I've just been to Kwikfit to replace the tyres on my car. I was surprised to be given the option of nitrogen instead of air to fill them for £1 per tyre.
They claim benefits of:
up to 25% longer tyre life;
better road holding and handling;
up to 5% better fuel economy.
Given that air is 78% nitrogen anyway swapping the 20% oxygen and 2% other stuff for more nitrogen seems extremely unlikely to give any of these benefits (at least in a measurable way).
Is this just a scam?

It has absolutely minute advantages. Hence the claims of "up to". Don't bother unless you rarely use your car and when you do you drive it like a nutter.

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/the-truth-about-filling-your-tires-with-nitrogen/

I think its bull

xenon filled tyres improve handling and radio reception and make womens pants fall down ?

If they put the nitrogen in facing the wrong way its can slow you down and make you turn left when you want to turn right.

I know that some race cars use nitrogen in there tyres as normal air if not put through an air drier produces moisture at high temperature, thus giving unstable pressures, so for an average road car it will probably be just as much use as rear spoilers etc…

as much use as rear spoilers etc…

Many rear spoilers are actually useful at motorway speeds. The same is not true of nitrogen filled tyres, or ironing board spoilers.

so for an average road car it will probably be just as much use as rear spoilers etc…

No its not as useful as a spoiler as you can't see that you've paid extra for the nitrogen.

Some of the motorbikes I used to import secondhand from Japan used to come with pimpy blue anodised N2 valve caps.

Nitrogen valve caps! Amazing! No idea how they tap a thread into those gaseous blocks! 😀

Then I stand corrected! And blue, who can argue with blue anodising, second only to the blue L.E.D as proof that we are right here in the moment.

I'm waiting for the hydrogen option.

Then I look forward to cars vanishing with a large squeaky pop.

😀

a large squeaky pop.

Now thats what really makes the ladies pants fall down

helium is the future. I want to be able to sit at the top of mountains speaking with a comedic squeaky voice

the only difference it will make is that they lose pressure slower….
If you ensure your tyre pressures stay at or around the recommended level with regular compressed air it will have the same effect.

I'm pretty sure Rolls Royce used to put argon in their tyres for more or less the same sort of bullshite claims…

We use nitrogen in our race tyres when we did FIA and Brirish GT's. Normal air from a compressor has to high a water content and on a rear Porsche tyre we would see a 20psi increase with temperaratute which when you try and maintain an accuraccy of 0.5psi is a hell of a lot and can destroy the handling of a car. If nitrogen was not available we would use a diving compressor with a drier unit to get the air as dry as possible.

The other area we used nitrogen was in the dampers. With the high increase in temperature of a damper nitrogen would at least give us a smaller increase in pressure change.

As for road car tyres, not for me….

Has anybody ever checked if their tyres have actually been filled with only Nitrogen?

Does the content of your tyres support combustion?

Considering that a lot (I suspect the majority) of people have under-inflated tyres and don't notice, it will make f-all difference to most people.

The performance at somewhere like LeMans may be improved, but for Joe Average who bashes up kerbs and drives fast over speed humps, I suspect not.

What about using Nitrogen in your forks instead of standard Air?

Some car's have started coming with nitrogen filled tyres the Nissan GT-R for instance and the appointed dealers have had to install nitrogen systems to inflate the tyres.
As said the benefits are low a possibale increase in the life of the tyre etc etc.
But unless the tyres are getting hot on a reagular basis i.e a track car than the benefits are minimal, the profits on the other hand are better than using standard air.
It'll only be a matter of time until the price of nitrogen will be incorporated in to the price of the tyre at kwik fit as there plugging it like mad, ats and national tyres don't seem to be getting in on the act at the moment, which to me says it's not really worth it.

What about using Nitrogen in your forks instead of standard Air?

Actually makes sense, as they're more likely to see large variations in temp. But that's why many car shocks are nitrogen charged.

i was under the impression planes used it as it reduced the moisture etc in the tyres blah blah, the wife had our new run flats filled with it because she thought why not, i thought mug!!!!!!!!! but its her money

Putting nitrogen in your tyres will automatically means your manhood will grow by up to 2"

automatically means your manhood will grow by up to 2"

That'll be interesting for Mrs Swampi (and perhaps an eye opener for Mr Swampi)

As said above, it's about the moisture content of "air" and the pressure variation with temperature change associated with that. Nitrogen is "dry", and is the cheapest way to fill the tyre "dry". It has nothing to do with nitrogen per se.
If you don't see large variation in tyre temp, and consequent change in pressure, it will be of no benefit what so ever.

PS: Unless the tyre fitters fill and purge the fitted tyre at least twice it's a waste of time as the tyre is full of "air" before you fill with nitrogen.