I just purchased a C7 GS and just learned it has nitrogen in the tires. What is the procedure for purging the nitrogen to add oxygen. I assume I must replace the valve stems as a conventional gauge will not fit. Would appreciate any suggestions

 

I don't think any need to do anything. Eventually as you add air the tire will return to the natural atmosphere mix of N and O2. I thought the only change on the valve stem was a green cap. Is it really a different valve?

 

I don't think the stems are any different. I think some places just put a green cap to let you know it's nitrogen. As far as I remember, you can mix air in with no worries. Costco used to do all nitrogen and free if you're a member. Not sure who else uses it.

 

Drain the tires to 0 PSI and then refill with air. Repeat, if wanted a couple of times. Valves are the same.

 

Ordinary air is already about 80% nitrogen, and having 100% nitrogen in your tires won't harm anything, so no need to do anything.
As you occasionally top off your tires in the months and years ahead, you'll slowly dilute the nitrogen.
Nitrogen actually has some advantages in certain applications, but not worth bothering for normal driving.

 

I had Nitrofill in my C7 tires and grew tired of returning to the dealership each month to have the pressures equalized. When I replaced all four TPMS sensors this summer, I decided to do away with the Nitrofill and chalk up another Corvette learning experience.

AFAIK, there's no hardware difference. I imagine my new dealership would not have missed an opportunity to charge for a replacement had it been necessary.

 

There is no need to bleed the nitrogen from your tires to add regular air. Although there are slight advantages to using nitrogen, air is comprised of mainly nitrogen, as others on here have said. The theory of nitrogen being advantageous is that it bleeds from your tires at a slower rate, therefore you will not need to add it as soon as regular air. Also, since heat is one of the enemies of tires, nitrogen does not heat up quite as fast. The differences are small, so I would not go out of my way to look or pay extra for nitrogen.

 

There are several reasons to use nitrogen in tires. It is inert helping to reduce aging of the inside of the tires also it has a lower pressure change due to variations in temperatures and lower moisture content. One also has to remember the tire when installed already has a minimum of 14psi of of normal atmospheric air then the the addition of pure nitrogen.

We used nitrogen in aviation due the high degree of atmospheric and temperature changes on an aircraft.

 

Nothing to do. Just air up normally as needed with regular air.

 

No need to do anything, just add AIR as needed. My '17 GS came with nitrogen. Only difference was the valve caps identified the nitrogen.

 

Nitrogen has some slight benefits but I am betting the main reason it got started is because race teams found it a lot easier to carry a Ni tank than screw around w/ a gas powered air compressor.

 

isn't the sales pitch for nitrogen that you don't have to do monthly air pressure adjustments?

 

As others have said, there is no reason to switch away from nitrogen. Most agree that it isn't worth paying extra for nitrogen but if you want to continue using it, Costco 'air' machines use nitrogen for free.

 

N2 does not change as much as "regular" air with temperatures. That is why it was started. Your tires will wear out b4 the inside gets old. Just fill as needed - no other valve needed.

 

No need, whenever you need to add air, add regular air.

 

That's a big convenience factor for race teams. They do generally use N2 bottles to power their "air tools" and have that readily available. The other benefit, both for tires and for tools, is there's absolutely no moisture (H2O) in pure nitrogen (from a nitrogen bottle).
The biggest issue with "regular air" and also with tire mounting lube that's water based is water vapor in the tire. The vapor pressure of water varies greatly with temperature and can cause significant tire pressure changes with temperature. That's one of the big reasons many race teams went to pure nitorgen in their tires.

Many of those teams also vacuum the tires down to remove any moisture that happened to get in the tire during mounting. Then they fill with pure nitrogen.

If there's any liquid water (or water based "bead lube") inside the tire, the humidity inside the tire will be 100% relative humidity most of the time, and the pressure will vary with temperature. In street driving, this may not be very significant, but on track, a race tire can exceed 200°F and the change in pressure can be very significant as the water vaporizes and the vapor pressure of the water in the tire increases. Where pressure gains of 7 to 10 psi at highway speeds may be observed at highway speeds, with "moist" air in tires on the track may gain as much as 15psi, and wide race slicks are more sensitive to pressure changes like that (grip loss with higher pressure is greater).

Also note that if a shop fills a tire with pure nitrogen after slopping a pint of water based "bead lube" on the tire and rim, where some of that excess moisture gets in the tire, then the pure nitrogen fill doesn't really help as much. You've got to remove the water/moisture first.

Finally, compressed air in most shops also is at 100% relative humidity for the pressure/temperature in the air system. That's because there's usually some liquid condensation pooled in the compressor tank, and at the bottom of the pipes in the shop air system.

 

Nitrogen Truths and Myths – Power Tank

 

 

Just continue driving the car and when needed, add air. Eventually the all nitrogen fill will be dilluted. That's all there is to it.

 

I always love to ask the dealer how they go from 78% Nitrogen in regular air to fill the tire to 100% Nitrogen, I’ll ask them if the pull each tire on a vacuum. Most will just look dumbfounded…..other than race teams and aircraft, there is no reason I can find to ever service a street tire with Nitrogen. I absolutely would never pay for the service.