# do you fill you tires with nitrogen?



## cruze-control (Jul 23, 2010)

i keep hearing about people putting nitrogen in their car and how its a million times better than regular air that you get at the gas station. i was wondering is it worth the $20/avg that shops charge to fill up your tires?


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## Tom_Cruze (Jul 23, 2010)

Here's a pretty informative article about the truths and myths about putting nitrogen in your tires. Any questions you have should be answered in the article.

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/the-truth-about-filling-your-tires-with-nitrogen/


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## Inline4_driver (Jul 23, 2010)

Thanks for the article. I was really debating doing this to my car but you just help me save $20. Its not a lot but still thats $20 I can put towards something else. I'd just rather regularly check my tires pressure and refill it for free.


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## naazlee (Aug 12, 2010)

Well i feel, people have different priorities and use of the car. While i do understand that its expensive i think the whole feel is worth the money you spend. Regualar tires give you a basic comfort but we you are looking to trat your self in luxury go for the nitrogen experience.


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## smithz (Aug 12, 2010)

i have been filling my tires about 3 years....i felt the tires more comfort. i paid $10 per tires.


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## adhityaen (Aug 15, 2010)

I have never tried filling with nitrogen gas and as far as I checked with my car engineer friends, I am told it doesn't make any sense as normal air filled in the tyre already contains almost 70 per cent of nitrogen. So I am told its all just marketing gimmick rather than serving any purpose.


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## Machida (Aug 16, 2010)

I prefer filling it with just the regular air that is use by other car owners. I don’t like to spend the extra $20 just to impress someone else.


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## Patman (May 7, 2011)

I live in Cincinnati and the only place I know of to get N2 is at "Tire Discounters" This place is using it as a big sales gimmick. I am reminded of a quote from "Back to the Future" when he is trying to get plutonium to send him back to 1985, "Just can't go down to the corner drugstore to get plutonium in 1955." I can't just go to the local gas station(or my garage) to put nitrogen in my tires in Cincinnati. I'll just use air. LOL


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## Aeroscout977 (Nov 25, 2010)

Unless you're a seriously track your car there is no reason to pay $20 for green valve stem caps. 


Sent from my Autoguide iPhone app


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## TravsCruze (Aug 4, 2011)

nitrogen filled tires have one place.. on the race track. They have zero use on the street. 

Without the moisture in the filling medium the tire retains its filled circumference as it heats up, since pure nitrogen doesn't expand as much as the nitrogen/oxygen/moisture filled stuff we breath and fill street tires with. 

Since they don't expand as much, it allows chassis setups to be fine tuned without having to figure out if it was tire expansion that threw your setup off. Thats not an issue on street tires, a tiny bit of tire expansion isn't going to be even noticeable on the street.. save your money people.

nitrogen filled street tires ---> :1poke:


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## sciphi (Aug 26, 2011)

I fill mine with a 78% nitrogen mixture.


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## sedanman (Dec 10, 2010)

78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 1% other. Free.


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## idrive1 (Oct 14, 2011)

Yes, I do have nitrogen in the tires through the Chev. dealer, but I was told I get free fills when the tires get low, or just fill with air until I get back to the dealership.

I also removed the green valve caps: they clash with my imperial blue metallic color. I will put them back just when I go back to dealer for service.


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## Skilz10179 (Mar 22, 2011)

TravsCruze said:


> nitrogen filled tires have one place.. on the race track. They have zero use on the street.
> 
> Without the moisture in the filling medium the tire retains its filled circumference as it heats up, since pure nitrogen doesn't expand as much as the nitrogen/oxygen/moisture filled stuff we breath and fill street tires with.
> 
> ...


X2

Unless its free, its just not worth it...


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## Mick (Dec 31, 2011)

Free for life (after $150 at signing).

When I bought my car they said I had nitrogen and needed to buy it. I thought, meh, that's cents on a 1600 loan. Figured every dealer would have it. Nope!
Instead of being able to take it to the dealer 1 block away from me, I have to drive 25 minutes away!


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## 70AARCUDA (Nov 14, 2010)

sedanman said:


> 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 1% other. Free.


...exactly! *AIR* = 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 1% other.


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## Mcgin014 (Oct 6, 2011)

I run nitrogen because at the dealer, it comes with free tire rotations and tire repairs, and top offs. And they give a discount on the next set of tires. I figured just in tire rotations I end up getting money back, they charge 20 for a rotation.


