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See the original image at livescience.com

Save Gas: Inflate Your Tires With Nitrogen

livescience.com — Gas mileage is king these days. People are buying fuel-efficient cars, taking less road-trips, anything to reduce money spent on gas. But one of the real culprits may be under-inflated tires, which can decrease gas mileage up to 10%.

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  • insomniac8400, on 07/12/2008, -1/+72Or you could just get a tire pressure gauge and check the pressure once a month.(Something you should still do with nitrogen)
    • nroose, on 07/13/2008, -0/+5Plus, I'm guessing that the fuel used to transport the N2 to you will be a LOT more than you could possibly save with any change in the type of gas you put in your tires. The air you normally put in your tires is already there, so it does not have to be transported.
    • zdiggler, on 07/13/2008, -0/+7Or just fill it up with snake oil like I do.
  • davenaff, on 07/12/2008, -2/+86OK, but they don't ask or answer the one obvious question:

    "Why does filling your tires with Nitrogen last longer than tires filled with air (which is 80% nitrogen anyway)?"
    • p51d007, on 07/12/2008, -1/+52Because people are generally STUPID and will fall for this, as they did back in the 80's
      for the carburetor thingys which were suppose to increase gas mileage.
      • drivebymaster, on 07/13/2008, -13/+1Ya those idiots fell for fuel injection. God what were they thinking? And my 1972 BMW gets 26 mpg and it has a carburetor. So keep you mouth shut.
      • Blandyman, on 07/13/2008, -1/+3drivebymaster:

        Three reasons you need to go back to school:

        1) He didn't mean fuel injection. This was easy to comprehend because we're talking about how people get scammed (they FALL for things, a phrase used when people are tricked) and he meant the little add-ons and doo-hickeys people sold to "increase gas mileage", like an extra little valve off the air filter or any random ***** that cost $20.

        2) He never slammed the gas mileage of a carburated car, either, simply stated people were being tricked into paying money to "enhance" their carburated motors.

        3) You may get 26mpg on your 1972 BMW but I get 25mpg on my 1988 Cadillac that weighs an extra 600 pounds (with a 280-pound driver) simply because I drive better than you... not to mention, I use the Carburetor Helper (from BlimCo) and get my tires filled at Nitrogen Express for only $40 every 3 months!
    • sanman, on 07/12/2008, -1/+9The claim is that the nitrogen won't penetrate through the pores in the tire rubber. You may want to google on this, as I've only heard about the claim, and don't know if it's true or not.
      • publiclurker, on 07/13/2008, -0/+27Air is already around 80% nitrogen. If the Nitrogen is actually staying in the tire, then most of what leaves would be the remaining 20%. When you top it up with 80% Nitrogen a few more times, you rapidly get pretty close to where you would get if you paid for the pure stuff.
    • DrPickle, on 07/13/2008, -1/+11Also, pure nitrogen gas would diffuse FASTER than pure oxygen gas, because of its lower molecular weight and faster movement.
      • dougmc, on 07/13/2008, -0/+6To be fair, the difference would be tiny. Doubly so, because air is already 80% nitrogen.
      • thebellmaster1x, on 07/13/2008, -0/+6Well, if we're talking about gases flowing through pores in the tires, technically it'd be effusion, not diffusion.
        Sorry. I'm a science dick. :-\
        But you are correct; nitrogen would diffuse AND effuse more quickly than oxygen.
      • MadOgre, on 07/13/2008, -0/+2If you want something that will diffuse slower, leak less... I would suggest filling your tires with Argon. Larger molecule, less chemically reactive.
        The sport optics industry (Binoculars and Rifle Scopes) have found this out and Swarovski and Vortex (Vortex Optics started it) are now purging their stuff with Argon gas instead of the tradition Nitrogen that Leupold pioneered forever ago... (They have been making rifle scopes for a hundred years)
        Now, really, would this benifit your car?
        No.
        You just need to do what you are always supposed to do, and that is to check your tire pressure every time you fill up your tank. You could hit a nail or something else sharp and damage your tires... so you need to keep an eye on them. Add a few pounds if it's low. You don't need different gasses. Nitrogen or Argon isn't going to stop a leak from a puncture.
      • chaotropicagent, on 07/13/2008, -1/+1Actually, look up covalent radius in wikipedia. The size of the molecules actually decrease from N2 to O2 to F2. This is due to the increased positive charge of the nucleus pulling the electron cloud closer. So N2 is a slightly larger molecules than O2 and diffuses 3-4X slower.
      • barlennan, on 07/13/2008, -1/+0MadOgre, argon is an inert gas, so it doesn't form molecules, and will effuse quicker.
      • danomagnum, on 07/13/2008, -0/+2Or you could fill them with water!
    • onux16, on 07/13/2008, -1/+1I asked my room mate why he fills his tire with Nitrogen, and he said that N2 isn't as affected to temperature changes as O2. I don't know if he's right, but I can definitely see where those characteristics become real handy.
      • dougmc, on 07/13/2008, -0/+10He's not right, not to any noticeable degree. Nitrogen and Oxygen both come pretty close to obeying the ideal gas law when it comes to how much they expand with heat at around a few atmospheres of pressure and 80 deg F -- so they'd both expand almost exactly the same amount.

