Nitrogen in tires?

[sparkie]

With today’s gas prices, I wonder if this really works. Last Wednesday I had nitrogen put in my tires. It cost me 30 bucks, is it worth it? I don't know, I hope so. I drive 44 miles a day to work 5 to 7 days a week, depends on my schedule. They told me at the tire place that some are reporting two more miles per gallon. We will see....


Nitrogen in Tires : Information about Nitrogen Tire Inflation News, Benefits, Generator Dealers, Location Finder & More

 

[gary26]

Hey Sparkie keep us informed. I've read the difference is so slight that the $30.00 you spent isn't worth it. Good luck guy.

 

[ScottB]

Ive had it done in truck for two sets of tires, and on fathers car. I dont believe the gas issue as not noticed, but I will note they dont lose pressure anywhere as fast as prior. Less than one pound each tire per oil change interval. After first purchase (20.00) my mechanic is covering us for life of truck.

 

[AjNavo61490]

the only real pro to N2 in tires is that theres no condensation in the tire when filling it up

happends when a compressor sits full too long

 

[svtsupremecy]

Ya, ive heard the only real benefit from N2 is that it tires maintain pressure for much longer periods of time...which could lead to MPG increase for people who dont check often.

 

[GeorgiaHybrid]

Sparkie,

As you can tell from my nick, I'm a bit of a hypermiler. I hang out at greenhybrid.com and cleanmpg.com a lot. The only advantage to running nitrogen in your tires is the pressure will not increase as much as they will with normal air while running at speed.

This will allow you to run increased pressure in your tires without having a major problem (blowing the tire off of the rim at speed). Having said that, most of us do NOT run nitrogen in our tires. We do check them 1 to 2 times a week with a VERY accurate gauge. My DD is a Camry Hybrid that "by the book" should be running 32 psi in the tires. The maximum "cold inflation pressure" on the sidewalls is called out at 51 psi. I use a happy medium of 42 psi, have a good turn in response on the tires, have even wear and the tires run 20 degrees cooler than at 32 psi.

Of course it helps when you keep it clean and slick to cut down air resistance with some of the products here at AG

 

[supercharged]

Sparkie,

As you can tell from my nick, I'm a bit of a hypermiler. I hang out at greenhybrid.com and cleanmpg.com a lot. The only advantage to running nitrogen in your tires is the pressure will not increase as much as they will with normal air while running at speed.

This will allow you to run increased pressure in your tires without having a major problem (blowing the tire off of the rim at speed). Having said that, most of us do NOT run nitrogen in our tires. We do check them 1 to 2 times a week with a VERY accurate gauge. My DD is a Camry Hybrid that "by the book" should be running 32 psi in the tires. The maximum "cold inflation pressure" on the sidewalls is called out at 51 psi. I use a happy medium of 42 psi, have a good turn in response on the tires, have even wear and the tires run 20 degrees cooler than at 32 psi.

Of course it helps when you keep it clean and slick to cut down air resistance with some of the products here at AG

What's your average MPG on this hybrid?

 

[GeorgiaHybrid]

Supercharged,

I just bought it at the end of November so I only have 11,000 miles on it so far. Breaking it in and going thru the winter ran around 36 to 38 mpg. For the last 10 tanks or so it has been running 40.5 to 42.5 mpg here in the hills of northwest Georgia. It does help that spring is here and the weather is warmer. All of my mileage is calculated by hand as the MFD usually runs 1.5 to 2 mpg higher.

In case you were wondering, I'm not a tree hugger and the the only green I really care about is in my wallet. People find it kind of funny when they notice that I drive a hybrid and then find out that I am a life member of the NRA, the last time I voted democratic was for Jimmy Carter and that I always thought PETA stood for "People Eating Tasty Animals".

 

[richy]

Supercharged,

I just bought it at the end of November so I only have 11,000 miles on it so far. Breaking it in and going thru the winter ran around 36 to 38 mpg. For the last 10 tanks or so it has been running 40.5 to 42.5 mpg here in the hills of northwest Georgia. It does help that spring is here and the weather is warmer. All of my mileage is calculated by hand as the MFD usually runs 1.5 to 2 mpg higher.

In case you were wondering, I'm not a tree hugger and the the only green I really care about is in my wallet. People find it kind of funny when they notice that I drive a hybrid and then find out that I am a life member of the NRA, the last time I voted democratic was for Jimmy Carter and that I always thought PETA stood for "People Eating Tasty Animals".