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## pbf98 (Nov 7, 2011)

Not to bring back a dinosaur haha..
But I was told that my Chevy Cruze came with Nitrogen in the tired already, and thats why I have green caps instead of black. My friend told me this and he said he learned from working at Walmart, so I was just curious if that is the case


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## obermd (Mar 3, 2012)

Mick said:


> Free for life (after $150 at signing).
> 
> When I bought my car they said I had nitrogen and needed to buy it. I thought, meh, that's cents on a 1600 loan. Figured every dealer would have it. Nope!
> Instead of being able to take it to the dealer 1 block away from me, I have to drive 25 minutes away!


A good portable air pump costs less.


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## obermd (Mar 3, 2012)

I had a coupon for a free nitrogen fill so I tried it. I wasn't impressed. Made them give me back my black valve stems and went back to the 78% nitrogen mixture the car's included air pump provides for free.


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## XtremeRevolution (Jan 19, 2012)

I fill my tires in seconds from my 24 gallon two-stage compressor which holds air at 120psi. I don't buy into the "100% nitrogen" marketing.


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## Bac n Black (Aug 2, 2012)

Yes, but only because the dealer put it in and will fill for free; otherwise I would not.


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## Patman (May 7, 2011)

obermd said:


> I had a coupon for a free nitrogen fill so I tried it. I wasn't impressed. Made them give me back my black valve stems and went back to the 78% nitrogen mixture the car's included air pump provides for free.


Unless you have your own compressor, where can you get air for free. It used to be free now gas stations that have an tire inflators(Speedway never noticed one at BP Shell or Marathon) charge 50cents where I live.


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## obermd (Mar 3, 2012)

Patman said:


> Unless you have your own compressor, where can you get air for free. It used to be free now gas stations that have an tire inflators(Speedway never noticed one at BP Shell or Marathon) charge 50cents where I live.


I have the ECO MT with the air pump. Also, I put an air pump in both my wife's car and my son's LS. You never know when you'll run over something and get a slow leak.


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## Vetterin (Mar 27, 2011)

While I have.....and always will use my garage compressor to fill my tires I have heard that the benefit of pure nitrogen is that is contains NO water (moisture) which could in time (years) lead to corrosion of the TPMS sensors.


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## mcg75 (Mar 5, 2012)

Vetterin said:


> While I have.....and always will use my garage compressor to fill my tires I have heard that the benefit of pure nitrogen is that is contains NO water (moisture) which could in time (years) lead to corrosion of the TPMS sensors.


This answer is the winner. 

Nitro does fluctuate less which is a small bonus but not having moisture to rot tires from the inside out is the main benefit.


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## Aeroscout977 (Nov 25, 2010)

Air Dryers. I rest my case.


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## Cleck (Dec 5, 2011)

It's a waste of money and the techs' time. Don't bother. You're gaining zero to nothing by doing it and I wish people would stop buying it and I wish the salesmen would stop pushing it. I don't get paid extra to drive around the other side of the building to do a nitro top-off. Nobody else does, maybe for the first conversion, but not after. Most guys don't even bother and just drive behind a wall and use shop air (for a top off). You wouldn't know if I put either or in your tires, so why bother.


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## obermd (Mar 3, 2012)

I'm thinking about Nitrogen doing this for the spare tire I'm installing. No water vapor to corrode the wheel.


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## Mick (Dec 31, 2011)

You should have a talk with your sales guys then. Doubt it'll go far though. 
Not really bad for my fill ups, now that I've switched dealers. I don't even get out of my car.


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## ts27330 (Jan 22, 2013)

Normal air that we breathe is 78% nitrogen. Just another snake oil sales scam with huge dealer profits. I saw one dealership tack on $129 extra for nitrogen filled tires. Laughed at salesman and purchased my car elsewhere.


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## spacedout (Dec 7, 2010)

After I bought my cruze my dealer now has the green caps on all the cruze. Did not see any extra cost added to the price though. 

I thought the whole point of the nitrogen was more stable air pressure, more specifically little or no loss when cold. All of the police cars in the county I live all use nitrogen & have seen exactly that, less time maintaining proper inflation with temperature changes. 

