My local tyre and exhaust centre is offering car tyre inflation with nitrogen rather than air for £1 per tyre. The alleged benefits appear to be based on fairly flimsy science. Has anyone tried this? Did you see any benefit?

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We always used the nitrogen to check and top the tyres up when we had the bottle out for purging.

What are the supposed benefits.

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Whilst Nitrogen inflation is mandated for aircraft tyres, due wheel well fire risks, attributes of nitrogen: drier (wheel corrosion) cooler, hence more stable charge pressure reading and lacking oxygen content, perhaps less deterioration of the tyre rubber

Robbed off the Hertford Tyre Service website

"The Nitrogen Tyre Inflation System carries out in milliseconds what happens in every tyre over a period of months. By filtering out the 'active oxygen' and water / water vapour the Nitrogen Tyre Inflation System product provides the tyre with a stable inflation mixture that has no desire to permeate (leak) out through the tyre's structure."

Seems it all to do with leaks

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Mike
http://rebuildingatimberbungalow.blogspot.com/
any advice welcome

Nitrogen, as opposed to compressed air, doesn't expand/contract as much when heated/cooled therefore tyres are supposed to maintain a constant pressure therefore there is an improvement in wear.....
Nitrogen is used in F1 car tyres but for normal road users you would have to be looking to get that extra 0.01% performance improvement if you consider using it.

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This post may contain nuts

My understanding is that the tyre will maintain a more stable and optimum pressure and hence reduce the wear rate caused by under inflation due to leakage. The nitrogen molecule is marginally larger than the oxygen molecule and will therefore leak less. I guess it's a bit like hydrogen systems where it's really difficult to maintain a leak-tight system due to the molecule being very small. Bottled nitrogen is drier than air so less corrosion. But I think the main selling factor is the more stable pressure over the life of the tyre and therefore reduced wear. But like I say the alleged benefits do sound flimsy.

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As mentioned above, stable air pressure is the main benefit...for boy racers and real racers only imho, no real benefit in "normal" road cars.

wrinx

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Not a chemist, so could not quote thermal expansion coefficients of mixed gases; I do know a nitrogen filled tyre, inflated in cool Northern hemisphere and pressure checked in a warmer climate, has increased by near 5%, conversely a drop the other way around; IMHO air would not be noticeable different. New tyres will initially loose pressure, they are more elastic expanding during running-in and loosing perhaps 5% pressure. As above, no real benefit for the Joe Blogs driver.
F1, think it is more a safety aspect for fire suppression.

I suppose it could save fuel. If tyres lose too much pressure then you get more rolling road resistance. If you check your tyres frequently then this wouldn't be a problem.

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Nick

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Citroen use nitrogen in their suspension systems because the nitrogen molecules are larger than air molecules and so there is less chance of weepage through the rubber seals and diaphrams in the system.

dave

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Nitrogen is used in racing cars due to the gas being more stable than air. This makes it good for track cars which produce a lot of heat in the tyres due to hard acceleration,breaking and cornering. I don't believe it is necessary in normal road cars. As long as you check your tyre pressure weekly, as you should do anyway, there should be no need for nitrogen. Also, inflating tyres with nitrogen instead of air does NOT mean you will not have to check your tyres pressure. It should still be cheked weekly.

Blimey - I thought I was being good when I used to just check it on the way for its MOT

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Mike
http://rebuildingatimberbungalow.blogspot.com/
any advice welcome

My car's handbook specifies two sets of recommended tyre pressures depending on how the car is loaded. One driver and no cargo needs a much lower pressure than fully loaded with passengers and cargo. How many people actually adjust their tyre pressures as the loading changes? I don't.

Worth mentioning that nitrogen is a very very dangerous gas. One breath is all it takes to kill you

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there's an idea - park the car where there are lots of junkies and put a sign on the wheels saying "Free Fix - Suck Here" with an arrow pointing to the valves! Tried a similar thing down a local dogging sits and all I can say is that the police do terrible breakfasts...

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Mike
http://rebuildingatimberbungalow.blogspot.com/
any advice welcome

Did you know that your draught bitter/guinness/mild is dispenced with 70% nitrogen,i have for a while now been thinking of a way to connect a tyre inflator to the Nitrogen generators at work but seeing as i would have to run a line from the pub cellars to the car parks it's not worth the hassle

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