        The only possible benefit to using Nitrogen would be that it reacts less with the rubber in the tire -- but since that's not where the tire wears anyways, it's just snake oil.
      • bnuk013, on 07/13/2008, -2/+2i think that is probably the reason (although the water vapor is prob. the most likely culprit.) they use N for racing where your tires can get extremely hot. for the rest of the world it doesn't matter.
      • Niightwitch, on 07/13/2008, -0/+2Snake oil sounds about right. It just sounds like someone's in business selling Nitrogen and would like us to use that instead of compressed air in our tires.
      • 3adkied, on 07/13/2008, -1/+2bnuk013 is right. It's not really a difference between nitrogen and oxygen, but nitrogen and air. Nitrogen is better, not because it is nitrogen, but because it is isolated artificially, so has no contaminants, namely water vapor. Filling tires with air just compresses the air around you, including water vapor which has a considerable impact, especially during seasonal changes. Using dry air would be just as good, but not necessarily any cheaper or easier to find than nitrogen. Nitrogen is simply cheap, fairly easy to find, and has properties closest to standard air.
    • antidense, on 07/13/2008, -1/+6It most likely doesn't. N2 has a 3% difference in heat capacity with dry air... which is hardly noticeable. Plus, N2 would diffuse faster than O2 due to Graham's Law. The deviations from Ideal Gas Law in the van der Waals equation is nearly identical for both gasses: (O2: a=1.360, b=0.03803 & N2: a=1.390 b=0.03913)... which is even slighter considering we are actually comparing 80% N2 with 100% N2.
    • chedabob, on 07/13/2008, -1/+6Almost as dumb as the myth that filling your tires with helium will increase mileage.
      • drivebymaster, on 07/13/2008, -16/+1You *****, the helium would leak out of the tires faster than normal atmosphere gases. Ever inflate a balloon with helium and come back in two days only to see it has deflated? That's because helium's molecules are smaller than the molecules in the rubber.

        Now for the improved gas mileage, ya it would improve gas mileage but only by a minute amount and having to fill it up everyday would be a pain. It is more cost effective to just go with your normal air.
      • dougmc, on 07/13/2008, -6/+2Helium might increase mileage a tiny bit. It's lighter than air or nitrogen, so your weight would go down a very very small amount, which might increase mileage by an even smaller amount. Of course, pure Nitrogen is lighter than air too, but that difference is much much smaller than the air/helium difference.

        The problem with helium is that it would probably diffuse (is that the right word?) out through the rubber. Ever see what happens to your helium balloons after a few days? So you'd run around with improperly inflated tires unless you stayed on it, reducing mileage. Helium is also (relatively) expensive and rare, compared to air or pure nitrogen.

