It's a great way to make an extra sale, plus get you back into the shop for free pressure checks/fills.

 

A few years ago, I was looking for a car for my wife. The VW dealership had the ***** to put on the window sticker "Nitrogen filled tires $200.00." There were other things on there like rust prevention undercoating, (no salt on the roads in Florida). paint sealer (hand applied application, not a film), pin stripes (ugly).

I told the salesman, I don't want any of those options. His response was... they were already on the car, and that they could not take the options off the price. He also said that they do that to ALL the cars on the lot, and they did not have any without it done to them. I literally laughed and left.

 

As an engineer by trade, I fully believe it's the internet. It has made an entire nation / generation(s) of people lazy to the point they will believe anything they read.

As to the OP: For a street car; it's snake oil. For a min/max thing, eh, if done properly I guess there might be some small immeasurable use for it.

 

Thanks! Big factor often overlooked is footnote D. Oxygen combined with fuel is what creates hp. If water vapor is in the high side there is less oxygen available to produce power.
Major issue in naturally aspirated engine, like Prostock in drag racing where times change with moisture content in the air and no supercharger that can compensate!
It is also a factor in tire fill, particularly at cold temps. Best if there is a dryer on the airline. Nitrogen has essentially zero moisture and compared to moist air will keep pressures somewhat more consistent. However for a passenger car it's not significant IMO.

 

A key reason race car teams use Nitrogen is it can be kept in high pressure cylinders regulated to deliver it quickly in less space than an air compressor!
I worked for a major industrial gas company with about 30% of North American production capacity. It takes a lot of energy and expensive plants to liquefy air then distill the 21% Oxygen, 78% Nitrogen and ~1% Argon. We were good at selling Oxygen and great at selling Argon (my support area) but terrible at selling Nitrogen! Costly to spend the money to liquefy it then just vent it!
I recall the efforts expended in selling Nitrogen to replace air compressors in various applications. For large truck fleets that recap their tires and can get well over 100,000 miles on a tire carcuss there is a benifit of reduced oxidation. In a passenger tire it is not a significant factor.

 

Filling tires with nitrogen really isn’t anything new; it’s been around a long time. It’s commonly used in
commercial and government aircraft and vehicles, and even motorsport vehicles. To meet rigid safety and
performance specs, the required tire inflation pressures are often very high, especially in the aerospace
industry. The space shuttle’s tires, for instance, were filled to 315 psi!
Here’s what makes nitrogen ideal for these applications:
• Nitrogen is an inert gas; it doesn’t burn or oxidize.
• The compression process for nitrogen removes moisture, so it’s a dry gas. Since it’s dry, it has no
moisture to contribute extra pressure changes with temperature. Water vapor can expand if the
temperature climbs above 212° F.
• Tires filled with nitrogen leak more slowly over time than those filled with compressed air.
But automobile tires are subjected to an entirely different set of conditions. Here’s why we say no to
nitrogen:
• Nitrogen generators produce nitrogen gas from ambient air, but it’s at something less than 100 percent
purity. To get just that same level of purity into a tire, you’d have to deflate and fill it several times to
purge the remaining air. And if you don’t do that, the purity level drops even more. Compressed air is
already about 78 percent nitrogen.
• Although tires filled with nitrogen leak more slowly over time than those with compressed air, they still
leak. If you can’t find a place that offers nitrogen, your only option is to fill with compressed air, which,
as we’ve said, drops the nitrogen purity.
• Nitrogen doesn’t offer any better protection than compressed air against cuts and punctures from road
hazards. So no matter what you fill the tires with, you’ve still got to check their condition and pressures
at least once a month, as we clearly state in the owner’s manual. And on vehicles with TPMS, filling
the tires with nitrogen won’t reduce the frequency of the low tire pressure indicator coming on in cold
weather.
• Tires filled with compressed air and properly maintained offer the same fuel efficiency and
performance as those filled with nitrogen.
So here’s the bottom line: Although nitrogen offers certain advantages for commercial, government, and
motorsport applications, for automobile tires you’re better off with dry, compressed air.

 

Wasn't there a Mythbusters episode on this?

 

I put helium in mine, softer ride and better gas mileage. In this photo they were overfilled a bit lol <br/>

 

Some people will believe anything, even after given factual evidence to the contrary. P.T. Barnum was spot on.

 

 

I am contemplating putting in nitrogen. I have done it in my other car, and it surely helps on the autobahn. When driving at high speeds for prolonged periods of time, u see quite a significant tire fluctuation with regular air. With nitrogen the fluctuation is still there, but it's much less significant. Same applies for the track, except the problem comes up when it's time to refill the air in the tires after the track day, and there is no nitrogen station available. Usually I tried to be at 30spi hot, so with regular air I have to pretty much go down to 24psi cold, and with nitrogen probably around 26-27 psi.