Inflate Nitrogen Tires

[akboselk]

is there any noticable advantage of inflate nitrogen to car tires rather than normal air ?

thanks

[jerryda]

is there any noticable advantage of inflate nitrogen to car tires rather than normal air ?

thanks

http://www.tyresave.co.uk/nitrogen.html

[Dafunkdi]

I started using nitrogen since 2011. The differences I felt was that;

1. The mileage per liter increased by about 1.5km in the city

2. The tire wear & tear was a bit slow. It lasted quite longer than normal for (Dunlop & Falcon tires)

3. The steering became very light. It was the most significant difference I found.
4. The tire shop dude said the tire doesn't heat up as the normal air since nitrogen is cooler.
5. Our driver said that if the car is idling most of the time with nitrogen, it may cause a tire decay due to the coolness of air. As a result its difficult to put an instant patch, where it needs to sealed & pasted from inside. I'm not exactly sure about this factor.

I still continue to use nitrogen since the tire pressure doesn't drop as much as normal air. If can watch some fifth gear & top gear videos in nitrogen air in youtube.

[Kavvz]

is there any noticable advantage of inflate nitrogen to car tires rather than normal air ?

thanks

Nope. There's no significant advantage in inflating your tyres with Nitrogen.

But since there is no significant disadvantage to doing so, and since there is a very slight benefit (in my opinion an almost negligible) advantage in doing so, if you've got the money and have access to a service station / dealer located close to you that can inflate your tyres with nitrogen, you might as well go ahead and do so. But personally I think its a waste of money. If you're a cheap arse like me, save your money to spend on something that would actually make a difference like: Synthetic oil (for the car) or beer (for you).

(Personally I think inflating tyres with Nitrogen is a waste of money, but since the place I service my car includes it; I do have access to a car that has nitrogen inflated tyres. Do I observe / feel / any difference? Nope. Not one iota. A total waste if you ask me. Apparently as N molecules are larger the tyre pressure stays constant for longer, but really as you should check your tyre pressure around once a week whether you have TPS or not just to be safe; it doesn't really mean anything or provide much of a benefit.)

Edited February 23, 2015 by Kavvz

[Kavvz]

http://www.tyresave.co.uk/nitrogen.html

Quite a good read. Thanks for posting. It just goes to show what a huge rip off by the automotive industry the whole N inflated tyres are...

Edited February 23, 2015 by Kavvz

[Kavvz]

Mike Allen at Popular mechanics magazine says otherwise:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/how-to/a3894/4302788/

But I still disagree as in my post above: The benefit is almost negligible and I don't think the benefits justify the extra expense or the hassle.

Edited February 23, 2015 by Kavvz

[bycap]

After I changed wheels to low prof tires, I inflated my tires with nitrogen. Few weeks I ran with normal air then nitrogen. Advantage of having N2 is, it is not mixed with any other thing ( like H2O vapor etc. ) therefore easy to compress and when tires heated up, no vapors rise since its only N2. I felt little bit comfortable, like they compress little more. But that may be something in my head already. other than that I dont see any other advantage of it. many places don't have nitrogen. specially outside the colombo.

[Watchman]

I started using nitrogen since 2011. The differences I felt was that;

1. The mileage per liter increased by about 1.5km in the city

2. The tire wear & tear was a bit slow. It lasted quite longer than normal for (Dunlop & Falcon tires)

3. The steering became very light. It was the most significant difference I found.

4. The tire shop dude said the tire doesn't heat up as the normal air since nitrogen is cooler.

5. Our driver said that if the car is idling most of the time with nitrogen, it may cause a tire decay due to the coolness of air. As a result its difficult to put an instant patch, where it needs to sealed & pasted from inside. I'm not exactly sure about this factor.

I still continue to use nitrogen since the tire pressure doesn't drop as much as normal air. If can watch some fifth gear & top gear videos in nitrogen air in youtube.

The improvements you observes are those you'll see when you adequately inflate your tyres. Has nothing to do with the air/gas inside.

It's a typical case of you caring more about the tyres and their pressure because you're paying for the air which you could have otherwise had for free

[Rumesh88]

I started using nitrogen since 2011. The differences I felt was that;

1. The mileage per liter increased by about 1.5km in the city

2. The tire wear & tear was a bit slow. It lasted quite longer than normal for (Dunlop & Falcon tires)

3. The steering became very light. It was the most significant difference I found.

4. The tire shop dude said the tire doesn't heat up as the normal air since nitrogen is cooler.

5. Our driver said that if the car is idling most of the time with nitrogen, it may cause a tire decay due to the coolness of air. As a result its difficult to put an instant patch, where it needs to sealed & pasted from inside. I'm not exactly sure about this factor.