      • chedabob, on 07/13/2008, -1/+7Protip: It's a good idea to actually read what somebody has said, before you butt in with a counter-argument.
      • dougmc, on 07/13/2008, -2/+2Alternate pro-tip: It wasn't there when I started my counter-argument.. I spent more than six minutes typing that up. (36 minutes ago vs. 30 minutes ago.)

        But beyond that, thanks dad!
      • bitterbug, on 07/13/2008, -0/+1I rode a racing bike once that had a valve stem on the frame.
        My friend and I wondered what the point of it was. For putting helium in it to lighten the load by a gram? They could have just left the valve stem off and saved more weight if that was the case.
        Anyone able to enlighten me on why you could pump a gas into the frame?
      • BossKey, on 07/13/2008, -0/+1Helium? I'm gonna live on the edge, and fill my tires with hydrogen.
      • Blandyman, on 07/13/2008, -0/+1And light a cigarette with the hot rubber of the tire as I speed down the road at Mach 3.
      • Mothrog, on 07/13/2008, -0/+1drivebymaster, are you on a mission to prove you're a moron?
    • jerbaker, on 07/13/2008, -0/+1The theory is that nitrogen doesn't leak out of the tires as fast due to the larger size of the nitrogen molecule (?). There are some potential problems with the theory:

      1) Has anyone studied the size of pores and seal imperfections in car tires to see if they are smaller than a nitrogen molecule? If they aren't, it's not going to make any difference.

      2) Filling the tires with pure nitrogen will increase the partial pressure of nitrogen inside the tire relative to that outside of the tire. So, in addition to the pressure gradient, you now have introduced a partial pressure gradient on top of it. Even if the added effect is small, it's still an added effect.

      3) Cost/Benefit - In the best-case scenario, nitrogen-filled tires deflate 30% slower than those filled with conventional air. So, instead of losing 5 lbs a month, your tires lose 3 lbs a month? I'm not seeing a benefit worth seeking out and paying for nitrogen gas.

      4) If the oxygen does indeed leak faster, your tires would act as a filter anyway. As the oxygen leaked out and you replaced the air, the concentration of nitrogen vs. oxygen would rise over time. That would remove the need for nitrogen filling.

      It's surprising that all people need to do to test some theories is think, and yet they seem incapable.
    • mustang460, on 07/13/2008, -0/+2you guys are correct nitrogen will NOT help gas mileage, it will leak out just like air


      the author is confused as nitrogen is used in track racing, and jumping to conclusions


      the reason nitrogen is used is because there is no moisture in nitrogen, and it doesn't heat as quickly( tires get VERY hot when cornering at high speed affecting tire pressure momentarily)keeping tire pressures more even which is a huge part of your cornering capability


      this is why airplane tires run nitrogen as well due to the high friction at landing

      there will be zero benefit on a street car
  • jefuchs, on 07/12/2008, -5/+67DUMB!!! Your tires are ALREADY filled with nitrogen... for the most part.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth%27s_atmosphere# ...
    • shrewd1983, on 07/13/2008, -1/+11THE TRUTH COMES OUT
    • viewtiful4ever, on 07/13/2008, -1/+3the purpose of this is to remove the 20% oxygen from your tires and replace them with nitrogen...
      • TheKorn2, on 07/13/2008, -1/+16No, the purpose is to rip off your money for ZERO benefit.
    • captainkeene, on 07/13/2008, -1/+7No, the real purpose is to remove the money from the fool.
    • LvsSocer, on 07/13/2008, -0/+1There are plenty of things people 'should' do, and simply don't.

      If you aren't going to be regularly checking your pressure, nitrogen will maintain a more consistent tire pressure during humidity swings, etc. (I don't buy into the leakage concerns they claim..). There are ideal ranges of tire pressures you want for maximizing gas mileage and this does make a difference (albeit small) day to day.

