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dear pacman,
i agree with your observations. Being an Engineer in the business of nitrogen generators, air driers and compressed air i can inform all my friends on the forum that benefit of nitrogen are justified only in case of high speeding formula cars and aircrafts which while landing and running generate tremendous temperature that can cause fire due to presence of oxygen in the air but Nitrogen being an inert gas is safe, since Oxygen of air is able permeate through the rubber in the tyres thats also the cause of slow pressure loss in tyres but not so slow to warrant filling N2 that too impure quality from roadside petrol pumps which do not bother to buy our quality gas drier with generators but simply put up a board claiming they fill Nitrogen and the gullible consumers buy that crap.
mind you, thats a factual truth coming from a pro of this line at least!

Have been using nitrogen in my 165/60 r13 Potenza g3's since the last one month.Guess I am too dumb ,but I somehow didnt find any difference in either the ride or the handling .

So ,for me its not going to make a difference.

Yes, I heard this before. There's actually no point in filling the nitrogen found here. These are basically useless. I did find some difference during the first week, then it's back to the normal condition.

I first filled nitrogen during the alignment of my car. My Swift rides on Yokohama S Drives 205/50/R15. No checkups for 4 months and today got it refilled with Nitrogen. All wheels were running with pressure not less than 28, except for one which was 27. Now after filling up, I can feel the difference.

After filling Nitrogen i feel the road grip has been improved.. I don't know its just a feeling or a reality...

Yes, I realized the same. It does have some advantage, but to a great extent. It will certainly last longer. I just refilled after 4 months and still intact.

One more thing on the nitrogen filling.
I tried to ask the fill-guy about the purity of N2 they fill.
And he says its like 92% or 88% !!:eek:
Well, In that case, he is actually almost filling in Air!!

even if he says, its 99% pure, who's vouch for that?

Ace.

I drove our M800 for quite some distance (~100km) today. We have Bridgestone 145-70R12s filled with Nitrogen. The last time I did the same distance, it was normal air inside. Today I found the road grip has slightly improved. Cornering was better than what it was last time - the tyre noise is also less

AFAIK, atmosphere contains 78% Nitrogen, 21% Oxygen and the rest, other gases (COx, NOx, inert gases, etc). So, 92% pure Nitrogen isn't that bad

Well, I'm very much confused to know about fact that Nitrogen improves handling. Please elaborate. I would do anything to improve the handling of my ride, and spending Rs 50 for the same, its a dream come true. :D.

P.S - I really dont think that a fluid in the tyres with different density will improve the handling of any car.

Nitrogen generators use the pressure swing adsorption process.
Compressed air is passed through a bed of carbon molecular sieves, which are 'sized' to let through nitrogen and trap oxygen. 99% + purity of nitrogen can be obtained.
For critical applications, it is possible to reduce oxygen to 1 ppm level by adding deoxo units.

There is no doubt that oxygen in air attacks rubber. the reactivity of oxygen is dependent on its partial pressure. In a tyre inflated to 30 psi, the reactivity of oxygen is 3 times that of air at atmospheric pressure (normal air). The rubber compounds used in tyre manufacture contain powerful and expensive antioxidants for the same reason, and enough for the expected life of the tyre and more.

The soft rubber used in the tubes is porous and can will lose air. The higher the pressure, more will be the loss. The actual loss will depend on how good the seal is between the tyre and the rim. butyl rubber tubes are less porous than latex ones. afaik, modern tubes are of butyl rubber.

I fill diesel once a week, and along with that air in the tyres. I keep the pressure 2 psi higher than manufacturer's recommendation. When I fill it again, drop in pressure is at the most 2 psi. With 5 Rs tip every time, it comes to Rs 260 a year for maintaining desired pressure in the tyres for one year.

As far as tyre life is concerned, i don't think the oxygen in the air need bother car owners. It could be a factor for high pressure tyres such as truck tyres, where the reactivity of the oxygen is much higher due to the pressure.

I'd say, if you need to maintain the pressure once a week then your tyre isn't a very good tyre or the seal between the rim and the tyre isn't too good (for whatever reason). I only need to top up pressure in my car tyres mebbe once in 1.5 months (approx). I too fill about 3 psi more than recommended as I hate wasting time with such things. The tyres in question are tubeless Yoko A drives on ordinary rims and air. On my bikes, the MRFs (Tuff-up tube in rear) seem to be much better at retaining air. They don't see a top up for over a month. The Dunlops (with dunlop tubes) however need topping up once in 15 days or so (approx).

As Racoon said, I guess you should get your tires checked for some minor leaks. Even a 1 psi leak per week seems to be quite high.

After my practical analysis of nitrogen vs normal air yielded no positive benefits, (read here), I'm back to normal air and in the last 3 months (since mid-May 2010) I see a maximum drop of only 1.21 psi!!! I used to have 1-2 psi leak with normal air in 4-5 weeks earlier but the last tire removal and fitting during tire pressure sensor installation seems to have solved that problem as well.

Same here, but unfortunately I could not feel or prove any benefits of filling Nitrogen even after testing for weeks together.

i do it as a matter of routine, i have seen o psi to 2 psi 'loss.' it is more a matter of how accurately it was filled last time and this time. my point was that even with weekly checkup and Rs 5 tip, the annual cost is just Rs. 260.

Until yesterday I had the same impression as yours. But I DID find "some" improvement. When you have a rack & pinion steering, it's easy to notice the difference, AFAIK.

I beg to differ. A different density will translate to a different magnitude of expansion on heating, a different rate of escape, etc. Here, it's a case of a different gas altogether, so I think it makes a difference

I can assure you that its all "in your head". Nitrogen will NOT improve the grip levels of your car, nor will it reduce tyre noise. Lets apply some common sense here before posting opinions that may mislead other members / guests.

Going to quote an earlier post here:

This thread is seeing a lot of repeat questions, and we're revisiting the same issues over and over again. Please search, whatever had to be discussed has been done so already. Thread closed.

Any myth about Nitrogen in tyre?
As once filled and no need to check for 1-2 month.
Is it true?
Is nitrogen keeping the correct pressure for a longer time?
Is nitrogen colder then normal air even in summer or long highway driving ?