I still continue to use nitrogen since the tire pressure doesn't drop as much as normal air. If can watch some fifth gear & top gear videos in nitrogen air in youtube.

Properties of nitrogen or those of any other gas cannot support 4 and 5 above. The most tangible advantage in the use of nitrogen as I see it is that you have less waiting time at the pump compared to the normal one.

[dreamracer]

My father uses a smart cab, all four tires are pumped with N gas, and he told me that there is no much difference in handling and fuel consumption as mentioned above If you are driving hard(track days) then N will come in handy…because N is highly thermally stable,

** Atmospheric air contains 78% nitrogen, so after pumping normal air in to the tires the majority of air particles in the tire will be Nitrogen,I don't think pumping pure nitrogen will have a significant effect in daily driving.

Edited February 23, 2015 by dreamracer

[Crosswind]

I started using nitrogen since 2011. The differences I felt was that;

1. The mileage per liter increased by about 1.5km in the city

2. The tire wear & tear was a bit slow. It lasted quite longer than normal for (Dunlop & Falcon tires)

3. The steering became very light. It was the most significant difference I found.

4. The tire shop dude said the tire doesn't heat up as the normal air since nitrogen is cooler.

5. Our driver said that if the car is idling most of the time with nitrogen, it may cause a tire decay due to the coolness of air. As a result its difficult to put an instant patch, where it needs to sealed & pasted from inside. I'm not exactly sure about this factor.

I still continue to use nitrogen since the tire pressure doesn't drop as much as normal air. If can watch some fifth gear & top gear videos in nitrogen air in youtube.

What you are experiencing is placebo effect

[GayanR]

I put Helium

[The Don]

Fifth gear put these theories to the test, and when inflated with nitrogen under standard conditions (so the mixture inside the tyre could not be 100% nitrogen, as is the case when you inflate a tyre normally using a pump exposed to the environment) there was absolutely no difference to performance or fuel economy. In fact there was a slight decrease in performance.

So from a objective point of view its a waste of money and a waste of effort. Normal air is 78% nitorgen anyway. This might be different if 100% nitrogen could be used but this is impossible without specialist machinery, and massive overkill for standard motor cars.

[Davy]

Why people use Nitrogen on standard cars is either because some vendor claimed untrue improvements about using Nitrogen, or because they were told by another person who uses Nitrogen that their car is better on fuel and feels much better to drive after using Nitrogen.

If tyre pressure is checked periodically (ideally tyre pressure should be checked weekly - especially for a car that is not run daily), and if suspension components are good and are aligned/balanced properly, tyres will last their intended lifetime - without having to use Nitrogen. So, as The Don correctly mentioned above, Nitrogen is unnecessary for a standard road car,

[Dafunkdi]

The improvements you observes are those you'll see when you adequately inflate your tyres. Has nothing to do with the air/gas inside.

It's a typical case of you caring more about the tyres and their pressure because you're paying for the air which you could have otherwise had for free

No man I don't pay for nitrogen. Its free at Laughs fuel station in havelock town when you pump petrol for Rs. 1,500/- & above.

[bycap]

No man I don't pay for nitrogen. Its free at Laughs fuel station in havelock town when you pump petrol for Rs. 1,500/- & above.

Good news. The place I pumped N2, for re-fill from the beginning 400 and just to check/top-up 100

[sasika]

Nope. There's no significant advantage in inflating your tyres with Nitrogen.

But since there is no significant disadvantage to doing so, and since there is a very slight benefit (in my opinion an almost negligible) advantage in doing so, if you've got the money and have access to a service station / dealer located close to you that can inflate your tyres with nitrogen, you might as well go ahead and do so. But personally I think its a waste of money. If you're a cheap arse like me, save your money to spend on something that would actually make a difference like: Synthetic oil (for the car) or beer (for you).

(Personally I think inflating tyres with Nitrogen is a waste of money, but since the place I service my car includes it; I do have access to a car that has nitrogen inflated tyres. Do I observe / feel / any difference? Nope. Not one iota. A total waste if you ask me. Apparently as N molecules are larger the tyre pressure stays constant for longer, but really as you should check your tyre pressure around once a week whether you have TPS or not just to be safe; it doesn't really mean anything or provide much of a benefit.)