      Having gone both ways, I can tell you the pressure with nitrogen is more consistent. Would I get a nitrogen fill if it wasn't free? Well, probably not.. I already check my tire pressure regularly. But do you? If you don't.. don't bash the idea and consider it before jumping on the bandwagon.
  • austang, on 07/12/2008, -1/+74Misleading, this should be called.

    "Save gas, keep your tires at full pressure!"
  • rancemo, on 07/13/2008, -1/+50Since when do people fill their tires with oxygen, as stated in this article?
    • desertDenizen, on 07/13/2008, -0/+6Helpful in the event you find yourself scaling Everest with one of your wheels.
    • mustang460, on 07/13/2008, -0/+1pure oxygen would be the worse possible thing to put in your tires, in the event of a crash, and subsequent fire, if a tire pops that o2 can accelerate the fire, really unsafe idea

      and like my previous post states in more detail, nitrogen is useless for street tires

      this author is an idiot
  • junkstuff1, on 07/13/2008, -1/+25Even if there was a significant benefit to having a larger share of Nitrogen in your tires, there would be very little difference between filling them with 100% Nitrogen and 80% Nitrogen/20% Oxygen after a few re-fills.

    If the oxygen does leak faster, then there's less oxygen in the tires when you fill them up. Say all the oxygen leaks out and all the nitrogen stays. Then you've got 80% nitrogen + 20%*80% nitrogen = 96% nitrogen when you pump more air in, without paying for whatever they're charging. That's probably a little extreme, but the principle is true.
    • DrPickle, on 07/13/2008, -2/+3There is no mystery about which "leaks out" faster. It is basic chemistry. Nitrogen diffuses faster. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffusion_equation
      • junkstuff1, on 07/13/2008, -0/+2DrPickle, diffusion is what happens when gases mix in an open space. This is a little different, because tires are made to hold gases in. The gases inside the tire need to make it out through very small holes.

        So it also becomes an issue of molecule size. Nitrogen molecules are slightly larger than oxygen molecules, so they should have a harder time making it through the membrane than oxygen. There are many more effects to consider, of course, but it's not as simple as diffusion.
    • mnocket, on 07/13/2008, -1/+2junkstuff1. I think you have given the definitive response.
  • xxslants, on 07/13/2008, -4/+4I just let Costco take care of my tires for the most part. I check the air pressure every two weeks myself and when I get my tires rotated, I let the guys fill me up with their nitrogen (if that is substantially different from regular air, I don't know.. but it doesn't look like it from the previous comments).
  • crazyjake, on 07/13/2008, -0/+43i fill my tires with mercury! makes a flat so much more interesting.
    • blackmesa, on 07/13/2008, -6/+18you think that's interesting... there were police from departments I didn't even know existed when my plutonium filled tires burst on the highway last week!