Dang..I thought I was the only one who said that!!! Sparkie..AFAIK, the nitrogen is strictly to help against air pressure loss/gain due to temperature changes. I have a TPM in my Infiniti and check it once a week. I periodically check that against my gauge and have never found a deviation. I agree with Georgia Hybrid and suggest running a higher pressure than what is listed on the door. Do not go as high as what the sidewall says. From a collision reconstructionist's point of view, too high pressure overinflates the tire and causes it to wear on the middle of the tread and underinflated causes wear to the outside edges...neither is a good thing. Overinflate by about 10-15% and you WILL see an increase in gas mileage. Another thing I STRONLY recommend is running AMSOIL synthetic oil/filter (with added bonus of one oil change per 12 mo's or 25,000 miles) in addition to the AMSOIL EA air filter. Both will dramatically increase your gas mileage and even though it sounds mutually exclusive, will increase your performance too. ( AMSOIL - Synthetic Oil, Motor and Engine Oil, Lubricants, Air Filters, Oil Filters and Greases )

 

[GeorgiaHybrid]

Sparkie,

If you are interested in getting better mileage from any vehicle that you own, you can try the following. They will always work and help whether you drive a hybrid, car or truck.

1) Slow down. This is number one in increasing your mileage. Every 10 mph slower that you drive on the interstate can increase your mileage as much as 10%. Remember that the speed limit posted is the maximum speed, not the minimum.

2) Be gentle on the throttle and brakes. Try to avoid quick starts and stops. Look ahead and anticipate red lights, traffic patterns and give yourself some extra room between you and the car ahead to avoid using your brakes as much as possible.

3) Air up your tires. Do not exceed the maximum pressure listed on the sidewall of the tire but you can increase pressure above the carmakers recommendations. You need to understand that they do not know what type or brand of tire you might put on the car and try to compromise between ride quality, handling and tire life when determining the pressure listed.

4) Avoid 10% ethanol gasoline if at all possible. This alone will decrease your mileage between 3 to 10%. It is cheaper for the stations to sell but if you notice, they do not lower the price when they started to pump it. Ethanol is an oxygenated fuel and causes some O2 sensors to tell the computer “you are letting too much oxygen in the exhaust, burn more fuel”.

5) Check your routes that you drive. Avoid one if possible that goes “up and down” a lot. You can sometimes drive a little further but at a constant elevation and burn less fuel.

6) If you have several stops to make, go to the one that is farther away first. This will allow the engine to warm up to optimum temperature and stay there for the duration of total trip.

7) Use the thinnest oil allowed by the car’s manual for your temperature range. If you have a choice between 5W-20 and 0W-20, choose the 0W-20. I will not get into the synthetic or dino debate or the “my oil is better than your oil and my old man can punch the lights out of yours” arguments. I will say keep your car or truck maintained by the schedule provided in your manual (or better than the manual if you are anal about it like I am…)

8) Carpool if possible. Two days a week, I drive just my daughter to her school, the other three; I drive her to school and my wife to work. We went from 3 cars all week to 1 most of the time. That alone helped a LOT.

9)Combine trips if at all possible. Write down what you need and make more stops in one trip or buy from a mega store and get everything at one stop.

Doing all of the above will allow you to have lots of extra money left over at the end of the month. You can then make Meghan VERY happy by ordering more from AG. This will help the American economy and p*ss off some Arabs because they can’t sell us as much oil and support terrorists with OUR money.

 

[raddogz]

From what I was told nitrogen in the tires is just one big upsell.

I know Costco will sell you the tires with the nitrogen in the tires. There's already nitrogen in the air, not too sure if singling out one type of gas is going to make any kind of difference

 

[Torsion Tool]

My best friend dated a girl whose job was to place nitrogen tanks in tire shops so I asked her. According to her info, the primary benefit comes from the larger nitrogen molecules which impede dissipation so your tires remain properly inflated longer. This is less of an issue when you regularly check pressures with an accurate gauge. Additionally, it heats more slowly so the tires retain better pressure longer. I switched to nitrogen when I realized my fancy gauge was giving false readings. Also, most shops will top off gratis as needed after the initial purchase. Plus, the stem valve caps generally are green as opposed to black which neatly complements our paint job. Bottom line: every marginal improvement ultimately may yield an appreciable difference. If you're A/R about appearance, you'll likely be the same about mechanical maintenance.