I have not ran nitrogen in any of my cars but pomps tire last I checked was $10-20 for nitrogen(all 4 tires) when buying tires.


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## Sunline Fan (Jul 29, 2012)

They can fill them with whichever they want, but I'm not going to pay extra for it and won't go out of my way to keep it in there. I watch my tire pressures and adjust them as needed without having to go somewhere.

We got new tires on my grandma's Grand Marquis a few years ago, at Costco. Won't go back there for tires again. One of the rims corroded around the bead from salt and Costco didn't bother to clean it off, so it always had a slow leak. One time it was down to 10-15#, and they tried to take it back to Costco because they thought it had to be filled with just nitrogen. So, they ended up driving ~30 miles on this low tire (granted, probably no faster than 30-35) to get to Costco. Of course then they say, sure, you can put regular air in there! My local Belle does a great job of cleaning the rim first and all around do a stand up job, and quite frankly I don't know what they put in it. When I got Excursion tires there, I had factory valve caps that I removed and put on afterwards, but the ones they put on were just plain black ones.


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## obermd (Mar 3, 2012)

There are certain situations where Nitrogen makes sense. High performance needs such as police and racing may be one of them. One place that I think definitely makes sense is in your spare tire. Nitrogen is nearly non-reactive so it won't interact with the rubber in the spare tire or the metal in the wheel it's mounted on, making the inside of the tire potentially last longer. It doesn't reduce temperature based changes in pressure.


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## chevycruze2012 (Nov 13, 2012)

Inline4_driver said:


> Thanks for the article. I was really debating doing this to my car but you just help me save $20. Its not a lot but still thats $20 I can put towards something else. I'd just rather regularly check my tires pressure and refill it for free.


Well to help you out on this topic...Nitrogen is a much better choice for tires and mpg. The molecules in nitrogen are larger, which help minimize wheel corrosion to help extend the life of wheels. It also reduces the loss of air which then makes the driver fill up their tire with air if you had regular compressed air. Nitrogen helps increase mpg. It is a healthy source for your tires because Nitrogen's molecules wont heat up and expand like regular dry air will. This is a result in tire failure and accidents. Nitrogen makes the vehicle ride more smoothly and helps the car handle alot better. Granite it will most likely cost you to get them filled with nitrogen but in my opinion, its worth it. I got nitrogen filled tires on my chevy cruze and lets just say in the 9 months ive owned, ive not once had to put nitrogen air back in the tires to get them where i need them like i would with regular air. I took them to my chevy dealer for an oil change not quite 4 months ago and had them bump them up to 38psi since it was right before winter, and ever since then, my tires had stayed within what i had them fill them too. The lowet ive seen them drop was 2 to 3 ibs in the four months i had it topped to 38psi...and it has been bitterly cold here in iowa. Its been like 4 degrees for the high and they still didnt drop believe it or not lol. Im not sure where all of you live that want nitrogen n ur tires or looking to get it, but if you go to ur dealer they will do refills for free. Especially a GM dealer because its standard from factory and even if u dont have nitrogen filled tires, GM recommends it for warranty purposes so its likely it wont cost you anything. Once you get ur nitrogen filled tires, whoever does it will install a Sticker in your front window that looks like this one. The second picture is one i took f my unique valve stem caps =]
View attachment 10910
View attachment 10909


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## obermd (Mar 3, 2012)

chevycruze2012 said:


> Well to help you out on this topic...Nitrogen is a much better choice for tires and mpg. The molecules in nitrogen are larger, which help minimize wheel corrosion to help extend the life of wheels. It also reduces the loss of air which then makes the driver fill up their tire with air if you had regular compressed air. Nitrogen helps increase mpg. It is a healthy source for your tires because Nitrogen's molecules wont heat up and expand like regular dry air will. This is a result in tire failure and accidents. Nitrogen makes the vehicle ride more smoothly and helps the car handle alot better. Granite it will most likely cost you to get them filled with nitrogen but in my opinion, its worth it. I got nitrogen filled tires on my chevy cruze and lets just say in the 9 months ive owned, ive not once had to put nitrogen air back in the tires to get them where i need them like i would with regular air. I took them to my chevy dealer for an oil change not quite 4 months ago and had them bump them up to 38psi since it was right before winter, and ever since then, my tires had stayed within what i had them fill them too. The lowet ive seen them drop was 2 to 3 ibs in the four months i had it topped to 38psi...and it has been bitterly cold here in iowa. Its been like 4 degrees for the high and they still didnt drop believe it or not lol. Im not sure where all of you live that want nitrogen n ur tires or looking to get it, but if you go to ur dealer they will do refills for free. Especially a GM dealer because its standard from factory and even if u dont have nitrogen filled tires, GM recommends it for warranty purposes so its likely it wont cost you anything. Once you get ur nitrogen filled tires, whoever does it will install a Sticker in your front window that looks like this one. The second picture is one i took f my unique valve stem caps =]
> View attachment 10910
> View attachment 10909


