Nitrogen Vs. Air

Tags: marty

Q--The dealer told my brother that his tire had a slow leak and the best way to fix it was to put nitrogen in all the tires for $20. My brother got a flyer with all the benefits of nitrogen in tires: Better ride, better gas mileage, etc. Isn't this a scam? Or can you please explain how nitrogen helps to a retired engineer. Would you later top it off with air? Or try to find nitrogen someplace?

A--I keep getting questions like this and feel compelled to keep answering until the word gets to everyone. Yes, there are some benefits to nitrogen, but I think that they are minimal compared to the price. Yes, rubber is less permeable to nitrogen molecules than to oxygen molecules, but you must remember that air is roughly 80 percent nitrogen and less than 20 percent oxygen to begin with.

GM Technical Service Bulletin 05-03-10-020 reads, in part, “General Motors does not oppose the use of purified nitrogen [but] the theoretical benefits to be reduced in practical use due to the lack of an existing infrastructure to continuously facilitate inflating tires…. Given those theoretical benefits…the realized benefits to our customer of inflating their tires with purified nitrogen are expected to be minimal.”

It is your call, but if it was my brother, I would suggest checking and adjusting the pressure as necessary and getting the tire repaired.

Tags: marty

Comments (1 total)

  1. By Lucky Loozer #1, Posted: 4/20/2009

    Another myth to make the fatcats fatter.

    Nitrogen vs. Air! A rather poor attempt at re-creating the ingenious yet scandalous process by which Dupont convinced America first, then most of the rest of the world, by claiming that the use of R-12 Freon is the primary cause for the depletion of the "ever so fragile" ozone layer that protects our eco-system. R-12 Freon until a few years ago was used the world over to make the a/c units we depend on in our vehicles as well as at home and the workplace to keep us cool. Suddenly, someone came to the conclusion that the whole world needed to be made aware of these new and undeniable findings or we're all gonna burn up before our kids reach adulthood. Of course, most were unaware who was behind the scenes of this brilliant yet deceitful brainstorm until Dupont came to the rescue with a solution that benefits all concerned, especially the Dupont shareholders. As congressmen and environmentalists bent over, sold out, and joined one of the greatest financially motivated hoaxs of all time by frantically insisting that an alternative approach must be conceived and an all inclusive immediate retrofit program be put in place as the only way to prevent further damage that will surely kill us all, the Dupont family was deciding which color Rolls Royce would look better against their paistie skin. Isn't it ironic, because it surely isn't by coincidence or mistake, that Dupont holds the patent for the only alternative anyone would consider a vialble product. Since Dupont became the only ones to come out ahead on this whole deal, it is painfully obvious we have been duped by one the oldest and influential names in the history of modern conmen. At the risk of facing liable charges I write these words in an effort to bring this travesty to the attention of those who do not know to what depths these money hungry greed mongers will stoop to for the almighty dollar that you have and they don't. I say fuck Dupont and all the Nitrogen pushers out there trying to pull a fast one on the unsuspecting and naive general public of this world. Knowledge is power, get a clue, get educated.

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