firsttimelexyowner Posted January 23, 2011 Share Posted January 23, 2011 Would like to know from anyone who has switched from air to nitrogen in their tires any feedback on their experience.Does it impact the mileage per gallon one gets or impact it at all? Would nitrogen be more relevent to use in a climate that is constantly switching from fairly mild weather to "'extreme"' cold, then the standard air used?...How does it affect the ride? What would be the nitrogen PSI "'norm"' if the manual states 31 PSI for air? Would sure appreciate hearing from anyone that has switched.. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Filehorse Posted January 24, 2011 Share Posted January 24, 2011 Nitrogen in your tires is no better than "dry" air which is 79% nitrogen anyway. The primary benefit of putting nitrogen in your tires is to the bottom line of your tire dealer. It's basically Mop and Glo which does no harm. A paper published by Goodyear some years ago found some long-term (keyword) benefit in off-road construction tires and also in airplane tires where it theoretically reduces fire hazard. The paper concluded that the primary benefit of dry nitrogen is the fact that is it dry - moisture in air does contribute to long-term degradation but in automobile tires that benefit is negligible. You can get the same benefit using compressed air where there is a desiccant dryer on the supply line to remove entrained moisture. There is no measurable benefits relating to fuel mileage, increased tread life, or any other parameter used to evaluate the performance of automobile tires. Any difference in tire pressure vs. temperature when using nitrogen will be negligible. The best that can be said of the benefits of dry nitrogen is that it does no harm. If my tire dealer said "Air or nitrogen; same price?", I'll probably take the nitrogen. Would I pay anything for it? Absolutely not. Oh, tire pressures whether using nitrogen or not would not change relative to air. Car Center discussion of the benefits of Nitrogen in passenger car tires Caveat emptor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firsttimelexyowner Posted January 24, 2011 Author Share Posted January 24, 2011 Nitrogen in your tires is no better than "dry" air which is 79% nitrogen anyway. The primary benefit of putting nitrogen in your tires is to the bottom line of your tire dealer. It's basically Mop and Glo which does no harm. A paper published by Goodyear some years ago found some long-term (keyword) benefit in off-road construction tires and also in airplane tires where it theoretically reduces fire hazard. The paper concluded that the primary benefit of dry nitrogen is the fact that is it dry - moisture in air does contribute to long-term degradation but in automobile tires that benefit is negligible. You can get the same benefit using compressed air where there is a desiccant dryer on the supply line to remove entrained moisture. There is no measurable benefits relating to fuel mileage, increased tread life, or any other parameter used to evaluate the performance of automobile tires. Any difference in tire pressure vs. temperature when using nitrogen will be negligible. The best that can be said of the benefits of dry nitrogen is that it does no harm. If my tire dealer said "Air or nitrogen; same price?", I'll probably take the nitrogen. Would I pay anything for it? Absolutely not. Oh, tire pressures whether using nitrogen or not would not change relative to air. Car Center discussion of the benefits of Nitrogen in passenger car tires Caveat emptor. Thanks so much for the excellent link. Questions were answered and I saved myself $70.00 in the process.. Advantages of nitrogeninflation do seem minimal even though I present as one of the more likely type of driver that they are suited for.(Very low kms put on my cars.) I DO think u helped me realize that I do need to go buy a tire gauge now and instead of switching, learn how to use one properly and keep my fingers crossed that there will always be help at the gas stations when I need air. Fingers are too arthritic to do it myself so I was hoping the switch would avoid my having to go get air as much.....Feel pretty stupid that I cant do it on my own. We have had such crazy extremes between rain, snow,, melt,rain again, freeze, thaw, rain again, deep freeze again that it really did wreak havoc on both of my vehicles's tire pressures. Actually got a flat on one vehicle that had sat in the driveway for a month during this time frame. Had only a PSI of 15 left on one of the two month old set on the new-used Lexus after only 400km of hwy driving all within a couple of weeks of this kind of weather..Hoped that the nitrogen would have kept a more constant pressure then air in these conditions.Learned something new today so once again, thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Filehorse Posted January 24, 2011 Share Posted January 24, 2011 Tires need to be gauged at least monthly and should be performed cold if possible. Also, tire pressures should be within a PSI of so of each other. If you have one that's a LOT lower than the others, you need to get it checked as there is most likely a puncture somewhere. As for gauges, there are many good ones on the market. I'd probably opt for one of the digital gauges as they tend to be reasonably accurate and will cost a lot less than a really good analog gauge. Although ideally you want to gauge the tires cold, if you have to drive some distance to get it done, the worst that will happen is you might wind up a couple of PSI above spec which is still well below the tire's maximum allowed pressure rating. It may ride a little rougher but in general, a little over-inflation is a LOT better than under-inflation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firsttimelexyowner Posted January 24, 2011 Author Share Posted January 24, 2011 Tires need to be gauged at least monthly and should be performed cold if possible. Also, tire pressures should be within a PSI of so of each other. If you have one that's a LOT lower than the others, you need to get it checked as there is most likely a puncture somewhere. As for gauges, there are many good ones on the market. I'd probably opt for one of the digital gauges as they tend to be reasonably accurate and will cost a lot less than a really good analog gauge. Although ideally you want to gauge the tires cold, if you have to drive some distance to get it done, the worst that will happen is you might wind up a couple of PSI above spec which is still well below the tire's maximum allowed pressure rating. It may ride a little rougher but in general, a little over-inflation is a LOT better than under-inflation. Once again thanks for the tips. I will have the mechanic check the NEW tire that got so low for a puncture while they have the vehicle in the shop and are trying to figure out why the key wont turn!!1 Maybe with the horrible job they did in our town of cleaning the streets after a massive rain then huge snowfall when nothing was scraped down before the big freeze hit... that oversight left the roads a real mess with lots of ice chunks everywhere.Maybe it did cause a puncture.Im off to buy a digital tire guage in the interim... :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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