      They said I couldn't use them any more, so I'm driving on my zombie-virus filled ones for now. I hope they don't fail too... they're expensive!
    • bigd063, on 07/13/2008, -0/+1i fill my tires with nitrous oxide. they make this cool noise when i drive around (wawawawawawawawawa).
      • otakugeek, on 07/13/2008, -0/+1That sound also appears when I put on a Metallica CD.
  • pstroll, on 07/13/2008, -6/+0Wow! I'm off the nitrogen store
  • bbliss17, on 07/13/2008, -1/+3no thanks
  • Brutusfly, on 07/13/2008, -0/+11Isn't Oxygen in our Nitrogen-rich air primarily in the form of O2? How is that a smaller leakier molecule than Nitrogen? O2 has a higher molecular mass than N2. I call shenanigans! Unless you expect your tires to catch fire, stick with the air mixture. How did this get on LiveScience? And if O2 really leaked out quicker than N2, wouldn't our tires only have N2 left in them after a few refills?
    • unitedatheism, on 07/13/2008, -1/+2We all wish the molecule would break so easily, than we could just transform water into H and 2O, there wouldn't be necessary any kind of converter, all hydrogen engines are good to go!
      Tires inflated with nitrogen do last longer (between refills) and the molecule IS bigger than the oxygen one (as long as it doesn't break suddenly), BUT people do this to avoid having to refill the tires (very important in a race, and there are some people who also use that in regular cars), I've never seen anyone claiming that this is greener.
    • average650, on 07/13/2008, -0/+2If you look at wikipedia, N2 has a larger covalent radius than O2, so in fact O2 would leak faster, though the difference would not be incredibly large. 75 vs 73 pm, not a very large difference. And yeah, the more times you have to refill it, the higher percentage N2 there would be, though it it would increase slowly because the difference in diffusion is not great.
  • booyahbitch, on 07/13/2008, -0/+14Yeah...R I G H T ! ! More phoney asshats trying to cash in on dumbasses who want to be green but don't want to actually think how for themselves!! Tires are filled with compressed air...20.9% oxygen, and the balance Nitrogen and other extraneous gases. If people like this scammer would actually put some of their time into coming up with REAL solutions for greenhouse gases and cleaning up the environment, we might actually get somewhere.
  • mianos, on 07/13/2008, -0/+401. http://www.straightdope.com/columns/070216.html
    2. it's *****
    3. it's an advertisment concealed as a story
    4. reading 1, it's a scam
    • billgreen73, on 07/13/2008, -0/+91. find stupids
      2. market air
      3. ???
      4. get rich
    • mike17032, on 07/13/2008, -0/+1Dugg for Straightdope, one of the best ***** debunking sites on the web.
  • zippy757, on 07/13/2008, -0/+28This is a cleverly disguised advertisement in a blog, and not a scientific article.
    • Gromdul, on 07/13/2008, -0/+3You are so wrong! It was not clever at all. ;)
    • zippy757, on 07/14/2008, -0/+1Gromdul ... you are correct. I stand corrected.
  • NoData, on 07/13/2008, -0/+3Beside the modicum of benefit 95% nitrogen might give over 80% atmospheric nitrogen, I can't believe there's any net savings once you've spent money on their "UltraFill 99+" service or "TireXtender" product. This just sounds like a big advertisement for something you don't need.
  • gala7516, on 07/13/2008, -0/+2I wonder what kind of harm and waste is being created by this 'green' company to produce the nitrogen.
    • Subliminational, on 07/13/2008, -0/+2Wasted power and wasted...cans? I'm assuming it comes in cans.
  • Gazzali, on 07/13/2008, -7/+0great article!!!
  • waydee, on 07/13/2008, -0/+5Seriously dumb and an advertisement, buried as spam.
  • billgreen73, on 07/13/2008, -0/+2bs snake oil buried ty come again
  • CameronCook, on 07/13/2008, -0/+3Pay money for Nitrogen and just keep your tires properly inflated with free air? Hmmmmmmm
  • JacksonYaya, on 07/13/2008, -0/+7I fill my tires with butter.
  • sethorama99, on 07/13/2008, -0/+3I save money by eschewing tires completely and riding on the rims.
  • m3sm3r, on 07/13/2008, -0/+4 Time for Adam and Jamie to bust this myth?
    • palpacino, on 07/13/2008, -0/+1I think they already did this one?
      • swaters210, on 07/13/2008, -0/+0I don't think so. They did test the fuel mileage myth about having your windows rolled down. They concluded that it doesn't make a difference.

        .
  • Balvarez, on 07/13/2008, -0/+8Buried for being total *****.
    • twinklyJesus, on 07/13/2008, -0/+3this is a scam designed to separate idiot environmental whack-os from their cash

      buried.
    • KMye, on 07/13/2008, -0/+3Buried as spam.
  • reddikilowatt, on 07/13/2008, -1/+7From TFA: "Nitrogen does not support combustion, making it even safer than oxygen when it comes to blown tires."