Agree with u totally. Are cooler tyres better? I always thought that having heat in the tyres is better for more traction and in reduced breaking distance.

Edited March 2, 2015 by sasika

[Kavvz]

Agree with u totally. Are cooler tyres better? I always thought that having heat in the tyres is better for more traction and in reduced breaking distance.

Apparently yes, warm tires are better. But I've never taken any of my cars to the track so I can't categorically state that. (Perhaps some of the members who do regularly track their cars can help you out better.)

I can only share that: From my limited street driving / regular commuter drives that cold / warm tires don't make any significant difference if you stick to the speed limit and drive in a manner that's appropriate for public roads as I see no significant change in handling at the end of my commute vs the start of it.

Air pressure on the other hand does make a significant impact on handling; which is why I check my air pressures often.

[The Don]

Apparently yes, warm tires are better. But I've never taken any of my cars to the track so I can't categorically state that. (Perhaps some of the members who do regularly track their cars can help you out better.)

I can only share that: From my limited street driving / regular commuter drives that cold / warm tires don't make any significant difference if you stick to the speed limit and drive in a manner that's appropriate for public roads as I see no significant change in handling at the end of my commute vs the start of it.

Air pressure on the other hand does make a significant impact on handling; which is why I check my air pressures often.

Kavvz, the temperature of tyres only become relevant when so called sticky tyres are used.

Slicks or semi slicks tyres which are fairly bald (semi slicks have some grooves in them to support all weather use and are road legal while slicks aren't) get a lot of their traction by sticking to the road. This happens when stress put on the tyres while driving (well they are pre warmed in racing conditions) makes the compound melt slightly causing it to stick to the road. This of course does cause the tyres to wear off relatively as miles pile on, but you get exceptional grip (stickiness is one factor, but due to the lack of grooves you have more rubber in contact with the road).

Standard road tyres are build for durability and does not behave like this. Some of its grip does come from the compound (so softer rubber does offer more grip as it can follow the contours of the road better but does wear off faster) but also from the groove pattern, as in road tyres the grooves offer not just wet road water clearence (their primary function) but an increased traction due to increasion the friction ratio (to a less of an extent in fine asphalt but more on mixed mode roads and especially on dirt roads or roads with lose material on top).

So warm or cold doesn't really make much of a difference in road tyres as you rightly point out. The only thing to take note is under warmer conditions the air inside tyres expand, so the tyre pressures do change from warm to cold. If you are pedantic you should ensure the right tyre pressure at warmer tyre temperatures

[liya]

I bet there are a lot of allion, aqua and vezels with nitrogen inflated tires.

[sasika]

<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote'data-author="Kavvz" data-cid="273398" data-time="1425289259"><p>

Apparently yes, warm tires are better. But I've never taken any of my cars to the track so I can't categorically state that. (Perhaps some of the members who do regularly track their cars can help you out better.)<br />

 <br />

I can only share that: From my limited street driving / regular commuter drives that cold / warm tires don't make any significant difference if you stick to the speed limit and drive in a manner that's appropriate for public roads as I see no significant change in handling at the end of my commute vs the start of it.<br />

 <br />

Air pressure on the other hand does make a significant impact on handling; which is why I check my air pressures often.</p></blockquote>

Thanks mate. I found out that even after short journeys, Pirelli tires are Warmer than Yokohama tires. But this is in two different vehicles so not a good comparison. I thought its engineered that way to allow more traction as in races that's what happens

[sasika]

<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote'data-author="The Don" data-cid="273399" data-time="1425290050"><p>

ÃÂ <br />

Kavvz, the temperature of tyres only become relevant when so called sticky tyres are used.<br />

ÃÂ <br />

Slicks or semi slicks tyres which are fairly bald (semi slicks have some grooves in them to support all weather use and are road legal while slicks aren't) get a lot of their traction by sticking to the road. This happens when stress put on the tyres while driving (well they are pre warmed in racing conditions) makes the compound melt slightly causing it to stick to the road. This of course does cause the tyres to wear off relatively as miles pile on, but you get exceptional grip (stickiness is one factor, but due to the lack of grooves you have more rubber in contact with the road).<br />

