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Yup, water vapor. But the effect is minor Posted by Ari [Email] ![]() ![]() In Reply to: What's up with the Nitrogen filled tires?, JJ, Thu, 19 May 2005 13:15:58 Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup |
Nitrogen has two 'advantages'-
It usually comes from a bottle and is water vapor free. Compressed air tends to have water vapor in it. Moisture inside the tire expands and contracts more with temperature differences, so the tire pressure will vary more as the tire heats up with (moisture laden) air.
OK, so how much difference? Not enough to matter. If you're a race car driver with very high tire temps, and where you're tuning your car for every little bit, it provides repeatability. For normal, and even abnormal, street driving, it has no effect.
Oxygen is reactive, so filling your tires with oxygen free gas will slow down degradation of the inside of the tire. This is good. However, last time I checked, the outside of your tire is still exposed to air. And sunlight, and UV breaks down tires faster than oxygen. Having the tire carcass last longer may be good for the trucking industry, where they re-tread the carcasses. But for normal folks who don't re-tread, the outside of the tire wears out/degrades faster than the inside. So again, N2 gives no advantage.
Many folks claim N2 in your tires gives better gas mileage, longer tire life, better performance, and more and prettier girls (or guys). But that's all anecdotal.
So like many car 'improvements', there is just enough of a grain of truth and scientific plausibility to not make it an outright lie. But the improvement, if there is one, is usually so negligible as to be worthless. Especially if you have to pay anything for it.
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