    Which is the only reason (some) airlines and NASCAR use it. It has none of the other magical properties they claim.

    I can't wait for the "simple carburetor modification for 100MPG" that the government developed in the 1970's (but big oil hid from the public) sites start up. A whole new generation of suckers!
    • haagar, on 07/13/2008, -0/+1NASCAR teams use it because it does build as much pressure as plain air due to its "dryness". Most teams use a dry air system along with nitrogen to dry it out more. It helps the car be more consistent over a long run.
      • reddikilowatt, on 07/13/2008, -0/+2Right, because their tires generate enough heat to cause any water to expand and potentially cause a blowout. I missed that part on the first post.

        But better mileage for the rest of us is easier with an accurate gage and checking once a week.

        Besides, if the O2 leaks out through the rubber, eventually the nitrogen content will increase by itself.
    • twinklyJesus, on 07/13/2008, -1/+2You seriously dont believe that a blown tire and fire ... oh stop.
  • blackmesa, on 07/13/2008, -0/+10Inflate your brain with intelligence first.
  • lmbb20, on 07/13/2008, -1/+2So, all it really does to "save gas" is keep your tires more accurately inflated for 6 months? Am I wrong about this?
  • jamangold, on 07/13/2008, -0/+8I say fill your tires up with pure hydrogen instead.
    • reddikilowatt, on 07/13/2008, -0/+3It will leak out faster than air. Try xenon or radon.

      Neon would be cool if we could get clear tires and a ballast...
  • haentz, on 07/13/2008, -0/+5What a crap... AIR already consists 78% of nitrogen...
  • atact88, on 07/13/2008, -0/+2LoL. It is shenanigans because the air is 78% nitrogen already. And the reference to NASCAR using nitrogen filled tires? Not for efficiency. It reduces the potential for explosion.
  • KA007, on 07/13/2008, -2/+3Clearly people don't understand how diffusion works.

    Diffusion will occur so both internal and external gas mixtures will be the same 80%N2 :20%O2 regardless of what you put in your tires.

    The original claim is just stupid air is already 80% N2. Perhaps you should try some He or H2. Regardless putting different gases in your tires is a complete waste of money and pointless.
    • KA007, on 07/13/2008, -0/+0I should have added that the diffusion claim is stupid anyways, since if there was diffusion you would have flat tires every morning.
  • Artimusbill, on 07/13/2008, -0/+2Buried for the misleading title, and for the general BS of the "story". It might help specific applications (NASCAR, fleet trucking, ect..), but it seems like snake oil for most.
  • antidense, on 07/13/2008, -0/+4I would bet that most of the N2 gas sold for tires is just plain old "air" at a higher price. You would need a mass spectrophotometer to tell the difference.
  • Trixrox, on 07/13/2008, -0/+1This is a gimmick, normal air is 78% nitrogen anyways. We just need better tired technology that doesn't need checked so often....
  • Gudath, on 07/13/2008, -0/+3Why not fill our tires with helium?

    1. Your car will be lighter. Less weight - better gas mileage.
    2. You're all set up to fill balloons for the next party.
    3. Your car will sound like Alvin the Chipmunk going down the road.
    • Subliminational, on 07/13/2008, -0/+1 Less traction (barely). Helium also probably leaks through the pores faster.
    • ebob9, on 07/13/2008, -0/+1If I remember my physics right (which is questionable), You would be decreasing the weight, but not the mass. You would still require the same amount of force to get up to speed. Also, you'd require probably about the same amount of force to stay going, as I believe wind drag is the largest use of fuel to maintain speed.

      If you were somehow able to reduce your weight via helium in the car, the only thing you would do is lose friction on the road's surface. This would make starting out and braking harder, as your wheels would slip more easily. You'd also have a hell of a time making a sharp corner!
  • spilk, on 07/13/2008, -0/+2The only reason this sells is because saying "NITROGEN" sounds so sciencey, it MUST be better.
  • KLowD9x, on 07/13/2008, -0/+4I had a rep come to my shop pushing their "N2 compressors" which looked like an air compressor with a box on top. They explained to me that this box had a membrane that would extract nitrogen from the air and compress it for use in filling up tires.

