Bought a new 2016 Toyota Prius Four touring, got a surprise, Nitrogen in Tires!

Ha,ha, ha, ha.

I put 78% nitrogen in my tires. Costs=free.

 

That is weird. Usually dealer don't have Nitrogen. Just go to any Costco and use there free pump. Those are Nitrogen and less weight on the car

 

dfine1966,

Congrats on the new Prius!

Nitrogen has a larger molecule than oxygen, so pressure loss over time due to leakage will be less.
So they say. Costco uses nitrogen in all their tires. Customers get free pressure checks and fills.

I check my tire pressure once a month, and has a portable electric tire pump, so not a big deal
for me.
It may be a way to get customers to come back to get their nitrogen pressure fix for free!
At Costco anyway.

Enjoy the 50+ mpg!

stt

 

Go back and ask the salesperson if you now have 100% Nitrogen in your tires. If she says yes, you know she's fibbing or clueless.

 

Our new car came with little decals with a serial number, on all the doors, hatch, hood. It's a "feature" I guess someone added, some aftermarket component ID system, while it was in transit, or at a dealership. Nobody even made mention of it, when we bought it.

Things like this are come-ons, maybe someone was hoping to tack a line on the bill of sale, charging an extra for this. Or their ads tout that all their cars come nitrogen filled.

Thinking practically: I suspect ALL you got was green valve caps. The cars come from the factory with tires pressured up to the max sidewall pressure, very likely just with regular air, to avoid flatspotting during transit or while sitting at dealership. To properly fill the tires with nitrogen you would need to deflate them first. I really don't see the dealership doing this.

The nitrogen fad perplexes me. It's supposed to keep tire pressures more stable, for one. I set our pressures this spring when I took the snow tires off, and they haven't dropped since. Next spring, the next time I put them on, with cooler temps, I'll likely need to top them up, buy hey: once a year?

 

The green caps stopped slow leaks on my bicycle . . . looks like the O ring in the green caps was a factor. And they are a conversation starter on the bike trail.

 

Nitrogen is a good thing as long as you don't pay much for it. 100% N2, as a matter of physics, leaks about 4x slower than 100% O2 through a rubber membrane, but then, as stated above, air is already 78% N2 in the first place! So bottom line: 100% N2 leaks about 33% slower than air (78% N2).

Many people strongly object to N2 due to the over-hype it got several years ago, but if we can get over the hype, there is a small benefit. Race cars dry N2 has additional benefits you will not witness in a Prius (reduced flammability, no moisture).

If it was me, I'd use regular air for later refills. But I'd be happy to know the N2 is concentrated to allow slower leakage. In my bike I use a special heavy gas called STAFIL and never have to top off.

 

There is no physical way to "air" a tire with 100% nitrogen without a vacuum pump. No one's going to do this. You just got green valve caps. $6 via Amazon.

 

Sometimes I think we can take things a bit too far when considering the finer aspects of gas permeability. Compressed air is absolutely fine. Being ultra responsible means checking it regularly as per the book. Please don't lose any more sleep or cash over this. ☺

 

Yes. I get my tires at Costco. Their Nitrogen integrity lasts all of 1/2 hour: I pull into Chevron on the way home and air them up a bit.

 

But you're still getting the benefit of slower leakage rates of the original N2 fill. Adding a little air @78% N2 is not destroying the integrity.

Somewhere around 5-7% O2 inside the tire is probably equivalent to 100% N2 because presumably once the partial pressure of O2 inside the tire equals the partial pressure of O2 outside the tire, there will no longer be a driving force for the O2 to permeate to the outside.

Furthermore, if you do add enough air to bump up over 5-7% O2 in the tire, the O2 will come out fastest, gradually concentrating the N2.

Everyday I thank God for pneumatic tires and putting 78% N2 in the air, because almost any other common gas other than N2 would leak like a sieve thru the rubber.

 

Our Outback supposedly came with N2 and a $200 surcharge added in at the F&I desk. Yes, I didn't pay it. Anyway, I run +2 PSI in the fronts vs. the rears so every time I DIY a tire rotation I have to readjust. I've also bumped up all of them when I need to carry a heavy load so I'm probably back to 78% by now.

 

Air is approx 80% Nitrogen, so put 25% more air in your tyres and let the little O2 molecules leak out over time then you'll have approx 100% Nitrogen.
I find usually, after the first few weeks of fitting new tyres (filled with air), that the cold pressures don't drop any more under normal driving.

 

Just as an aside, you will not be putting oxygen ( alone) in your tires - ever. Pure oxygen would greatly increase the risk of fire / explosion due to its ability to enhance combustion- remember the Apollo spacecraft fire tragedy? I would doubt you would ever even be able to find a way to put oxygen in your tires unless you made a specific fill apparatus to adapt an oxygen tank to a standard tire valve. Most of us use AIR in tires which us 78% nitrogen 21% oxygen. The use of pure nitrogen stabilizes pressure fluctuations between hot and cold status, ( as in racing and other high performance operations like aircraft tires) and the absence of oxygen may help slow rubber decomposition. The absence of water vapor in pure nitrogen may also stabilize pressure fluctuations. In my humble experience, there is little difference in slow air leaks between air an nitrogen if the tire, valve, and bead seal are all intact, I wouldn't worry at all about trying to maintain the nitrogen with nitrogen if it cost anything or was inconvenient. You would likely never know the difference.

 

I would say O2 and N2 and Air are all ideal gases and they all behave exactly the same re: PV=nRT.
>In other words, no difference whatsoever in temperature change impact.

For race car drivers, water in the tire can cause pressure fluctuations when the tire gets to the boiling point of water. We as mere mortals really do not have that issue..the H2O permeates quite fast as a small molecule. You can argue tire life impact of O2/moisture but data is weak there.

 

I wonder if such caps are available for Presta tubes.

 

I'm long time friends with a former Indy car team owner and he's told me even a .5 pound difference can mean the difference between the car making the turn on the high banks versus kissing the wall. He also said a minor collision with the wall at those speeds cost a minimum of $80k to replace the wheel and various suspension bits (all carbon fiber).

 

My new to me 2013 Prius V came with nifty little N printed caps, hope the B'std that stole the little green caps off the wife's gen3 enjoys them, air is mostly nitrogen with 19.35% oxygen so I don't give a rip, figure it's just a dealer scam to get you to come back.

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