Nitrogen in your tyres?

[vw_nutta]

when I was ringing around, one garage said they offered a service to fill your tyres with nitrogen ( I think that was the gas they said), he said it means your tyres will never lose pressure and this results in better tyre grip.

Is this true? Anyone tried this or heard of it?

The garage is very reputable and not shoddy at all, so I kinda think he must be telling the truth.

[tricky]

Given that the majority of our atmosphere is in fact made up of nitrogen, I'm not entirely sure how removing the remaining elements would prevent pressure loss and improve grip. Unless improved grip was as a consequence of no pressure loss. Get them to give you the low down, I'd love to hear it!

[Morpheous]

Think what they are referring to is nitrogen filled tyres will remain at the same pressure regardless of temperature.
With normal compressed air, as tyres heat up, the pressure inside the tyre increases. This is why you should not set your pressures after blasting down the motorway for hours, cos next morning when cold, the pressure will have reduced. Not that much of a prob unless U got tyre pressure monitoring i.e. RS6 when the warning light comes on saying loss of pressure.
As to NEVER loosing pressure is a bit misleading cos u can still get punctures.

[BRETTCOLLINS]

been running my S4 tyres on nitrogen for six months now, have found that all tyres have stayed at the same pressure (36 psi) seems to work for me.

[Dippy]

Think what they are referring to is nitrogen filled tyres will remain at the same pressure regardless of temperature.
With normal compressed air, as tyres heat up, the pressure inside the tyre increases. This is why you should not set your pressures after blasting down the motorway for hours, cos next morning when cold, the pressure will have reduced. Not that much of a prob unless U got tyre pressure monitoring i.e. RS6 when the warning light comes on saying loss of pressure.
As to NEVER loosing pressure is a bit misleading cos u can still get punctures.

I always check my tyre pressures cold. So how much does a tyre pressure typically rise by when hot? Presumably the idea of setting the cold pressure to a certain value is so that it is 'correct' when hot?

[jonno1]

Filled mine with Helium. Apparently my car is somewhere over the Atlantic at the moment.

[jeffw]

I think you'll find that it actually has to do with the water vapour that is present in normal compressed air. Increases of temperature will change the pressure due to this water vapour. It is common to use inert gases (Helium, Nitrogen etc) for tyres in racing circles to reduce this change in pressure. You'll need to have your tyres purged to get the maximum benefit.

[Nordschleife]

Most race series regulations today exclude the use of anything other than compressed air for the tyres. This is fine as you only need one set of bottles for the jacks, stutter guns and tyre inflation. Extra N bottles would just be another thing to lug around and a pia - but if N is not prohibited in your race series use it, stable pressures are much easier when it comes to extracting the final few .01 sec

[DavidT]

Think what they are referring to is nitrogen filled tyres will remain at the same pressure regardless of temperature.
With normal compressed air, as tyres heat up, the pressure inside the tyre increases. This is why you should not set your pressures after blasting down the motorway for hours, cos next morning when cold, the pressure will have reduced. Not that much of a prob unless U got tyre pressure monitoring i.e. RS6 when the warning light comes on saying loss of pressure.
As to NEVER loosing pressure is a bit misleading cos u can still get punctures.

I always check my tyre pressures cold. So how much does a tyre pressure typically rise by when hot? Presumably the idea of setting the cold pressure to a certain value is so that it is 'correct' when hot?

4-6 PSI, depending on tyre type and 'use' is my experience.

I set mine at 38psi before leaving on the French/rs246 Le-Mans trip with outside temp 12c and checked them there at 1c and they were 36 psi so I blew them up. Next time I checked them at home they were 41psi

[DavidT]

Filled mine with Helium. Apparently my car is somewhere over the Atlantic at the moment.

Yes but can you laugh about it ?

[Nordschleife]

that explains the squeaky exhaust note

[TarmacTerrorist]

Filled mine with Helium. Apparently my car is somewhere over the Atlantic at the moment.

Yes but can you laugh about it ?

made me chuckle!