 

[Meghan]

Doing all of the above will allow you to have lots of extra money left over at the end of the month. You can then make Meghan VERY happy by ordering more from AG. This will help the American economy and p*ss off some Arabs because they can’t sell us as much oil and support terrorists with OUR money.

 

[ewiesner]

Another benefit of Nitrogen is there is less moisture in the gas and thus the corrosion that tends to build up on the aluminum wheels is less. Over the life of a tire, this can be a big benefit.

 

[julian]

garbage- hype -clueless minds - worthless

1)when they mount your tire to the rim, they use soap and water around the bead of the tire. water will never leave this tire.
2) usually, you only lose air to a problem with the valve, the rim, or hole in tire. Nitrogen won't seal your tire. you just blow nitrogen out....lol!
3) if you fill your tires cold to specs or slightly higher, you'll never damage the tire, cause the maker has his real specs higher than what they want you to work with.
Nitrogen not expanding has no use for us in the real world, unless you drive a Nascar vehicle.
4) lazy people will put in nitrogen and think it means - you never have to check your air pressure. why - I don't know. you could be driving around with a time bomb and never know it.
5) I guess if it's advertised on FOX TV and National Enquirer, it's got to be good!

 

[sparkie]

Hey Sparkie keep us informed. I've read the difference is so slight that the $30.00 you spent isn't worth it. Good luck guy.

My truck is a V6 2005 F-150. That is one reason I got one with a V6 is the MPG. In town I've seen 17 MPG and highway 20.5. Last weekend when I went to HighEndDetail school in Georgia LOL...I got 20.6....So I did not see a improvement....

Sparkie,

As you can tell from my nick, I'm a bit of a hypermiler. I hang out at greenhybrid.com and cleanmpg.com a lot. The only advantage to running nitrogen in your tires is the pressure will not increase as much as they will with normal air while running at speed.

This will allow you to run increased pressure in your tires without having a major problem (blowing the tire off of the rim at speed). Having said that, most of us do NOT run nitrogen in our tires. We do check them 1 to 2 times a week with a VERY accurate gauge. My DD is a Camry Hybrid that "by the book" should be running 32 psi in the tires. The maximum "cold inflation pressure" on the sidewalls is called out at 51 psi. I use a happy medium of 42 psi, have a good turn in response on the tires, have even wear and the tires run 20 degrees cooler than at 32 psi.

Of course it helps when you keep it clean and slick to cut down air resistance with some of the products here at AG

I can see that....

Dang..I thought I was the only one who said that!!! Sparkie..AFAIK, the nitrogen is strictly to help against air pressure loss/gain due to temperature changes. I have a TPM in my Infiniti and check it once a week. I periodically check that against my gauge and have never found a deviation. I agree with Georgia Hybrid and suggest running a higher pressure than what is listed on the door. Do not go as high as what the sidewall says. From a collision reconstructionist's point of view, too high pressure overinflates the tire and causes it to wear on the middle of the tread and underinflated causes wear to the outside edges...neither is a good thing. Overinflate by about 10-15% and you WILL see an increase in gas mileage. Another thing I STRONLY recommend is running AMSOIL synthetic oil/filter (with added bonus of one oil change per 12 mo's or 25,000 miles) in addition to the AMSOIL EA air filter. Both will dramatically increase your gas mileage and even though it sounds mutually exclusive, will increase your performance too. ( AMSOIL - Synthetic Oil, Motor and Engine Oil, Lubricants, Air Filters, Oil Filters and Greases )

Richy, I believe in using synthetic oil....I will check out AMSOIL. Thanks buddy...

Sparkie,

If you are interested in getting better mileage from any vehicle that you own, you can try the following. They will always work and help whether you drive a hybrid, car or truck.

1) Slow down. This is number one in increasing your mileage. Every 10 mph slower that you drive on the interstate can increase your mileage as much as 10%. Remember that the speed limit posted is the maximum speed, not the minimum.

2) Be gentle on the throttle and brakes. Try to avoid quick starts and stops. Look ahead and anticipate red lights, traffic patterns and give yourself some extra room between you and the car ahead to avoid using your brakes as much as possible.

3) Air up your tires. Do not exceed the maximum pressure listed on the sidewall of the tire but you can increase pressure above the carmakers recommendations. You need to understand that they do not know what type or brand of tire you might put on the car and try to compromise between ride quality, handling and tire life when determining the pressure listed.

