Peter Mahr

I have a C4 with tire pressure sensors. I was getting regular "Service LTPWS" lights. New sensors are not available any more for my car so I tried filling the tires with nitrogen. The hope is that the absence of moisture will help the sensors. I haven't driven the car enough to be able to say categorically that it was a success but after a couple of weeks of local driving, I have not seen a fault light.

BlackZ06

While "Industrial" Nitrogen is "drier" than air, where do you think the moisture is getting into the sensors ??? They're sealed units .... they could be underwater and they'd still just report the pressure around them .... Nitrogen has NOTHING to do with this.

This whole Nitrogen "discussion" is a joke ....

I'm familiar with gases because I do "technical" diving, where we are inhaling gases such as "Nitrox" and "Trimix".

To simplify a very complex issue ... let's look at a gas such as Oxygen. You'd think that a cylinder of Oxygen is .... well ... just Oxygen. But the fact is there are different "grades" of Oxygen. Two common grades are ABO (Aviator Breathing Oxygen) and MO (Medical Oxygen) ... so what is the difference ???

ABO is VERY low in water content. Since pilots need Oxygen at high altitudes, they need a feed system, but at the same time the air surrounding the airplane is VERY cold (-50 degrees centigrade) so they run the risk that if the gas they breath has a lot of water in it, the feed system will eventually freeze up and cut off their oxygen supply. So ABO is VERY low in moisture content to avoid water freezing up in the system.

On the other hand, "Medical Oxygen" is much higher in water content. You don't want to dehydrate a patient who is on Oxygen for several days or weeks, so "Medical Oxygen" has a MUCH higher moisture content than ABO, even tho' they are both "Oxygen".

When someone tells you they are putting "Nitrogen" in your tires ... ask them about the water content .... regular air is about 80 percent Nitrogen .... what is the advantage of Nitrogen in your tires .... NONE

Peter Mahr

Older tire pressure sensors for C4s are not sealed so whatever is in the tire gets into the case.

u4ick

As stated before Nitogen is spoke of as an inert gas (even though it really isn't "inert" as far as the definition goes)......."inert" meaning mostly that it has a low reactivity to it.......meaning that it's volume stays more constant when comparing temperatures to pressures. Fill a tire up with nitrogen and another one with "air" at an ambient temp of say 80 degrees and then wait for winter temps of of say 30 degrees and you will notice that the "air" filled tire looks to be low on pressure. This will mostly be due to the amount of water vapor(humidity) shrinking in the "air" filled tire. True that nitrogen is "dry" as it does not have any water molecules in it.........however by nature compressing air also removes some of the moister content to begin with, meaning that the air coming out of a compressor is "dryer" than the ambient air it was compressed from.......unless of course no one has been bothering to drain ones tank of excess water from time to time.
The only advantage that I can see by putting nitrogen in your tire is to keep water molecules to as low a level as possible for the purposes of reducing corrosion and maintaining a more constant pressure during changes in temperature of the tire. For the most part the advantage of pressure changes would be negligible in my opinion (for what ever that's worth). As for me being involved in the HVAC industry I have nitrogen regularly available to me and I've never bothered with putting it in any of my tires other than on my hand truck (dolly) for convenience reasons..............on a side note putting R-22(freon) or any other refrigerant in a tire can have some pretty drastic(explosive) effects......so be careful with those practical jokes

rcerex

I heard the Germans were trying the same thing with Hydrogen.

mr-z

All about money money

gasboy

HUH? nitrogen will come out of a hole in a tire just like regular air.
cup cars still seem to wreck when they have flats.

Atok

Not sure what you mean by "more stable" but the reason nitrogen is used in racing has nothing to do with "blow outs". It is used simply because it is has a very low moisture content so it helps controls pressure build-up, and therefore wheel rate. It makes the handling of the car more consistent for the driver. It also runs impact wrenches very well.

Bigstik

I agree with everything you say except for the fact that N2 is referred to as "inert" becuase it's volume stays more consistent with changes in Temperature and Pressure. The "inert" part comes from N2 being very non-reactive with other substances (i.e H2 + O2 in the presences of a heat source = H2O + explosion.....H2 + N2 = nothing). Now I am not saying that it doesn't react, just not as readily as other substances. And the ideal gas law ( i know its "IDEAL"), even with correction factors does not differentiate between any of the nobel gases. The correction factors are more for somewhat "incompressable" gases like water vapor.

CJR2

From Wikipedia : "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."

elemon

Truth

stig-zzz

hey we all buy bottled water whats the differance

u4ick

good point..............and I refuse to pay for bottled water.
Good thing for me Nitrogen is free if I so choose to use it.

Itiner

the nitrogen dont expand that much as the air when get hot.
So those who tracking the car yes it is a BIG difference. On the street... i dont think is neccesery.

if you are tracked the car before / road track/ you know how the tires gain pressure . Now with the nitrogen you might gain 3-4 psi. most. i dont have a corvette yet so i dont know how much you gain in the rear tires when you are tracking the car, but i bet alot. Last summer i did go up on track with air + 25 psi all around and came of with 42 after 20 minutes!
Next track day i got the nitrogen for 36 front 34 rear and i came off 1 -2 psi higher!.
so here is the benefit.