Nitrogen in tyres

[SIR E30 68]

Has anyone tried nitrogen in their tyres? Wanting to get some opinions because no one else seems to have done it yet. I tried it out, cost me $7 per wheel. Claims to not lose pressure and will only need refilling after 6000kms. The ride seems to be smoother, less road noise off coarse chip which is great since ive got low profile tyres. I did 1150km over a weekend after filling with nitrogen and it started off being quite stiff and noisy but as it bedded in the whole car quitened down and there was no rattles from inside. Its meant to give you more grip but I have yet to try this out

So let me know how you have found it everyone

Jason

[bmw_guy 0]

Wicked,

where you get it from?

[Edited - No need to quote when you're the first to reply]

Edited March 20, 2009 by Mike

[SIR E30 68]

STOP QUOTING!!!!

/rant

firestone angelsea street

[bmw_guy 0]

True, haha keen as

[e30plz 1]

Do they fill the whole thing with nitrogen or just a lil bit?

[zenetti 0]

Kumho have just completed a year long test with over 1000 tyres. The filled 500 with Nitrogen and 500 with 'normal' air and left them in one of their warehouses. The result?..... on average ther air filled tyres only lost 2psi less than the nitrogen filled tyres.

When I am back at work on Monday I will scan thh article and post it up here, but basically they concluded that there was no real advantage.

[OSiRiS 0]

Snake oil

[camera doctor 25]

Isn't 'normal' air 80% Nitrogen anyway ????

[Guest Ari Gold]

http://mistupid.com/chemistry/aircomp.htm

[mtech1e30 0]

The firestone on The Strand in Parnell, Auckland offer this service claiming it will "save fuel"

They charge $4.50 per tire.

[topcat 11]

also from what i have heard,

nitrogen is colder then air. or starts off cooler and doesnt heat up as much as the normal air in the tire.

normal air fills temps go up,the pressure increases.heard of guys setting up at 32psi,drive hard,check only to be round

the 50 or more

so a nitrogen fill

this helps keep the tire run a cooler temps.

espesially when running at mach 2.

or so i've heard

m

is this making sense??

[Mike.Gayner 0]

The ride seems to be smoother, less road noise off coarse chip which is great since ive got low profile tyres. I did 1150km over a weekend after filling with nitrogen and it started off being quite stiff and noisy but as it bedded in the whole car quitened down and there was no rattles from inside.

Self deception is an amazing thing.

also from what i have heard,

nitrogen is colder then air. or starts off cooler and doesnt heat up as much as the normal air in the tire.

normal air fills temps go up,the pressure increases.heard of guys setting up at 32psi,drive hard,check only to be round

the 50 or more

so a nitrogen fill

this helps keep the tire run a cooler temps.

LOL dude that's a massive load of bull honky. Seriously, how do you even come up with this stuff?

[kingkarl 136]

http://www.carbibles.com/tyre_bible_pg2.html

Well consider this; The air you breathe is already made up of 78% nitrogen. The composition is completed by 21% oxygen and tiny percentages of argon, carbon dioxide, neon, methane, helium, krypton, hydrogen and xenon. The kit that is used to generate nitrogen for road tyres typically only gets to about 95% purity.

To get close to that in your tyres, you'd need to inflate and deflate them several times to purge any remaining oxygen and even then you're only likely to get about 90% pure nitrogen. So under ideal conditions, you're increasing the nitrogen content of the gas in the tyre from 78% to 90%.

Given that nitrogen inflation from the average tyre workshop is a one-shot deal (no purging involved) you're more likely to be driving around with 80% pure nitrogen than 90%. That's a 2% difference from bog standard air.

On top of that, nitrogen inflation doesn't make your tyres any less prone to damage from road debris and punctures and such. It doesn't make them any stronger, and if you need to top them up and use a regular garage air-line to do it, you've diluted whatever purity of nitrogen was in the tyres right there.

For $30 a tyre for nitrogen inflation, do you think that's worth it? For all the alleged benefits of a nitrogen fill, you'd be far better off finding a tyre change place that has a vapour-elimination system in their air compressor. If they can pump up your tyres with dry air, you'll get about the same benefits as you would with a nitrogen inflation but for free.

Nitrogen inflation is nothing new - the aerospace world has been doing it for years in aircraft tyres. Racing teams will also often use nitrogen inflation, but largely out of conveience rather than due to any specific performance benefit, which would tend to fit with the armchair science outlined above. Nitrogen is supplied in pressurised tanks, so no other equipment is needed to inflate the tyres - no compressors or generators or anything.

[Madhatter 0]

also from what i have heard,

nitrogen is colder then air. or starts off cooler and doesnt heat up as much as the normal air in the tire.

normal air fills temps go up,the pressure increases.heard of guys setting up at 32psi,drive hard,check only to be round

the 50 or more

so a nitrogen fill

this helps keep the tire run a cooler temps.

espesially when running at mach 2.

or so i've heard

m

is this making sense??

No, it doesnt make any sense at all. You can expect maybe a 6-8 psi increase at the most if you get the tyres really hot, largely due to the water vapour present in most compressed air. It wont magically increase the tyre pressure by 20 psi, thats just very unrealistic.

As said above, its largely the water content of the air being used to inflate your tyres. At best you can hope for a tyre shop to drain their compresors daily, but even then a lot of water ends up trapped in the system, along with vapour trapped in the air that occurs naturally, so the easiest way is with a dry air system or using compressed air cylinders.

[topcat 11]

Self deception is an amazing thing.

LOL dude that's a massive load of bull honky. Seriously, how do you even come up with this stuff?

took alittle while for someone to call my bluff

[cainchapman 0]

It's a crock. Unless you have an F1 car or a jet fighter.

And they do it not for the pressure loss, but for the fact that it doesn't add Oxygen to an extremely hot part and aid in causing a fire.

If you expect to have your car this hot around the wheel, maybe it's a good investment. Otherwise......

[SIR E30 68]

P.S. The improvement you felt over time was probably the pressure loss they claimed would not happen ?????????? enjoy --- tyre sales guys will push anything for a quick buck.

The improvement I felt over time only happened over a few hours of solid driving. NOT likely pressure loss.

To everyone else, thank you very much for your input. Im glad to know the facts and "not so facts" about nitrogen. Much appreciated.

Jason

[Five Star 0]

Madhatter?? Nice to see more e21's around!

I wonder if Nitrogen will catch on.. I doubt it.

[Madhatter 0]

Madhatter?? Nice to see more e21's around!

I wonder if Nitrogen will catch on.. I doubt it.

Wrong side of the pond, but thanks mate

Should have the alpina painted within a month too then work can get started on putting the motor together in the jps

Edited March 25, 2009 by Madhatter

[Five Star 0]

I know, I recognised your sig from bmwe21.net