Is Nitrogen The Key To Better Fuel Economy? By Scott Siegel There is a relatively new strategy that you might consider that supposedly will save you fuel and money. It actually is utilizing one gas to save another gas. The gas you save is the liquid gas you fill your car with. The gas that saves this liquid gas is nitrogen.
Airlines have used this strategy on their jets and planes. Race cars have used nitrogen for a long time. Even big mass merchandiser retail outlets are starting to make it available to their customers.
So what exactly is this strategy? It seems to be the new rage in tires. It involves using nitrogen to inflate your tires instead of air.
Filling tires with nitrogen instead of air is becoming so popular that even Costco now offers it to its customers when they buy new tires. Why do people want to fill their tires with nitrogen? What do they know that we don't? Why do race cars and jets use nitrogen?
The claim is nitrogen offers a number of advantages over air. The first claim, nitrogen can keep your tires at the correct pressure longer than air can. The claim suggests that nitrogen loss from your tires is up to three times slower than air. (All tires loose pressure through air loss through the semi permeable surface of the tire). It is assumed that if your tires are at the correct inflation for longer periods, you will save fuel because under inflated tires produce increased road friction and this in turn decreases fuel economy.
Nitrogen advocates state that in addition to fuel saving benefits there are other advantages. Nitrogen is thought to run at cooler temperatures than air. If this is the case your tires will run at a cooler temperature creating less expansion
in the tire. With less expansion your tires should require less maintenance and last longer.
The benefits of nitrogen are further enhanced by claims that there will be less internal corrosion of the rubber and the rim. Since air contains oxygen it starts to oxidize everything it comes in contact with. That means the tire rim will be oxidizing or rusting as soon as it is exposed to the air filling the tire. The tire itself also is oxidizing and eventually will break down.
Filling a tire with pure nitrogen means there is no oxygen in the tire. Therefore there is no oxidation occurring. The claimed result? Your tires will last longer and be safer.
Are these claims true? Is nitrogen a wonder drug for your tires? It is certainly worth a thorough investigation. The Jury is still out on this.
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