    He didn't seem to believe me that the tires were getting about 80% nitrogen now.

    It's a scam. Keep your tires inflated to the manufacturers spec (or 2-4psi over for better fuel economy. which is what I do) and you won't have any problems.
  • Smogtdi, on 07/13/2008, -0/+0the newest SCAM around : charge you for filling tour tires....
  • desertDenizen, on 07/13/2008, -0/+2This is almost as dumb as the "oxygenated water" they sell at gyms.
    • Gudath, on 07/13/2008, -0/+2More proof that P. T. Barnum was right.
  • ravensfh, on 07/13/2008, -0/+0bury this *****
  • unitedatheism, on 07/13/2008, -5/+1Let's face the facts: this fill-your-tire-with-nitrogen really works in terms of not letting the air (or nitro) getting out of your tire for longer, this is real.
    I don't know if this will likely make your car greener, this looks more like a marketing department than engineering, but they're not just creating histories out of their hat in this whole thing....
    If you do fill your tire with nitrogen, you'll have to make less (but more expensive) refills! So it depends whether you're a rich lazy guy or not. So far I'm not. :(

    I would digg if that wasn't an advertisement pretending to be a history...
    • satanatnmtedu, on 07/13/2008, -0/+3No. N2 is smaller than O2. N2 escapes FASTER than O2. Even if it wasn't an ad, it would still be wrong.
  • astyanax, on 07/13/2008, -0/+2Digg down immediately before they sucker any more poor saps.
  • Ryvenn, on 07/13/2008, -0/+7Yeah, this is lame.

    How about just checking your tire pressure...

    While were in the topic of great products though...

    Buy H2O2 Water!!1 The extra O both hydrates you more and helps you catch your breath faster after exertion!!!
    • Lunarbunny, on 07/13/2008, -0/+8Dugg for drinking hydrogen peroxide.
    • graysanborn, on 07/13/2008, -0/+3No pain, no gain... Feel the Burn!!
  • SuperSneaks, on 07/13/2008, -0/+1Buried for the BS.
  • diggmc, on 07/13/2008, -0/+2Ya sure, and if you format you're hard drive while sitting it upside down, you can double you're storage capacity!

    DOH!

