I've been hearing about some people that have started using nitrogen in their tires instead of air. Apparently it is more stable and provides a better ride. Anyone doing this or heard of this? I guess people keep refills in their car incase they need to add a bit.
Sounds interesting, just wondering about it's pros/cons.

 

Had it in my street tires could not tell any difference, pain in the *** if you need to add "air", but you get cool green valve stem caps.

 

First off, nitrogen is expensive. It will, like air, leak out of the tires eventually.

Being ex-USAF, I can tell you the only time you might want to use nitrogen in a tire, is if you regularly subject your tires to extremely high temps. The SR71 used nitrogen inflated tires. We used plain air in everything else.

I can't see any Mini needing nitrogen filled tires. Not even a Fireballed version.

 

I always run a 78% mix of nitrogen in my tires.

 

lol

That 78% Nitrogen, 21% Oxygen, and 1% 'other' mix for air in the tires works great, doesn't it?

 

When were you in? All the aircraft use nitrogen in the tires nowadays. We have self generating Nit carts. A lot of various racing genres use nitrogen in the tires, but those tires usually get pretty hot.

 

^ Yea like you know what you are talking about. HA!!!

-Cody

 

It makes them talk funny.

 

^ only if you fill them with helium

Love it!! Is this sold in cans with PU stickers at $100/can?

 

If you can keep the water vapor out of the 1% 'other', it'll work virtually
the same as a nitrogen fill.

Maybe one should pick a cold, low humidity day to fill tires.

 

Pro: You don't need to fill up your tires each month, the nitrogen really does last a lot longer.

Con: Although becoming more common, it was a hassle to find a shop to do this. Costco will inflate, and give free fillups if you buy tires there, I found one that gave me free nitrogen without any payments.

My feelings, if you get or have your own air compressor, do it yourself, and skip the exotic nature of being on the "bleeding" edge (pun intended).

 

This reminds me of a funny.

There was this idiot that lived across the street and down one house when I was a kid. In high school one day as we were riding home on the bus I asked him if he'd replaced his tires 'winter air' with 'summer air' yet. He called 'bs' and laughed. I then made up a story about how since he had 'winter air' in his tires and it was now summer, that he'd never get a accurate pressure reading since 'cold air was more dense than hot air'. It took a few minutes of creative talking but I convinced him he needed to totally deflate and reinflate all four tires. He spent about two hours at it with one of those little cig lighter run pumps.

Not picking on nitrogen, but it just reminded me of my creative abuse that day...

 

Oooooohhhh! You're gonna burn for that!

 

I saw a segement on this topic on Motorweek- Goss's Garage. It seems that the water vabor in common air compressors can damage the tire pressure sensors in our wheels over time. It seems the moisture condenses and can rust the sensor inside the wheel. Nitro is contained and has no moisture (if done correctly) but it is pricy.

 

Gentlemen,Gentlemen lets calm down a minute as a mechanic at a major
airline i can tell you now that nitrogen is used in all aviation tires in the US
for the reason of tire growth at landing.to go from being at altitude where
the temp is cold to landing where a tire gets hot real fast plus the heat
given off by the brakes with just air in the tire it would EXPLODE,from the
rapid pressure jump in air heating up.Nitrogen on the other hand dos'nt
have that problem when it heats up you don't get a big pressure jump.
Racers use nitrogen for the same reason they dont want their tires growing
from the heat messing with their set-ups if you think about it a tire not only
moves your car but in essences is a nother spring that must be tuned for any particular track it all part of the package.to put nitrogen in your car
tire save your money also you would have to have two valve stems
on your rim to pressurize your tire and push out the normal air
just a thought from a old airline mechanic

 

We in Nascar racing use nothing but nitrogen in our tires,mainly to control as much as possible the the build up of pressure due to heat to help chassis tuning.You are correct that on the street,nitrogen is a waste of time and expense, i've tried it in my Mini on the street and at VIR (track day) because here, i have access to it ,we trade out approx 45 tanks (the large ones about 5' tall) weekly,and found no advantage in back to back test.If you are full on racing,thats another story, of course thats with racing rubber.
Bill

 

It is a good thing the MINI has no sensor in the wheel then. There are cars that have them, but many, like the MINI just use the ABS wheel sensors (which a re up in the hub somewhere I guess) to determine when a wheel starts spinning slightly more per mile than the other wheels, meaning it has a smaller diameter and is likely going flat. That is why you have the reset button so that the baseline revs/mile can be reset when you air up.

 

Yeah, I was wondering about that. How would you get the air out to get the nitrogen in? Even with a new tire, there will be air in the tire at the time it seats in the rim. Besides, as has been pointed out, it's all a waste of time/money if you are doing it for performance.

 

What you need to use is hydrogen or helium to reduce the unsprung weight. :-P Seriously though, any compressed gas should work just fine although the less moisture it contains the better. See http://www.powertank.com/truth.or.hype/ for more information.

 

Anyone who has an air compressor, should also have a water trap attached. I have one attached to my small compressor I use for airbrushing. Believe me, that's a far more serious need for dry air than tires.

What sensor in the wheel are you talking abot on a Mini? If you mean the flat sensor. It's not in the wheel. It's a wheel speed differential sensor on the axle.

 

Thats good advice for a large home compressor. Not sure if its needed for a small 1 or 2 gallon compressor. For example, mine clearly says to make sure the inside is dry between times of pumping it up but its tiny.

This Nitrogen thing may have applications in racing but I like to use Neon. That way my tires glow in the dark and I dont need that silly looking after market glow sticks under the car, the tires just glow as they turn.

 

Without a water trap, even my little airbrush compressor will spit water through my airbrush.

Chows, glowing is easy. Most of the cars around Chernobyl do it all the time!

 

I wonder how much helium gas costs? Then the car would be lighter (and yeah, I know it would leak more but hey ... an easy way to have a lighter car). The lighter the car, the faster you go.

Or better yet, fill them with hydrogen. Then somebody could light a cigarette near the valve and

 

Hah! That's awesome. Quite the intuitive nature.

 

The MINDINBERG!