Has anyone have experience using nitrogen in their tires. I have a ford that has it and does improve gas mileage but what does it do to performance. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

 

Regular air is mostly nitrogen. The difference is not in what its got (nitrogen), but in what it doesn't got, water (humidity).

 

A very succinct and very correct reply.

On the other hand, if you want to read over 300 posts on 7 threads about this, look at this search (but I suggest you don't):


https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...archid=6368695

 

Wow, a lot of people get passionate about their views. LOL. Thanks for the link.

 

I always use 78% nitrogen, and it's free.

 

Would that be winter or summer air...

 

Winter air usually has less water vapor content. A dry cold winter day would be best.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relative_humidity

 

Not true. And if nitrogen really worked like people think it does, you'd actually get worse gas mileage. But in street cars, nitrogen is a waste of time, money, and effort.

First of all, if you inflate to the same pressure, a nitrogen filled tire will have the same rolling resistance as an air filled one. It's based on the pressure. So, you will NOT get better mileage with nitrogen.

Two, one of the theories behind using nitrogen is that the tire won't get as hot thus the tire won't increase it's pressure as much as an air filled one once it's driven on. If this actually worked to any significant degree, then the nitrogen filled tire would not get as hot, the pressure wouldn't go up as much and therefore, rolling resistance would not decrease as much as an air filled tire. Therefore, the nitrogen filled tire would result in worse gas mileage.

Really, the only benefits to be gained from using pure nitrogen (and it must be dry and the tire must be completely purged of all air and moisture - not an easy task) are to be found only in race cars at the very highest levels of competition. Using nitrogen on your daily driver is a waste of time. And any benefits you perceive are illusionary.

 

Read the fine print - no one fills with pure nitrogen, the content is actually very low and many companies say it's "insignificantly higher" than "air filled"

A tech at my local tire place told me he "noticed better traction" after filling his motorcycle with nitrogen. Once i heard that I knew what i needed ....

 

I presume you're being sarcastic with that last bit. No one is going to notice "better traction" by using nitrogen in their tires.

But pure nitrogen is used all the time at these places. It's relatively cheap and readily available. The trouble is:

The people putting it in don't use the proper nitrogen to begin with. (Dried.)

And the tires are never purged of all the air anyway. (Usually requires a lot of nitrogen and two valve stems. One for the incoming nitrogen, one for the outgoing purged gases.

And even if it was the right nitrogen and it was "installed" properly, it doesn't make a difference to 99.999% of the drivers out there. It only wastes their time and makes their wallets lighter.

 

If you use helium, you car is lighter and the tires are easier to change.

 

+1

 

Not to mention less unsprung weight, should make you go faster as well.

 

Since hydrogen is even lighter than Helium, I propose we all switch to hydrogen. 'Could be fun.

 

And if your FCX Clarity runs out of fuel, you have a reserve!

 

A vacuum is even lighter!

 

But then the handling would really suck.

 

You guys are knocken me out!

 

That's where you point falls apart. You're assuming the tires are inflated to the same pressure. That is rarely true for the typical driver. Especially after a few years.

Take two tires, one filled with nitrogen to 35psi and one will with air to 20psi. The nitrogen tire will indeed have a lower rolling resistance and will indeed get better mileage.

With tires lasting 60K+ miles, too many drivers don't bother to check their tire pressure for years. That's just the reality. As I already mentioned, it isn't the nitrogen, but what is not in there. That is also true for various elements, especially mono-atomic ones, which can leak easier than nitrogen. I know that for my Mustang, I use to have to put more air into the tires every few months. However, now with nitrogen, I can go for over a year and only loosing 2 or 3 psi's. So, I am driving around with 35psi in my tires now, instead of 20psi.

 

It does make your wallet lighter....
The gas saved is mostly from the fact the the pure nitrogen is leaking out through the rubber more slowly...so if you regularly check you tire preassure, and fill them from a dry compressed air scource, IMO you can save the $6 per tire!! Save the nitrogen for racecars and airplane tires!!

 

Not to be argumentative but that's also where your point falls apart...

Even if you assume all of the non-nitrogen components of the air you filled your tires with were able to "leak out" through the body of the tire, that's about 22% of the gas that was originally used to inflate your tires to 35 psig (since air is 78% nitrogen). The loss of everything that's not nitrogen would lower the pressure by 7.7 psi, leaving 27.3 psig in the tires.

Granted, that's not good, but it's also not going to happen that way. The rate of diffusion of the molecules in air through the carcass of a tire is going to be very slow, if your tires are losing pressure at a rate of several psi per month, then most likely there are small leaks somewhere (imperfect bead seal to wheel, leak around valve stem, etc). Your nitrogen will not "leak" significantly slower than air. For example, I just took down the winter tires for one of my cars this weekend which i have mounted on extra wheels, and over the summer (from March to late October) 3 of the tires had lost 1 psi, and one had lost 6 psi. I would bet that the tire with the 6 psi loss has a very small leak somewhere.

As you can tell, I'm in the "air is more than adequate for street driving" camp and just can't see any benefit to spend money on anything more expensive than air. I'll just keep checking my tire pressure every month or so...

 

Yep. Those who think that using nitrogen greatly slows the loss of pressure simply don't understand what's going on. The difference in the rate of pressure loss between a pure nitrogen filled tire and one filled with air is insignificant. Any noted differences are due to other causes which would be there regardless of the gas used to fill the tire. Since getting my Mini, I've only taken my motorcycle out for a ride maybe5 times in the past year+. (Damn, that Mini is just so much fun!) When I last took the bike out for a ride, it had been nearly 6 months. When I checked my tire pressure before the ride, I found that my front tire had only lost 3 lbs. (36 down to 33.) The rear a similar percentage. That ain't much, especially considering the smaller volume. And if they'd been filled with nitrogen, maybe the tire would only be down to 33.1. Big deal.

Those who think they're getting a deal by not having to check their tire pressure as often are only fooling themselves. Or someone else is fooling them. And not checking tire pressure frequently is a bad thing.

Nitrogen in tires is a waste of time and money. Period.

 

Better yet use nitrous oxide, makes for happy motoring .

 

...and check the air every 2-3 months.

 

The only advantage I have seen to nitrogen in my tires is that I got these really cool green valve caps -- they kinda look neat on the BRG Mini. Probably make it faster, too given that they are smaller and lighter than the OEM chef's hat type.