Sources please. There are no references to Nitrogen in my owner's manual.

In addition, the real reason Nitrogen doesn't chemically interact much is because the outer quantum electron shell is full. Oxygen, which is very reactive is two electrons short in the outer shell. Chemical reactions are the result of different atoms sharing electrons to fill their outer shells. As for temperature related pressure changes, nitrogen must also follow gas/pressure/temperature laws (Gas Laws). Therefore, nitrogen filled tires will also change pressure as the temperature changes. The seepage of air out of tires is mainly through the valve stem. The special stem caps you have are probably more responsible for the slower seepage than anything else.


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## 70AARCUDA (Nov 14, 2010)

obermd said:


> ...the real reason Nitrogen doesn't chemically interact much is because the outer quantum electron *shell is full*. Oxygen, which is very reactive is *two electrons short *in the outer shell. Chemical reactions are the result of different atoms sharing electrons to fill their outer shells.


...somebody obviously wasn't sleeping through their Chemistry classes in school!


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## chevycruze2012 (Nov 13, 2012)

Nitrogen does drop its pressure...but not nearly as fast and as much as regular air does. Alot of people get this information backwards. Mine have never dropped below the pressure recommended on the sticker which is 35 psi. As of now, my tires are at 38psi. So overall, nitrogen is the best option.


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## FromTheCrypt (Mar 13, 2013)

MY Dealer Castle Cheverolet offers Nitrogen in the tires from purchase, they will fill them for free for the life of the car. Since it is costing me $0 I will keep the nitrogen in the tires even if it is the most minimal of gains from it. I do hate the green valve caps though but it is the only way you know to fill nitrogen in them I guess..


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## obermd (Mar 3, 2012)

FromTheCrypt said:


> MY Dealer Castle Cheverolet offers Nitrogen in the tires from purchase, they will fill them for free for the life of the car. Since it is costing me $0 I will keep the nitrogen in the tires even if it is the most minimal of gains from it. I do hate the green valve caps though but it is the only way you know to fill nitrogen in them I guess..


This is the only way I would continue using Nitrogen in my tires.


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## Aeroscout977 (Nov 25, 2010)

I use tires made of unobtanium and pull a perfect vacuum in them. Now I can't keep atmospheric pressure out.


/tongueincheek


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## CruzeTech (Mar 23, 2012)

When I worked on F-16s we filled the tires with nitrogen. Airing a magnesium wheel/ tire combination to 300psi, is dangerous at all times. When the tires blow (and they do from time to time) imagine the explosion with 600 combined psi in 2 main tires exploding? Nitrogen not only allows you to fill the tires less often, they are less volatile in a blow out without the oxygen present. 

Soapbox: off 


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## Aeroscout977 (Nov 25, 2010)

Yeah we did the same thing in army aviation on our helicopters. Except my personal bird ran skid gear.


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## obermd (Mar 3, 2012)

CruzeTech said:


> When I worked on F-16s we filled the tires with nitrogen. Airing a magnesium wheel/ tire combination to 300psi, is dangerous at all times. When the tires blow (and they do from time to time) imagine the explosion with 600 combined psi in 2 main tires exploding? Nitrogen not only allows you to fill the tires less often, they are less volatile in a blow out without the oxygen present.
> 
> Soapbox: off
> 
> ...


This is a perfect place for nitrogen. Reduces the chance of a fire as a result of any sparks generated when a tire bursts.


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## Aeroscout977 (Nov 25, 2010)

That and the tire collapsing in flight and/or being under pressurized at landing would be bad news bears.


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## 20131pz69 (Oct 22, 2012)

as has been said- waste of $ on the street. Well, unless you live some place that can go from -30 to +110 F within a day ...


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