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Category: GM Service Maintenance Tips and Information
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I have been questioned many times about the benefits of Nitrogen (N2) over “regular air” or Oxygen (O2) in tires.
There are many articles regarding the pros and cons of N2 verses O2 in tires. The marketers of Nitrogen have suggested that some of the benefits include the improvement of your vehicles handling, fuel economy, prolonging tire life, and a cooler running tire temperature by providing a more “stable pressure” gas N2 verses O2.
The air we breath is 78% Nitrogen, 21% Oxygen, and 1% is a small mix of other gases.
All gasses have the same molecular value regarding temperature increase/decrease and pressure. What that means is that it doesn't matter what the gas is, they are going to react equally for any given temperature. An example would be if you had your left tires filled with O2 and your right tires filled with N2, the tire pressures side to side would increase at the same rate as the tire warmed up from driving. This is also Avogadro’s Law of physics.
N2 and O2 also have a very similar molecular weight and it won’t make a difference in performance from one to the other.
One of the few advantages that N2 has over O2 is that O2 is a smaller molecule and the permeability rate of O2 through the tires rubber is higher then N2. This is where the marketing starts with the Nitrogen people. In a non-bias “Consumer Report” they measured the pressure losses in a variety of different tires over the course of 1 year. They started at 30psi and averaged the losses between the N2 and O2 filled tires. The O2 filled tires lost 3.5psi/year and the N2 filled tires lost 2.2psi/year. That’s only a 1.3psi lost difference between the two gasses. I would agree that’s good, minimal, but good. One other concern is that it’s impossible to remove 100% of the O2 from a tire when it’s replaced with N2. This will also reduce the difference between the two over the 1-year test period.
On a recent price check to have all your tires filled with N2 I found a low price of $20.00 to a high of $75.00. The cost of a quality Nitrogen machine today is around $10,000 and in the end, the customer ultimately pays for it. Some of the shops also advised me they don’t believe there’s value in it and don’t offer it. I personally don’t believe the cost outweighs the benefit. If you check and adjust your tire pressures every 90 days or when you have your car serviced the benefit is negligible.
The most important question to the customer is if its worth the price to go from losing a difference of 1.3psi per year for whatever it costs to have the gas replaced. If a shop is offering to install Nitrogen for free, take it, if there’s a cost to you, don't, and save your money.
Today Lakewood Chevrolet doesn't offer Nitrogen and I can’t see it changing in the near future. The marketers of Nitrogen have done an amazing job leading us to believe there’s a huge benefit in converting.