ÃÂ <br />

Standard road tyres are build for durability and does not behave like this. Some of its grip does come from the compound (so softer rubber does offer more grip as it can follow the contours of the road better but does wear off faster) but also from the groove pattern, as in road tyres the grooves offer not just wet road water clearence (their primary function) but an increased traction due to increasion the friction ratio (to a less of an extent in fine asphalt but more on mixed mode roads and especially on dirt roads or roads with lose material on top).<br />

ÃÂ <br />

So warm or cold doesn't really make much of a difference in road tyres as you rightly point out. The only thing to take note is under warmer conditions the air inside tyres expand, so the tyre pressures do change from warm to cold. If you are pedantic you should ensure the right tyre pressure at warmer tyre temperatures </p></blockquote>

Thanks Don.. Quite useful

Edited March 2, 2015 by sasika

[sasika]

<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote'data-author="The Don" data-cid="273399" data-time="1425290050"><p>

 <br />

Kavvz, the temperature of tyres only become relevant when so called sticky tyres are used.<br />

 <br />

Slicks or semi slicks tyres which are fairly bald (semi slicks have some grooves in them to support all weather use and are road legal while slicks aren't) get a lot of their traction by sticking to the road. This happens when stress put on the tyres while driving (well they are pre warmed in racing conditions) makes the compound melt slightly causing it to stick to the road. This of course does cause the tyres to wear off relatively as miles pile on, but you get exceptional grip (stickiness is one factor, but due to the lack of grooves you have more rubber in contact with the road).<br />

 <br />

Standard road tyres are build for durability and does not behave like this. Some of its grip does come from the compound (so softer rubber does offer more grip as it can follow the contours of the road better but does wear off faster) but also from the groove pattern, as in road tyres the grooves offer not just wet road water clearence (their primary function) but an increased traction due to increasion the friction ratio (to a less of an extent in fine asphalt but more on mixed mode roads and especially on dirt roads or roads with lose material on top).<br />

 <br />

So warm or cold doesn't really make much of a difference in road tyres as you rightly point out. The only thing to take note is under warmer conditions the air inside tyres expand, so the tyre pressures do change from warm to cold. If you are pedantic you should ensure the right tyre pressure at warmer tyre temperatures </p></blockquote>

Thanks Don.. Quite useful

[Kavvz]

Kavvz, the temperature of tyres only become relevant when so called sticky tyres are used.

Slicks or semi slicks tyres which are fairly bald (semi slicks have some grooves in them to support all weather use and are road legal while slicks aren't) get a lot of their traction by sticking to the road. This happens when stress put on the tyres while driving (well they are pre warmed in racing conditions) makes the compound melt slightly causing it to stick to the road. This of course does cause the tyres to wear off relatively as miles pile on, but you get exceptional grip (stickiness is one factor, but due to the lack of grooves you have more rubber in contact with the road).

Standard road tyres are build for durability and does not behave like this. Some of its grip does come from the compound (so softer rubber does offer more grip as it can follow the contours of the road better but does wear off faster) but also from the groove pattern, as in road tyres the grooves offer not just wet road water clearence (their primary function) but an increased traction due to increasion the friction ratio (to a less of an extent in fine asphalt but more on mixed mode roads and especially on dirt roads or roads with lose material on top).

So warm or cold doesn't really make much of a difference in road tyres as you rightly point out. The only thing to take note is under warmer conditions the air inside tyres expand, so the tyre pressures do change from warm to cold. If you are pedantic you should ensure the right tyre pressure at warmer tyre temperatures

Thanks for the update Don.

Also:

If you are pedantic you should ensure the right tyre pressure at warmer tyre temperatures

Its that obvious huh? People say I go full anal on tyre pressure and remaining tread depth but early on as a young driver I learnt how important tyre pressure and remaining tread depth is when I learnt exactly what aquaplaning was the hard way. Since then I've been diligently checking tyre pressures and monitoring tread depth in the most pedantic manner possible !

And yes, I do factor in cold tyre pressure and warm tyre pressure when I check tyre pressures. Its my understanding that the values listed on the driver side door jamb is for the cold tyre pressure value and that's what I go with when I check tyre pressures.

[Kavvz]

Thanks mate. I found out that even after short journeys, Pirelli tires are Warmer than Yokohama tires. But this is in two different vehicles so not a good comparison. I thought its engineered that way to allow more traction as in races that's what happens

I doubt it. And as per Don's post on regular road tyres that shouldn't be a factor.

( I think it'd be safe to assume that its probably the tread pattern or the road / weather conditions affecting the tyre that made you think so.)