In Europe we use Nitrogen for a few years already. I always use it, winter, summer, all the time. The gas does not extract therefore the tire has the same size and pressure all the time.
It is a little bit more comfortable. I mean you can really tell when using the gas for the first time, before you get use to it.
But mostly it is really good for extreme low and high temperatures.
It is fairly cheaps lilke 2$ for a tire so why not

 

Here's a good review of the benefits of filling up with nitrogen.

Nitro

The bottom line is that your tires will stay inflated at the proper pressure longer as nitrogen is more inert than oxygen - the oxygen molucules tend to wiggle out quicker.

 

This statement was in the linked docment. I'd like to see some documentation of this hypothesis. As a chemical engineer with some experience in flow through porous media, which is all gas migration through tire sidewalls is, I'd want to see some hard data before shelling out any extra $$$. Even if it's free, I'd want to see the data! Otherwise this statement has all the credibility of "30-foot alligators seen in New Orleans."

Somebody should ask Tom and Ray Magliozzi about this!

 

Agree with you, MaxBuck, I ain't buying it. And by the way the equation referenced above (PV=nRT) is called the universal gas law. "Universal" meaning that it applies equally to all gases. All gases expand or contract exactly the same amount for a given change in temperature. There's nothing magical about nitrogen.

 

Agree with you, MaxBuck, I ain't buying it. And by the way the equation referenced above (PV=nRT) is called the universal gas law. "Universal" meaning that it applies equally to all gases. All gases expand or contract exactly the same amount for a given change in temperature. There's nothing magical about nitrogen.
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Hey, I agree that filling up with nitrogen seems like a gimmick. I have not used the pure gas in my tires and I don't plan on it. And as Stream said, it doesn't seem likely that an every-day driver will notice any benefit.

But I find it interesting, from an engineering point-of-view, and it would be cool to get a solid answer about why this theoretically might be beneficial.

(Yes, I have way too much time on my hands as I wait for my !&^#$(&$! car to be delivered).

I just grabbed my daughter's chemistry text book to check on the periodic chart. Nitrogen is lighter than oxygen. Thus, according to Prof. Sutton's Universal Gas Law, it should move around faster. This would lead me to believe that nitrogen might escape the tire chamber even more often than oxygen (as helium - the lightest element of all - does from a balloon).

However, oxygen is a denser, smaller molecule. So, maybe the fatter nitrogen molecule can't fit through pores in the rubber as often as oxygen might.

See, isn't chemistry fun?

Come on, we've got a bonafide chemical engineer on board here - let's figure this out!

 

I've really never heard of anybody 'normal' driver doing it. I would assume if you're normally driving your car, you're probably safer having it spec'd for normal.

 

That is funny, tachyon. However, a certain professor Boyle probably would not appreciate my taking credit for his law.

 

That is funny, tachyon. However, a certain professor Boyle probably would not appreciate my taking credit for his law.
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Right. And I think that guy with the huge number, Avogadro, gets some credit in there somewhere too.

 

Rachel proved it!

http://www.usc.edu/CSSF/Current/Projects/J0529.pdf

 

HAHAHAH were you the dad?