leperboy

They only have to purge 75%, right? The remaining 25% is already 80% nitrogen.

Anyway, Nitrogen in tires is a pretty worthless investment in my opinion. Just because Costco and others do it doesn't mean it has scientific basis. It only means customers want it. And customers want all sorts of crazy, worthless crap. Just think of how many health fads people follow only to learn they are nothing more than fads. Just watch some infomercials to see people talking scientifically and logically about stuff you don't need and which do no good.

The getnitrogen.org site is not an informatiomal site. It is paid for and developed by the Nitrogen industry, for their benefit, not ours.

Matt

FlyingDog

Offroad rigs regularly use CO2 to 'air up' their tires. They don't have excessive tire decay or else they'd change quickly to nitrogen... if you think Pilot Sport 2s are expensive, check out the prices for Michelin XZLs.

That said, decreased pressure change and fire safety are nice to have for a race car. Additionally, you can bring a big nitrogen cylinder to the track to power tools, fill tires, and not need to plug in a noisy compressor for anything. For a street car, don't waste your money. I wouldn't turn nitrogen filled tires down if it was free, but I also wouldn't waste any money to fill with nitrogen.

mark kibort

what a bunch of crap!!!

if the air leaks out, it leaks out. if it leaks, it will leak no matter what gas you have in your tires. Helium molecules are very small and would leak, but nitrogen vs air molecules are close enough to the same size. dont thing the little leaks you do have break the molecular bond and allow only O2 to escape!

2nd , when you fill a tire up with Nitrogen, the volume you start with is the volume of air in the tire. you pressurize this to 30psi, and thats 2x the ambient pressure you started with. you end up with 33% air and 33% Nitrogen, or whatever you filled the tire with. In my case, i use NOS (same percentages of Nitrogen and O2 with a slightly differnt molecular make up)

3rd.you use Nitrogen or dry air , like my NOS if you want to control moisture. (due to its extra expansion due to moiture expansion as it gets hot) forget about the oxidation. when was the last time you saw ANY degridation of the INSIDE of a tire. I pulled the original 20 year old holber tires off my car , (by the way, they were still holding air fine) and the outsides were cracked beyond recognition, while the inside looked brand new, and thats a 20 year old tire. tires wear out FAR before they degrade on the inside.

4th, blowouts due to low pressure are a factor for most RV tires, not higher performance tires (ie 50 series) most blow outs occure due to the tire coming off the rim after hitting a curb or some impact. maybe in extreme underinflation situations, but not 5-10psi under ratings. Heck,im at the race track racing at 1.5 gs and running 25-29psi during the warm up lap .

5th. Nitrogen doesnt "maintain"any pressures any better than air in street applications. when was the last time you saw 180f tread temps? if so, what did the pressure rise too? if you are lucky, even with moist air filled tires, you will see a max of 4psi change. big woop.

nitrogen is a joke for the street. what is much more important is just simply checking your tire pressures occasionally. visually, gives you the best clue that something is wrong. (ie 25psi to 35psi is detectable visually)

I use NOS in my tires, not for moisture avoidance, but for convenience. I can fit 10lbs at 700psi in a NOS bottle and it lasts all season. this equates to about 3 full cycles of a 60 gallon compressor drum, BUT, i have the abilit to use up to 700psi if i need it!!! (quick rap with a air tool on a stuck lug nut for example)
The, everyone stands back and say's " OHHH, thats NOS? arent you worried about it catching fire????" they forget that (or dont know) that NOS is just air (or very close to it)

MK



mk

Charley B

What he said.

Angel84-928

Because Nitrogen is cheaper and more readily available than than Halon. Halon is also a ozone depleting gas.

It would be like putting Nitrogen in your 928's wheels instead of just plain old air. Or like pissing in a dark pair of pants. Nice warm feeling but nobody would notice.

mark kibort

so, you are no better off than any of us in california. say you put a new tire on a new car on a 100% humidity day in Texas. you let all the air out, and fill it with NOS. now you have 66% nitrogen, 33% air (with 100% humidity). that is equivilant to a tire filed with 100% california air on a normal summer day!

who cares about Nitrogen in the tires. its the moisture you are trying to rid of for racing conditions. street driving with Nitrogen is as worthless as **** on bull.
shame on anyone that tells their customers anything else.

MK

mark kibort

by the way, the difference on the track with 190f tread temps for pressure rise of Nitrogen vs air filled tires is 4psi vs 8psi. (approx) big woop!!

mmk

Larry928GTS

I'm going to go out on a limb here and take a wild guess that you don't have a master's degree in chemistry.

Charley B

Sometimes a masters degree in chemistry gets trumped by a lifetime degree in common sense.

ZEUS+

Filling automotive and aircraft tires[1] due to its inertness and lack of moisture or oxidative qualities, as opposed to air, though this is not necessary for consumer automobiles.[2][3]
Nitrogen molecules are less likely to escape from the inside of a tire compared with the traditional air mixture used. Air consists mostly of nitrogen and oxygen. Nitrogen molecules have a larger effective diameter than oxygen molecules and therefore diffuse through porous substances more slowly
From this site:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrogen
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/question594.htm

Larry928GTS

Sometimes, but a lot of times common sense seems to be even more rare than "air molecules", and those molecular bonds that you have to break to separate the oxygen from them.

Charley B

OK...................I hope you didn't just insult me. :>)

Larry928GTS

No, definitely not an insult towards you.

Really just more like a general observation based on what seems like more and more internet posts that I seem to come across in different places.

SharkSkin

mark kibort

no masters in chem. didnt like it much when i took it, but it was interesting.
so, forget about my silly comments about the "molecular bonds" . But, you can talk about the percentages of air and Nitrogen on a tire refill, as thats just kidnergarden math, right??

so, tell me, does a small tire leak filter out only the o2 and leave the nitrogen behind? it would have to be a pretty specific sized leak. the next question is that is an air molecule different that sqirting 02 and nitrogen in a container? if it was just like mixing Koolaid, what would be the difference of NOS, which has the same percentages as air with regards to Nitrogen and O2, but is a totally different molecule. if it just takes a certain "sized hole" to "filter" out the o2 molecules, then that is interesting to me. again, your right, im no chemist.

what i do know is a little bit of gas law from my aero days. there are folks still thinking Nitrogen doesnt expand at all, and Air does . which i dont think you need a masters in Chem to confirm this is wrong. There are also just as many that think NOS is flamible too.

mk