How Nitrogen can extend the life of your tires

Why Use Nitrogen?

Do you ever find yourself having to fill up your tires with air every once and a while? You think you may have a leak, so you take it somewhere to have it checked out and what do you know, you are told that your tire is fine. But how could that be? It was obviously low and losing pressure somewhere. 

Most people are unaware that tires are almost constantly losing pressure. The compound and structure that make up a tire is actually filled with tons of microscopic pores, similar to your skin. This causes the air to leak out of the tire at an extremely slow rate, even if you don’t have any puncture in the rubber. One way to battle this slow leak is with Nitrogen. Nitrogen molecules are bigger than Oxygen molecules, so they have more trouble leaking through the tiny pores. 

Another benefit of using Nitrogen is that temperature does not affect it like it affects regular air.. If you live in an area where there are drastic temperature changes, you may notice that your tires become a little bit softer when it gets cold. That is because temperature also affects the pressure in your tires. As with most things, air contracts when it gets cooler. When it gets hot, it expands. So when the temperature drops, the air in your tire contracts, causing the pressure to drop. When it gets hot out, the air in your tire expands and results in an increase in pressure. However, this does not happen as drastically to Nitrogen. The effect temperature has on Nitrogen is so minimal that it doesn’t really make an impact on your tire pressure. 

One of the disadvantages of Oxygen is that it tends to hold a lot of moisture. The moisture that Oxygen holds leaves a larger chance for corrosion to occur on the inside of the wheel. Often when mounting tires we see build-up of corrosion around the bead where the tire sits on the wheel, which we take the extra step to clean off before we remount the tire. The corrosion can prevent the bead from sealing properly and cause a leak. Nitrogen holds significantly less water vapor than oxygen does, so when it sits inside the tire for long periods of time it doesn’t cause all of that corrosion buildup. This also helps extend the life of the tire. 

Having consistent pressure in your tires is more important than some may think. It impacts things such as gas mileage, wear patterns, and the lifespan of the tire. When a tire is not filled to the correct pressure (as stated on the manufacturer’s sticker on the door card), it creates an imbalance that makes the car have to work harder to maintain speed. When your engine works harder you are burning more gas! Another common problem caused by improper inflation is accelerated tire wear. Too much or not enough air causes the tire to sit differently on the tread pattern than intended. It puts more pressure on certain contact points instead of having evenly spread contact which chews up the rubber.