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Originally posted by fpczyz

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However, some retailers make promises such as, "You could save up to $150 a year on gas" by filling your tires with nitrogen. Another ad claims that with nitrogen, tires "will last longer, and you’ll get better gas mileage."

HOW? whats nitrigen do that air cant?

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According to Hendricks, nitrogen makes a difference for highly stressed racing tires, but it’s not likely to make a difference on even high-performance street cars.

HOW does it make a diferance?

It doesn’t! Even in racing, you’ll find some cars use nitrogen, some don’t, results are of no consequence. Some of the teams say it helps keep tire temps. lower, but even that hasn’t been quantified. And they change tires avery pit stop or so. For a passenger car it would be far, far less noticeable. As Paul said, sounds like snake oil

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However, some retailers make promises such as, "You could save up to $150 a year on gas" by filling your tires with nitrogen. Another ad claims that with nitrogen, tires "will last longer, and you’ll get better gas mileage."

HOW? whats nitrigen do that air cant?

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According to Hendricks, nitrogen makes a difference for highly stressed racing tires, but it’s not likely to make a difference on even high-performance street cars.

HOW does it make a diferance?

Now, nitrogen in your potato chip bag instead of air is another matter.

How about if we all fill the tires with Helium? The car would float over potholes, saving wear and tear, and be a lot lighter, which would have to save gas.

Brake performance may be an issue.

Well, maybe helium isn’t such a good idea. [;)]

Air is already nearly 80% nitrogen, btw. I find it exceedingly difficult to believe anyone would be able to obtain measurable differences in mileage, performance, or ride comfort by using a 100% nitrogen mixture to fill their tires.

I took my Cadillac iinto the dealer the other day and had the tires rotated and balanced. They called me and wanted something like $90.00 to refill with nitrogen. They made some claims similar to what was mentioned above. I rejected the offer. Sounded a little like snake oil to me.

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

From dealersedge.com:

Filling tires with nitrogen won’t improve street cars’ performance

Despite the claims of some retailers and speculations that filling tires with nitrogen rather than ordinary air will prolong tire life and even help save you money on gas, Detroit Free Press reports that it’s all hype and nitrogen is not likely to do much good.

According to Richard Gratz, General Motors’ engineering group manager for tire and wheel systems, a street car’s "tire doesn’t care if it’s filled with air or nitrogen."

However, some retailers make promises such as, "You could save up to $150 a year on gas" by filling your tires with nitrogen. Another ad claims that with nitrogen, tires "will last longer, and you’ll get better gas mileage."

In fact, retailers across the U.S. are offering nitrogen fill-ups to improve gas mileage and prolong tire life.

Gratz says however that although "it won’t hurt& the claims are greatly exaggerated."

But if nitrogen is good enough for the tires used on 200-m.p.h. race cars, it will be even better for ordinary vehicles, right?

Not necessarily, says Terry Hendricks, a chassis engineer for Roush Performance Products, the Livonia-based engineering house that helped develop the 500-horsepower Ford Shelby GT 500. According to Hendricks, nitrogen makes a difference for highly stressed racing tires, but it’s not likely to make a difference on even high-performance street cars.

Matt Mio, associate professor of chemistry at the University of Detroit Mercy, said nitrogen’s chemical behavior doesn’t support those claims.

The retailers’ claims "are more marketing than real effect," Mio said.

Rather than being concerned about whether you have air or nitrogen in your tire, it is more important for drivers to monitor their tire pressure.

GM’s Gratz said that with the nitrogen-filled tires, there has been "no data that there’s any difference in fuel economy. Correct tire pressure is the key. Drivers should check it every month."