Nitrogen and High Performance Tires

[HansRobert]

I am curious how many fill their high performance tires with nitrogen. Does it make a difference big enough to justify the effort?

[MysticBlue]

Originally Posted by HansRobert

I am curious how many fill their high performance tires with nitrogen. Does it make a difference big enough to justify the effort?

On a two and a half ton SUV? No. It will make no difference.
One advantage is nitrogen expands less than oxygen as it heats up, so for someone who is anal about their tire pressure, there is less fluctuation with temperature variation. But the difference is really small and is really something that's not worth dealing with unless you're tracking a high performance car at a high level of expertise.
The other advantage is nitrogen molecules are larger than oxygen molecules, so there is less leakage. This slow leakage is why we periodically have to add air to our tires, even though there is no "leak". Even with a good seal and no leaks, molecules still sneak their way out. But again, the difference is small. Like adding nitrogen to your tires once a year instead of adding air twice a year. Remember that air already is 78% nitrogen. Just my opinion, I've never tried it, so maybe someone who's actually done it can chime in, but that's what I've learned about it over the last few years.

[kip1]

I have to comment on this. I used nitrogen in all my cars that didnt have digital tyre pressure monitoring. We have extreme climate changes where I live, it can be -30c one day and then +5 the other. Nitrogen doesnt change as much, but of course the filling station cannot have leaks when they fill it up or you will get something close to air. The other advantage is that it helps to know the pressure stays longer as my wife does not check the pressures, I do. They were always extremely stable and often I didnt need to fill up between seasonal tyre change. This is my experience. Now that I have digital tyre pressure monitoring in all my cars and I found a better tyre shop than my old one, but sadly they dont have nitrogen, I have not filled the tires with nitrogen anymore, but if the shop starts selling it, I will take it. For me it has nothing to do with a race track.