Not all car tires have regular air in them, because some are filled with nitrogen! If you ever walk by a car and notice that the valve stems have green caps, you’ve probably seen a car with nitrogen in the tires. Nitrogen is often either used with cars that take frequent trips around racetracks, or vehicles that aren’t driven much. However, if you are like us, you’re probably wondering why this is even beneficial for tires. Well, the folks at Fiatusaoflanghorne.com have done some research and here’s the story:
Nitrogen is referred to as an “inert gas” by scientists because it doesn’t react much with other substances. That’s the “inert” part. Contrast this with oxygen, a highly-reactive gas that tends to react with almost every substance out there. Best example: oxygen turns steel and iron into rust -a detrimental chemical reaction involving passenger vehicles if there ever was one.
Well, somebody some time ago reasoned that by filling tires with a chemically-inert gas, such as nitrogen, you would have a sealed environment where no “aging” happens. The inside of a tire would be permanently “new”. A very neat idea, and it has other advantages too, especially when the nitrogen you are using for your tires is at least 93% pure. Keep reading for more information!
Better fuel economy
The theory is that since nitrogen loses pressure slower than air does, you’re more likely to be at the correct psi and therefore get enhanced fuel economy. The EPA has indicated that under-inflated tires may worsen gas mileage by 0.3 percent for each 1 psi drop in pressure of all the vehicle’s tires!
Better Tire-Pressure Retention
Over time, tires filled with air gradually lose pressure. Nitrogen-filled tires, on the other hand, maintain pressure for longer. This is because nitrogen’s molecules are larger than oxygens.
Moisture Doesn’t Exist
Air has moisture, a type of humidity, in it. If you add compressed air to your tire, the water comes along for the ride. Your tires contain moisture inside and this might accelerate corrosion and rusting to age and rot your wheels. Because pure nitrogen makes it difficult for moisture to run through it, the internal environment inside a nitrogen-filled tire is quite dry. Due to the moisture issue with air-inflated tires, nitrogen-filled tires may be to your advantage if you often drive in different extreme temperatures. Linking to the above-mentioned tire pressure issue, temperatures greatly affect the level of pressure in tires. As nitrogen’s molecules are larger than air’s, nitrogen-filled tires don’t make much room for moisture to build up because moisture’s growth is more predictable with nitrogen.
Where can you get it?
Many vehicle dealers offer nitrogen as an “upgrade” on tire service. Prices for this will vary, of course, but recently we’ve seen the cost being around $8-10 per tire and around $80-90 each year per tire. When this article was being written, Costco was offering nitrogen fills as a complementary feature with tire service. For more information, give your local car dealer a call.
Article Courtesy of: Reedman Toll Fiat
