Fill tyres with nitrogen and gain 5% MPG ?

decsdad

According to kwik-fit website.
I was just pricing an impending tyre replacement, and it asked if I wanted nitrogen in the tyres £1 extra, each.
25% longer tyre life, 5% better fuel economy, better road holding and handling.

Anybody heard of this, done it etc ?

Thanks

geordie458

Are you going to top your tyres up with nitrogen weekly? I think Kwikfit are trying to make a few bob here. If you ONLY used nitrogen in your tyres from now on, there may be a case for arguing that better tyre life/increased mpg may be possible, but most people dont have access to a readily available supply of nitrogen so I would guess the advantages of inflating tyres just the one time with nitrogen would be fairly minimal.

vikingaero

Loads of tyre places advocating this. The reasoning is that each Nitrogen molecule is larger than oxygen molecules and less likely to be able to escape. But someone forgot to tell them that air is 78% Nitrogen.

sunshinetours

Our local tyre garage I use guarantees no loss of inflation for 6 months I think and you can pop back and get them topped up during that time for free

I understand the principle just not sure whether it works or not

daveyjp

Airliners use nitrogen filled tyres as pressure is maintained better which is important if your tyres are going from standstill to 150knots in a split second.

It's not as important in a car, but you shouldn't have to top up tyres as often.

Robert2009

I use a mixture of 78% nitrogen and other gases to fill my tyres and it does not cost me anything

Rob

sunshinetours

Robert2009 wrote: »

I use a mixture of 78% nitrogen and other gases to fill my tyres and it does not cost me anything

Rob

Very good

I think the OP is referring to 100% nitrogen but i thinkyou probably knew that!

gaz_jones

Robert2009 wrote: »

I use a mixture of 78% nitrogen and other gases to fill my tyres and it does not cost me anything

Rob

:T:T Very clever post

Pincher

Well, if you are paying for bottled water when the damned thing falls out of the sky all the time, you can certainly justify £1 for nitrogen, just make sure it's Evian, and not Perrier: the Perrier nitrogen has more oxygen bubbles. :rotfl:

If the molecule size argument applies, then I am already running on mostly nitrogen. Assuming oxygen escapes, and nitrogen stays, then every time I fill up, more air is introduced, but the oxygen part slowly escapes, so the nitrogen percentage goes up.

davetrousers

What's the Science/Sales blurb behind this 100% Notrogen rather than the standard 78%?

Alfrescodave

At the risk of extending this post longer than is sensible - how is the air removed from the tyre before it is filled with nitrogen ? Surely they don't suck it out with a vacuum pump.

Nitrogen molecules larger than oxygen, less likely to escape !!! I'm still to be convinced that this isn't a joke