Your setup won't change as the tires build temp. Absolutely worthless on a street car. Waste your money as you wish. Any "perceived" differences are totally between your ears.

 

Not necessarily. Nitrogen could have been put in at some point and later the previous owner just started using air.

Nitrogen is a waste of time and money, though. Remember, air is nearly 80% nitrogen already and that little extra percentage is not going to make any noticeable difference in a street car.

 

Guys, it's as simple as rate of effusion.

O2 has a molecular mass of 32.0 g/mol, N2 is 28.0 g/mol. If we were working with standard atmosphere, which is 78% N2, 21% O2, and 1% various gasses, it would be approximately 28.56g/mol of atmosphere, ignoring the extraneous 1% of material. With just N2 at 28.0g/mol there is such a miniscule difference that the N2 isn't effusing through the rubber at a rate fast enough (effusion is an inverse property of molecular mass in reference to two gasses) to make a warranted difference.

Skip the N2.

 

All of this is a waste of time (I have been told) by some that the Mini is equipped with "run flat tires" because they pump them selves back up when they are flat...

I actually had to explain to a coworker what runflat really meant...

 

This thread is a bigger waste of time than N2. Reminds me of the oil threads. Why don't we start a thread about how checkered mirrors or vinyl graghics are a waste of time and money too.

Live and let live dudes.