When I got the receipt for my new Pirellis that got put on the RRS just before selling it to James, included in the price was recycling fee, fitting, balancing, valves and Nitrogen inflation.........................
Can anybody enlighten me as to the reason/ advantage of using Nitrogen for tyre inflation? Seems a strange "extra" not to be charged for from the budget side of a budget tyre seller! 2020 Pangea Green 1st Edition D240 New Defender 110 is here and loving it
2018 Melting Silver Mini Countryman PHEV - soon to be replaced
2015MY Corris Grey SDv6 HSE Dynamic, the best car I have ever owned, totally reliable only a cou0le of rattles in 3 years, now no longer in my care
Also in my garage is a 1996 TDi300 Defender 90 County HT made into a fake CSW

Last edited by Tim in Scotland on Tue Aug 10 2010 8:16pm. Edited 1 time in total

Hi Tim, the advantage is that the tire pressure remains constant all the time compared to air (it doesn´t matter if it is 30C outside or 10C). Also they say that you tires will last longer and that you use less fuel because of that. The other advantage is that if you have a puncture the tire is less likely to blowout 2008 RRS TDV8 HSE, Java black, Alpaca,.....

Thanks Markos, I've googled it and The AA and several other tyre specialists say it's a load of rubbish unless you are inflating F1 tyres or airplane tyres, but of course the company that sells the nitrogen inflation machines say it's the greatest thing since sliced bread and will save you lots of money in worn tyres and excessive use of fuel (what a surprise!)

http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/safet...rogen.html
http://www.uniflate.com/benefits-of-nitrogen-tyre-inflation
http://www.buyrite-tyres.co.uk/tyrecare-source.html
http://www.whatprice.co.uk/car/nitrogen-tyre-inflation.html 2020 Pangea Green 1st Edition D240 New Defender 110 is here and loving it
2018 Melting Silver Mini Countryman PHEV - soon to be replaced
2015MY Corris Grey SDv6 HSE Dynamic, the best car I have ever owned, totally reliable only a cou0le of rattles in 3 years, now no longer in my care
Also in my garage is a 1996 TDi300 Defender 90 County HT made into a fake CSW

Tim

As an ex aircraft tecky i have spent many a happy hour inflating tyres with nitrogen and they use it for a very good reason one of which is safety and no moisture.

Generally speaking though Leeds not too many cars get up to 39000ft and down to -45c outside air temperature. I appreciate the safety value of Nitrogen filled tyres for aircraft. 2020 Pangea Green 1st Edition D240 New Defender 110 is here and loving it
2018 Melting Silver Mini Countryman PHEV - soon to be replaced
2015MY Corris Grey SDv6 HSE Dynamic, the best car I have ever owned, totally reliable only a cou0le of rattles in 3 years, now no longer in my care
Also in my garage is a 1996 TDi300 Defender 90 County HT made into a fake CSW

i thought it was something to do with them not losing pressure as much

going to get mine done, I believe Costco offer a free service to its members

NP you still have to check your tyres even with Nitrogen in them and if you have had nitrogen filling done then you cannot use an airline to add air as you are defeating the reason for putting nitrogen in................... you have to keep returning to a forecourt with a nitrogen line. Adding nitrogen will not slow down any deflation if you get a puncture - it's only the molecules that are larger then air molecules and I doubt anybody on here has such good eyesight they can see molecules! Nitrogen filled tyres will still eventually go flat if you leave them lon enough, but I would like to think that members here are of sufficient education that they check their tyres at least once every couple of weeks to see they are at the right pressure. You will not notice any difference in 2 weeks between leakage from an air filled tyre and a nitrogen tyre unless there is a puncture, and then both would be flat! OK so i's a £1 a tyre, but I think that £1 is better in my pocket than in a tyre dealers pocket................ 2020 Pangea Green 1st Edition D240 New Defender 110 is here and loving it
2018 Melting Silver Mini Countryman PHEV - soon to be replaced
2015MY Corris Grey SDv6 HSE Dynamic, the best car I have ever owned, totally reliable only a cou0le of rattles in 3 years, now no longer in my care
Also in my garage is a 1996 TDi300 Defender 90 County HT made into a fake CSW

I think they say you can use normal air to top up as it will not be 100% nitrogen in the tyre anyway

As when they let all the air out of the tyre the can't suck out all the air, unless they then fill them in a vaccum chamber

I also dont fancy them letting all the air out on my car tyres, and then the rims crush the tyre wall just incase its inflicts damage to them, the only safe way will be jacked up or off car which will take too much time and effort

I personally never check my tyre pressure

I presume they do it on a service?

I personally like to fill my tyres up with a 78% concentration of nitrogen to be on the safe side!

Daz  2017 4.4 Autobiography FFRR - love this car
Gone - VW T5 Transporter
Long gone - 2009 Disco
Long gone but never out of my thoughts - 2008 TDV8 HST

dazsear wrote:

I personally like to fill my tyres up with a 78% concentration of nitrogen to be on the safe side!

Daz

Aircraft tires are designed to withstand extremely heavy loads for short durations. The number of tires required for aircraft increases with the weight of the plane (because the weight of the airplane is distributed better). Aircraft tire tread patterns are designed to facilitate stability in high crosswind conditions, to channel water away to prevent hydroplaning, and for braking effect. Aircraft tires are usually inflated with nitrogen or helium in order to minimize expansion and contraction from extreme changes in ambient temperature and pressure experienced during flight. Dry nitrogen expands at the same rate as other dry atmospheric gases, but common compressed air sources may contain moisture, which increases the expansion rate with temperature. Aircraft tires generally operate at high pressures, up to 200 psi (13.8 bar) for airliners, and even higher for business jets. Tests of airline aircraft tires have shown that they are able to sustain pressures of maximum 800 psi (55.2 bar) before bursting. During the test the tires have to be filled with water, instead of helium or nitrogen which is the common content of aircraft tires, to prevent the test room being blown apart by the energy when the tire bursts.

Aircraft tires also include heat fuses, designed to melt at a certain temperature. Tires often overheat if maximum braking is applied during a rejected takeoff or an emergency landing. The fuses provide a safer failure mode that prevents tire explosions by deflating in a controlled manner, thus minimizing damage to aircraft and objects in the surrounding environment.

The main purpose of requiring that an inert gas, such as nitrogen, be used instead of air, for inflation of tires on certain transport category airplanes is prompted by at least three cases in which the oxygen in air-filled tires combined with volatile gases given off by a severely overheated tire and exploded upon reaching autoignition temperature. The use of an inert gas for tire inflation will eliminate the possibility of a tire explosion.

Here endeth the lesson

I can confirm it is of very limited benefit for standard car applications Tim. I speak in this instance as an aircraft engineer of long, very long, experience.
There are as stated significant benefit in the aviation application. Mainly because of the very high pressures used and the temperature extremes of the tyre. Pressure stability, low moisture content, low oxygen content and a reduction in combustion effect during a blow out. Moisture plus oxygen equals rubber deterioration but it is slow and unlikely to be seen during the normal life of the tyre.
At the end of the day it certainly won’t do any harm other than to your wallet.
Hope this is of interest.
A typical transport aircraft tyre can go from minus 60c duting cruise to around 250c landing and breaking.

leedsunited wrote:

Aircraft tires generally operate at high pressures, up to 200 psi (13.8 bar) for airliners, and even higher for business jets. Tests of airline aircraft tires have shown that they are able to sustain pressures of maximum 800 psi (55.2 bar) before bursting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyzg6y7fqGQ

 '08 RRS TDV8
I converted my diesel RRS to run on an environmentally friendly mixture of caribou fat and baby seals oil