Anyone use Nitrogen in their Tires?

[Rvinyl.com]

Hey everyone,

There's a thread on Gearhead Central about using N2 in your tires. Supposedly there is evidence that it reduces deflation from seepage and can give you a 1% gain on MPG overall. The claim is that the N2 is larger than O2 but just looking at the Period Table you see that N has a weight of 7 and O has a weight of 8. These gases are diatomic so that means N2 weighs in at 14 and molecular oxygen at 16.From the weights at leat it seems that oxygen might be the bigger molecule so it should seep less. Then again it's been awhile so there may be more to this than meets the eye (think VSEPR theory). Thoughts anyone?

[Drew Dowdell]

It's not just the weight, it is the "closeness" of the atoms in the molecule. So while the N2 molecules might weigh less, they are physically larger.

I use N2 in my tires, but only incidentally. I don't seek out N2, but since I have my tires installed and maintained by Costco, I end up with N2 in all of my tires anyway. I do notice I can go longer between re-inflations, typically all the way to my 5k tire rotations during which Costco checks the pressure and re-inflates as needed anyway.

[Rvinyl.com]

Drew,

That's what I figured but I wanted to get confirmation from someone. Sort of like how water is actually larger in its solid form due to the repulsion between the H and O atoms. I didn't know Costco offered that service.

[Drew Dowdell]

From what I understand, Costco only uses nitrogen to inflate tires there.

I am a big advocate of Costco for tire service. Unless you need some sort of specialty racing tire, they'll probably have a good tire for you. In addition to the standard mount/balance, they include road hazard warranty, nitrogen inflation, and free rotation/re-balance for every tire they sell.

They are also really good about the tread life warranty. I just had tires put on my CR-V on Saturday. I only got 33,000 miles out of an 80,000 mile tread life warranty and because I had proof with Costco that they had been maintained/balanced/rotated properly, They gave me $56 back per tire towards the purchase of a new set. My new tires have a 90,000 mile tread life warranty, but the car will be sold well before I cover even 1/4 of that distance.

[ZL-1]

My dealer (I swap tires there because non-OEM changes have a tendency to screw up the tire pressure sensors) uses air, therefore I use air. Though N2 does reduce deflation, none (or virtually none) of the roadeside fuel stations here have it, so it doesn't make much sense to use it...

[Rvinyl.com]

Yep, I suppose that's the crux of it.

[G. David Felt]

I have to say that I have found N2 to in extreme cold go lower requiring more N2 to be added to the tire. I know that Costco uses it but the expense of buying N2 and that not everyone uses it in addition to my own air pump at home. I just mix it.