Is Nitrogen a Magic Pill For Saving Fuel and Saving Tires?

A new strategy that is being talked about claims that it will save you gasoline and dollars and more. In essence it is using one kind of gas to save another kind of gas. The gas you will save is the liquid gasoline you fill your car with. The gas you use is nitrogen instead of plain old air.

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?

Nitrogen is supposed to offer some advantages over air. It is claimed to keep your tires at the proper pressure longer than air will. Allegedly nitrogen loss from your tires is at a rate of up to three times slower than air. The thinking here is that if your tires are at the correct pressure for longer then you will save gasoline because under pressurized tires increase friction and decrease gas economy.

The proponents of nitrogen also state that aside from the fuel saving benefits there are other benefits to using nitrogen. Nitrogen supposedly runs cooler than air. Therefore your tires will run cooler and there will be less expansion in the tire. That means that your tires will require less maintenance and may experience longer life.

Less internal corrosion of the rubber and the rim are other benefits that advocates of nitrogen use explain. Because air contains oxygen it naturally begins to oxidize objects it is in contact with. The tire rim will be oxidizing or rusting when it is exposed to the air in the tire. The tire walls itself are also oxidizing and breaking down.

By filling a tire with pure nitrogen the oxygen is eliminated. Without oxygen no oxidation will happen. If your tires are not breaking down from oxygen exposure they should be safer and last longer.

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.