  • MEchanicalART, on 07/13/2008, -0/+2Let everyone know the truth, so digg it, for every one to see the comments :)
  • pissymelissy, on 07/13/2008, -0/+1PV = nRT no matter what gas it is when you are at or near standard temperature or pressure. this article is a lie.
    • spinur, on 07/13/2008, -0/+0This is assuming everything stays a gas. If you've got water in there (and air does), it may go through phase transitions (liquid to gas and back) at different temperatures and pressures. If you don't control the water content, you've got two variables, T and n. Under real mom and pop driving conditions this is insignificant however.
  • MadOgre, on 07/13/2008, -0/+4From the article: "You can expect up to 30 percent better tire wear if they are properly inflated with nitrogen,"
    This is drasticly misleading. "It should say you can expect better tire wear if they are properly inflated." The friction between the road and it's effect on the rubber compound that makes up your tires has nothing to do with what inflates your tires. Pressure is pressure. You could fill it with any number of gasses and have the same effect.
    This is a myth.
    I know several guys that are on NASCAR pit crews... they use compressed air because it's free. They have enough things to spend their money on. Like fuel, tires, body panels. They don't buy Nitrogen.
    This is like the myth of filling your football with helieum so it can be kicked or thrown farther. Don't buy into junk science people.
  • Brainpop, on 07/13/2008, -0/+2Ok, lets settle this. I have been in the automotive industry for the last 9 years and work for one of the largest tire dealers in the country and we don't support the use of nitrogen filled tires at all. I've seen a few comments on here that it is a snake oil and they are correct. The benefits of filling your tires with nitrogen are so minimal that none of us are ever going to see the difference. Some of the claims are just too vague don't hold up to same claims as regular air that is just maintained.
    Like first lets start with the mileage aspect. At the same presssure the tire will create the same rolling resistance weather it's filled with nitrogen, air, fix a flat, nitrous oxide, and any other thing people seem to get in their tires. You 30% gain comes from going in the shop with 15psi and getting refilled back up to 32-35psi.
    The biggest problem I have with this article is that it gives you the idea that a blow out will either not happen with nitrogen filled tires or it won't be as bad. Look up a video of a tire exploding on a machine sometime. IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT IS IN THERE THESE ARE FILLED TO HIGH PRESSURE. If your tire is going to blow out it's because of hitting a curb, pothole, nail etc. Not because of what molocule you have filled in your tire.
    If someone offeres to fill your tires for you for free then sure go right ahead. I would take it myself as long as it is free. But most places are charging $40 a car to fill it up. Oh and don't forget you are going to get those dorky green caps on the valves too so when you go to a shop they know if you have nitrogen or air. So what do you do when you lose that cap then? They will happily charge you another $1 per cap to replace them.
    Save you money folks this is just the latest snake oil.
  • pencilneck, on 07/13/2008, -3/+1Taking 2 tires, fill one with air and the other with nitrogen and then drive around town for a few months, the nitrogen tire will keep it's pressure better than the tire with air. However, as soon as you run over a nail with the nitrogen tire, it will leak out just as good as when you pick up a nail in the air tire.

    If your car has a Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS), then nitrogen may be a nice thing to do if you have the spare $$ for it. This way, when you do pick up a nail, the TPMS will let you know the tire is loosing pressure. That is the problem with nitrogen, people think it means they no longer need to check the tire pressure. I, as a mechanic, see green valve stem caps and when I check the tire pressure I find the pressure below 30psi about half the time.
    • driftwoodtex, on 07/13/2008, -0/+1"Taking 2 tires, fill one with air and the other with nitrogen and then drive around town for a few months, the nitrogen tire will keep it's pressure better than the tire with air."

      Sounds like wishful thinking to me. Why would the nitrogen tire do anything better than a tire filled with regular air?
    • khyberkitsune, on 07/13/2008, -1/+1pencilneck has a pencildick. The air we breathe is 79% nitrogen. No wonder you're a mechanic, you don't have the prerequisite education for anything else that requires actual critical thought.
    • pencilneck, on 07/15/2008, -0/+1Simple stuff here... why does the nitrogen tire stay inflated longer than a plain air tire? Because while plain air already has 78.08% nitrogen in it already (wiki it bitch) that means there is another 21.92% of something else. O2 comes to mind, along with some other crap... but to keep this simple we'll just pretend we live in a world with ONLY nitrogen and oxygen in the air.

      Moving on, out tires are not made of a completely solid material. They are porous. "Air" will bleed out of tires due to this. Now then, which molecules do you think are larger, nitrogen or oxygen? Nitrogen molecules are the largest. As such, they are the least permeable and will stay in the tire the longest. So take a tire with 95% nitrogen in it, and one with 78.05% nitrogen in it, which tire has more oxygen to leak out? Remember, oxygen leaks out at a faster rate than nitrogen.

      There are other benefits to nitrogen as well... but truth be told I don't bother with it. I still check my tires about every 2 weeks and maybe once a month top off the pressure a little bit. Cheap ass tires seem to bleed air more than quality tires.

      And khyberkitsune, not sure why you are thinking about my penis and imaging what it may or may not look like, but hey, if you are gay, I've got no problems with it, your choice to think about another man's *****. I, on the other hand, think about my wife's pussy. Each to his own I guess. Futher more, your 79% statement shows you didn't put any actual critical though into it. Sorry if I've had more training in my field than you have in yours. Bitch.
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