Thanks I knew that you know the real answers

 

I heard it eleminates the moisture in your tires that affect your sensors.

 

I bought my tires at Costco, free rotation for life of tire,they re-balance every time they rotate as well as replace valve stems and refill each tire with nitrogen.....seems to be fine.

 

I'll stick with air, it's free...

Nick

 

As a shop owner, I carry nitrogen machines and use it per customer request.

Personally, I dont use it in my personal cars. I dont like it. So some reason it makes the ride alot stiffer. Plus the temperature of the tires does not increase as high during hard use giving me less traction.

Plus Side? Lower chance of blow-outs. Regular air has around 85 % nitrogen anyways. There is only one machine that will pump 99.9% purity.

 

I love my Nitrogen... but... not worth it if that's what they charge. Really, with the tire pressure monitoring half your work is done. And running cooler, yes. Will you notice, no. Wil the tire wear differntly, not that you'll notice. Take your money with another $40 and take your wife to dinner.

 

Was at Costco this weekend buying tires for a Honda Civic commuter for the wife ...The Nitrogen was pushed ... hmmm They bundle it with mounting bal,tire hazard.

 

Snake oil.

 

Costco fills them with nitro for nothing...every time they rotate they purge and refill and rebalance

 

I take it you no longer have directional tires.

 

This is the only claim that seems to be true, in my experience. But, for me, it was worth it just for this benefit alone. My wife used to drive a max'd out Jeep Liberty that included tire pressure sensor monitoring. Every time it would get cold, that thing would start going off and I'd have to go out and add air to the tires. When I put new tires on it, my tire shop had just bought a top of the line (FWIW) nitrogen system. For $39, I was told they would fill the tires with 100% (well 99.9%) pure nitrogen and I would experience a softer, quieter ride, better mileage, longer tire life, and more consistent air pressures. Well, it's difficult to assess any ride improvement on a brand new set of tires with nitrogen when you haven't previously ridden on them without it. All I know is, for the rest of the time we owned the vehicle, the only sensor that EVER went off again was in the spare, and it didn't have nitro in it and never rolled on the pavement.

Later we bought a Mazda RX8, also equipped with the sensors. Had a similar issue with the air pressures. So, when I bought a new set of tires from the same guy, went ahead and put the nitro in them and again didn't have further issues with pressure sensors.

This past year we traded in the Jeep for a brand new Toyota 4Runner and the dealer we purchased from just happens to fill the tires, on every new vehicle they deliver, with nitrogen. I asked why and they told me the company decided to do it because of the increased number of vehicles being equipped with the monitoring systems and the number of customers that started coming back reporting them going off too often. Our 4Runner also has the TPMS and we have owned it going on a full year and have not had a tire sensor go off.

Many will call it "snake oil" and maybe it is. For me, the proof is in the results. I can't say I've seen any evidence of the other claimed benefits of running Nitrogen. I think any claim to increased mileage or longer tire life would only be because of the more constant tire pressures since poorly inflated tires can cause a decrease in gas mileage and/or premature tire wear. So, really the only claim I can't substantiate, based on experience, is a better ride. That too, could also just be based on more constant pressures.

At my tire shop, for the $39, it covers the life of the tires. So, if I get a flat or, for some reason have to add just plain old "air" to them, they will refill with Nitrogen at no additional charge.

Plus, you get the cool little green valve stem caps. LOL! And, for more blinged out cars, like my RX8 was, they might even throw in chromed caps with green tops on them.

FWIW, I am or have been a member of a forum like this for every vehicle I own or owned within the last 5 years, including a Harley. This topic has been posted on every one of them and they always have similar responses. Everything from true believers to those saying it's 100% BS.

 

I've been buying all my tires at Costco for years now. Even the Pilots I bought there. Go back and top off the nitro for free whenever you need to. They also replaced one of my Pilots for free when I had 2 nails in the tire that were to close to patch. Prices are pretty equal to Tire Rack also.

 

Having to have my tires removed, wheel cleaned and bead prepped due to corrosion causing leakage, was recommended to fill the tires with nitrogen. I laughed and said how about the ~80% nitrogen stuff and they said it's the moisture stupid (not at a dealership obviously 'cause they know what they are talking about). So I am a scuba diver and know my breathing gas (air) is very dry and goes through a drying process so it won't corrode my scuba tanks. I just dedicated an old regulator and small pony bottle to tire duty (since I dive Nitrox mostly). It ain't exactly cheap with tank yearly VIP and Hydro every 5 years but a 15 cuft tank last several years and it is dry.

So let's say the O2 molecules do leak out faster, every time you top the tire off the N2 concentration is higher than what you put in so at some point you end up with ~100% N2 (theoretically) If a frog jumps half the distance to the wall every time, theoretically he never reaches the wall.

 

Why are they charging for it? Discount Tire doesn't charge me for it...they just do it free...

 

Wilzer, pass me some of whatever you are drinkin or smokin, because i read your post 3 times and still cant understand what you are trying to say. Best i can tell is a frog jumped in your scuba tank and you can never make it to the wall without your wheels getting corroded and leaking N2 molecules, which arent very cheap.

Okay thats not what you said but may as well be.

 

So the frog in the scuba tank was breathing nitrogen and couldn't get out cause of corrosion?

 

been running dry nitrogen for years in my truck, vette, and wife's trailblazer. only thing it does is maintain pressure. no moisture to expand and contract with ambient temp (as much as pump air). I get it free because its what goes in aircraft struts and I just fill it up at work.....I would not pay for it though. but free is free

 

Nitro dropped my 1/4 times from 13.3 to 13.1. Well worth it! That was before the Varraram. Now I am into the 12's.

 

I remember the first time i had heard of this i was at a parts store stoking up on brake cleaner while it was on sale (can never have too much brake cleaner!) Anyway as i was about to put the bags in my car i had a couple high school kids approach me wanting to ask me about my camaro so i showed it to them and of course they were driving an import (eclipse) so they had lots of questions for me lol.. A lot of them were dumb but i didnt laugh and i answered them all. Kind of reminded me of my HS days. Then one asked me if i had nitrogen in my tires and i said nitrogen like the stuff they use in aircraft and race car tires? And then he proceeded with this HUGE list of benefits for having nitrogen in your tires instead of air. Kind of made me laugh inside a little.

The main difference to having nitrogen in your tires instead of "regular air" is the lack of moisture in nitrogen. This is precisely why aircraft and race cars use it because the moisture or humidity that comes out of a standard air compressor can catch and hold heat in your tires. When you are going 180-220 mph hot tires arent a good thing lol.
Now with that being said, there is 1 advantage a street car can benefit from using nitrogen over regular compressor air. Due to the lack of humidity in the tire with nitrogen you will not see nearly the fluctuation in tire pressure when going from a cold day to a hot day. Your tire pressure will remain much more stable. Worth the price they charge for nitrogen? Nope! Tire pressures are an item that should be inspected regularly. And you definitely should know when there's a pressure problem with our cars haha.

 

I run nitrogen in my trailer tires (the tires run cooler). Also run it in my slicks to maintain equal pressure after a burnout. Other then running cooler and preventing air loss due to temp change there is not much benefit to it. My tire shop charges $5 a tire well worth it for the slicks and trailer but wouldn't pay that for the street cars.