Phil1098

Please Ray, you're making assumptions on knowledge, I too have worked on cars for over 45 years. So show me ONE tire that has oxidized belts from air, just one. For all your experience you thought the TR9080 C8 DCT has a dry clutch, then you said the LT2 has a 5,600 rpm redline. You're not shining real bright on here so far.

C5racecar

In a road racing car, you go onto the track with 25 psi, and after 20 minutes of racing, the tires are at 30 psi due to the extreme heat. The tires get hot from spinning and sliding sideways, and the heat from brakes puts a lot of heat into the tires and wheels.
In theory nitrogen filled tires do not gain as much pressure. For a street car, I really don't see any benefit. On a hot day, tires do get hot on the highway, and may increase 3 or 4 psi. With nitrogen, it may be less, only 2 or 3.
You would not be able to detect that when driving.

Racer X

I have seen them, but would not want to drive on them due to their steel belts showing through the tread surface. 😁

it was many years ago.

ByByBMW

The biggest benefit to Nitrogen filling comes from how the Nitrogen is produced/packaged. In short, due to the process the moisture is removed from the Nitrogen so essentially you have a dry gas with very little water in it. Water in the gas space has more of an affect on the pressure rise than the gas itself does. That is why so many high performance hi temperature tire applications use Nitrogen. E.G. airplanes, racing tires, etc.

dmaxx3500

i think you need to fill them with ''HYDROGEN'',,lighter then air,so you will have less unsrpung weight

JVi

Nitrous oxide is what is needed for laughs and giggles.

feeder82

Go to Costco they have a nitrogen fill pump you can use for free. 😁

RxCritical

rfh928

My C7 came with nitrogen filled tires...but I've pumped them up with regular air from my 12V compressor many times without any apparent ill effects!

Inviktus

I only fill my tires with non-binary vegan farts. So all of you guys are behind the curve here...

Andybump

It will not do any harm to add air to a nitrogen filled tire, other than to negate the alleged advantages of the Nitrogen fill. As for those advantages, here is a consumer reports article about that.
I believe it covers most (but not all) of the touted advantages of a Nitro fill. Missing is whether or not there is better pressure stability with temperature changes, and the impact of moisture content on that relationship. Here is an another article about that, that seem credible.

The consumer reports article concludes that the Nitrogen fill is not worth it, but the context of the consumer report article is street use and it does not discuss tire pressure stability with temperature:
https://www.consumerreports.org/tire...s-a6260003694/

That context of discussion at the following link is for racing and track events, and it concludes that a dry fill, whether Air, or Nitrogen, will provide the main advantage of tire pressure stability with temperature change. And, adding regular air to a dry fill, whether its Nitrogen or dried air, would negate the advantage for track use.
https://www.longacreracing.com/techn...ot%20too%20bad.

JRYELLOWCORVETTE

Helium might even be better!

Red Mist Rulz

I'm talking about street use. Find me a tire store that's going to do 5 purges and nitrogen fills for you. I'll wait.

And even 1% oxygen will cause oxidation inside the tire. One molecule of oxygen can start oxidation, and once it starts it's self sustaining. The race team doesn't use nitrogen to prevent oxidation. That's a non issue when the tires don't even last one full race. Just like street tires, they wear out long before oxidation is a problem. If you're tires have been on the car long enough that oxygen has weakened the steel belts, the tread is as hard as a hockey puck anyway.

Red Mist Rulz

I guess the laws of physics don't apply to Mercedes tires. then. Because everything you've said is impossible. Maybe if you checked your tire pressure once in a while you'd see that the pressures DID vary with temperature.

Red Mist Rulz

Nitrogen tires gain pressures just like oxygen filled tires would. ALL gases expand with heat, and that increases pressure. Basic high school chemistry fact. The benefit of Nitrogen is that the pressure gain is more predictable, but that's because there's no water vapor, not because of the specific gas.

Jupiterjj

My first boss out of engineering school once told me about his first invention, the Mary Jo Kopechne life saving system. It was a hose attached to the spare tire that extends into the car's interior, allowing an occupant to breathe air from the spare tire if the car should accidentally venture under water. He said only after he applied for the patent did he learn that there is no oxygen left in a spare tire after a few months, since the oxygen molecules are able to penetrate the rubber, but the nitrogen is not.

rbartick

My daily driver SUV came from the dealer with Nitrogen filled tires and green caps. I drove the car for more than three years and 20,000 miles in the North East before the tires needed more air, which I thought was pretty good. I topped them off with regular air from my home compressor.

JerryU

Yep, local Chevy/BMW/Mercedes Dealer has a fellow on a fellow who rides around on a Gold cart with a Nitrogen Generator. Not 100% Nitrogen but considering that are not putting a vaccum on your tires good enough! All the cars they sell, like the wife's SUV come with Nitrogen caps. I fill those with my air compressor! No harm I'm using 78% Nitrogen!

That oxidation issue "is a factor to some degree" IF you have a truck fleet and recap tires where the casing can last 300,000+ miles! Silly for cars. I was Director of Market Development for the largest Industrial gas company. My groups focus was, by far, our most profitable product, Argon. Although only 0.9% of the air we had over 50% of the US capacitary and controller prices. Welding was the largest use (it's also used to fill double pane widows etc.) My counterpart, with a 35 person group, was Director of Market Development for the other two gases Oxygen and Nitrogen. Have to liquify all air to get all 3. Our biggest market was Oxygen for steel mills etc. We built huge plants to deliver Oxygen to steel mills (when we had steel mills making steel not just melting old cars!) All large plants had the extra distillation trays and two more columns, and chemical reactors to get Argon (about 20% more costly when building a ~100 million dollar gas plant.)

We had excess liquid Nitrogen and would vent it (what a waste of the massive energy needed to compress and liquify air.) Recall when my counterpart deviled the marketing program to replace air compressors in large manufacturing plants. Filling tires was another Marketing effort BUT they focused on large truck fleets where there was some technical benefit. Cars have very little!

Yep sponsored Richard Petty's Race Team for >15 years. they used Nitrogen at the track because a 2500 psi cylinder (with regulator) was easier to carry than an quality air compressor with dryer required to deliver low moisture air for tires! Many race teams use it for that reason!

RKCRLR

Both nitrogen and oxygen permeate tires, oxygen just does it faster. Assuming that the tire is topped off with air periodically, you will wind up with a higher concentration of nitrogen. But it will reach equilibrium at some point but it won't be 0% oxygen. I'd do the calculation if I wasn't so lazy.

RKCRLR

I used to work at a plant that used a lot of nitrogen. In many cases, it is cheaper than maintaining air compressors if you need a clean, dry gas.