4) Avoid 10% ethanol gasoline if at all possible. This alone will decrease your mileage between 3 to 10%. It is cheaper for the stations to sell but if you notice, they do not lower the price when they started to pump it. Ethanol is an oxygenated fuel and causes some O2 sensors to tell the computer “you are letting too much oxygen in the exhaust, burn more fuel”.

5) Check your routes that you drive. Avoid one if possible that goes “up and down” a lot. You can sometimes drive a little further but at a constant elevation and burn less fuel.

6) If you have several stops to make, go to the one that is farther away first. This will allow the engine to warm up to optimum temperature and stay there for the duration of total trip.

7) Use the thinnest oil allowed by the car’s manual for your temperature range. If you have a choice between 5W-20 and 0W-20, choose the 0W-20. I will not get into the synthetic or dino debate or the “my oil is better than your oil and my old man can punch the lights out of yours” arguments. I will say keep your car or truck maintained by the schedule provided in your manual (or better than the manual if you are anal about it like I am…)

8) Carpool if possible. Two days a week, I drive just my daughter to her school, the other three; I drive her to school and my wife to work. We went from 3 cars all week to 1 most of the time. That alone helped a LOT.

9)Combine trips if at all possible. Write down what you need and make more stops in one trip or buy from a mega store and get everything at one stop.

Doing all of the above will allow you to have lots of extra money left over at the end of the month. You can then make Meghan VERY happy by ordering more from AG. This will help the American economy and p*ss off some Arabs because they can’t sell us as much oil and support terrorists with OUR money.

You have some good tips here...Heck my wife takes my extra money....LOL...

My best friend dated a girl whose job was to place nitrogen tanks in tire shops so I asked her. According to her info, the primary benefit comes from the larger nitrogen molecules which impede dissipation so your tires remain properly inflated longer. This is less of an issue when you regularly check pressures with an accurate gauge. Additionally, it heats more slowly so the tires retain better pressure longer. I switched to nitrogen when I realized my fancy gauge was giving false readings. Also, most shops will top off gratis as needed after the initial purchase. Plus, the stem valve caps generally are green as opposed to black which neatly complements our paint job. Bottom line: every marginal improvement ultimately may yield an appreciable difference. If you're A/R about appearance, you'll likely be the same about mechanical maintenance.

Yeah the green one they put on my truck, they suck...I put my chrome back on...

I hear you...

Another benefit of Nitrogen is there is less moisture in the gas and thus the corrosion that tends to build up on the aluminum wheels is less. Over the life of a tire, this can be a big benefit.

I can see that...

 

[wytstang]

Richy, I believe in using synthetic oil....I will check out AMSOIL. Thanks buddy...

How about a synthetic blend oil? Motorcraft oil is synthetic blend and a dran good one at that. If you do a search for MC used oil analysis (UOS) and MC oil filter you will see they are top notch products. My UOA came back fantastic using MC 10w30 for just shy of 5,000 miles (MC oil filter as well). So good that Blackstone Labs wants me to try 6,000 and send in a sample. Amsoil is great I run it in my tranny but MC oil/Filter is no slouch and fairly cheap (wally world) I saw no reason to switch. And all this on a lil 5.0 with (at the time of sample) 13x,xxx "fun" miles. Doing a UOA is so worth it. .02

 

[wytstang]

1) Slow down. This is number one in increasing your mileage. Every 10 mph slower that you drive on the interstate can increase your mileage as much as 10%. Remember that the speed limit posted is the maximum speed, not the minimum.

Remember (everyone) if you do the above (which I have), the left lane is the fast lane so get the #%$@ out the way .

 

[ScottB]

Remember (everyone) if you do the above (which I have), the left lane is the fast lane so get the #%$@ out the way .

beep ... beep , Im trying to pass buddie ! :cheers:

 

[GeorgiaHybrid]

Wytstang and Killrwheels,

You guys should have to put up with my daughter. I was passed by a silver Prius today on the I-24 this morning. Her only comment? "Dad, even the Prius drivers go faster than you!!!"

At least I did pass one guy (I was running between 60 and 65 on the way in), the only problem was he had a flat tire and was rolling on the shoulder of the road trying to get to the next exit. Everyone else was going 70+.

I guess I like spending my money on guns, ammo and gear for the cars instead of gas. By the way, 385 miles into this tank and the MFD is reading 44.7 mpg on the Camry with 310 miles cruising range left