For street driving, Nitrogen is one of the biggest snake oil shams of the 21 this century.

 

The valve stems are the same for air or Nitrogen ! All you you get is green caps. And how do know you have Nitrogen in you tires ? How do you test for it ? It is just a cash grab for dealers !!!

 

Add to your question, "With a 'nitrogen generator' machine that 'generates' 95% pure nitrogen." That's the typical purity rating for the machines they are using.

Pure nitrogen (either from liquid nitrogen or from a nitrogen cylinder from a welding supply source or commercial gas supply source) is over 99.99% pure. IIRC, the requirements for heavy aircraft are less than 5ppm water (moisture) and less than 10ppm oxygen. Unless the $tealership/shop is filling tires from a nitrogen cylinder, they aren't anywhere close to that purity level.

Race teams and aircraft operators use pure dry nitrogen for reasons on opposite ends of the operating temperature spectrum.

Aircraft need it for the low dew point (typically it has to be below -90°F or lower) because they don't want condensation in the tires at low temperatures where it will freeze.

Race teams need it for tire pressures to be stable and predictable, with linear gains with temperature. Water present in a tire causes pressure gains that are non linear, and that are significant at operating temperature ranges that race tires see regularly. If there's moisture in a tire, it may gain 2 or 3 extra psi (beyond the linear gains predicted by "ideal gas laws") at 100°F-120°F (typical highway driving operating temperatures), but the gain can be 15psi or more as the tire temperatures approach or exceed 200°F. That's why most race teams (all Nascar teams that I'm aware of, and most professional/IMSA sports car teams) use industrial grade "dry" nitrogen in their tires. And, yes, they typically draw some vacuum on the tires before putting the nitrogen in, and they never use any water based lube when mounting the tires.

 

^^^
In aircraft use, another advantage of nitrogen is that it won't support combustion.
There have been airliners lost because the brakes got heated up too much during taxi for takeoff. After the gear was retracted, the heat will conduct into the wheels/tires. Fuse plugs should deflate the tire without an explosion but avoiding air inside the tire adds some extra protection against fire.

 

N is a total waste of time and money on the street, a known (dealer) scam. After all, normal atmosphere is 78% nitrogen. So, why bother "purging" it? In all likelihood, what is in your tires is far from "pure" N, anyway. Spend the time driving and enjoying your Vette.

 

Wrong.

 

Nitrogen is comprises 78% of the air we breathe. It's not as likely to bleed off of tires as easily as regular air, it doesn't increase in pressure with heat as air nor does it loose pressure in cold as air. It works well on critical tires where consistent temp and pressure are essential as truck tires, heavy RV tires as it doesn't heat up as quickly. Even in those cases there are arguments as to the viability of nitrogen use.

 

i think mine were filled with nitrogen i just add air when i need to but barely had to do that over the last year, i try to keep 30-32 year round . i didnt even think of removing all of it and putting in full air.

 

All wrong.

 

People who are into the chemistry will say that dry nitrogen and dry air show similar changes in pressure as the temperature changes. But air in our tires usually is rather humid, some say usually close to 100% humidity.
The humidity causes greater pressure changes from temperature. Supposedly, dry air would behave very similar to nitrogen.

Not sure how to verify that...

 

Way too much bs about something that would not effect normal street driving and likely have no effect on anyone on the forum who tracks their car.

our atmosphere is 78%nitrogen. Worry about stuff that matters like alignment, gas, programming, and driving skill.
And have fun

 

I stopped using Nitrogen a few years ago when my tires got bent. Seems that since I live at over 5,000 feet altitude, when I drive to different elevations the tires got bent and had to do a couple of chamber sessions.




(you may need to look at my avatar to get my attempt at humor. Always interesting when we get these threads on nitrogen for street driven cars. Misinformation and rumors sometimes run rampant.)

 

^^^


But wait, wouldn't us flatlanders have tire bends when we go up to your place?
Decreased pressure at altitude...

 

^^^^ Yes, as you increase altitude, the partial pressure of oxygen decreases, so if you don't change to the right percentage of oxygen and an inert gas like helium, your tires will get bent from too much nitrogen.


PS: Gearhead and I are just having a bit of fun - no malice. We all need a sense of humor!

 

Use helium instead. The car will be lighter

 

A little less unsprung weight is always good.

 

People are always telling me to go get bent all day long and every day.