Reverse sound beeper and Nitrogen filled Tires

DeadstockNYC said:

We run nitrogen in our CRV and it stabilizes the psi nicely.
Previously in our summers and winters non nitrogen would flux.

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The only real benefit to going full nitrogen is less oxidation of the tire inside, and it is a dry gas. Since most tires are replaced within a few years, even this is not of notable benefit in terms of oxidation. Water moisture in the air varies by location and weather at the moment, so results vary.

The advantage of nitrogen may be more notable in very humid climates because nitrogen is a dry gas whereas plain air has Hygroscopic properties to it. In such environments, compressed air drawn from the local environment will include moisture as well.. and that will tend to "appear" to bleed off the tire more rapidly then the oxygen and nitrogen... and hence PSI will drop. That is actually water moisture condensing in cold conditions that causes pressure drop. But in reality most tires leak very very slowly anyway as the rubber has some level of porosity to it. The molecular weight of Oxygen and Nitrogen are nearly identical so it's not like comparing nitrogen to helium (which with it's very small molecular weight can and will find pathways to leak away much much faster under all but the most stringent conditions). The absence of moisture is what you are seeing with your summers vs winters with nitrogen as there is little or no moisture in the tire.

Nitrogen can provide modest benefit in conditions where there are extremes in temperature range on the tires.. such as is the case in performance racing. But again.. this is the absence of water moisture, as oxygen and nitrogen have roughly the same coefficient of expansion per degrees F/C. For normal tires in normal consumer driving though, it would be unusual for the tires to reach temperatures where nitrogen is of clear benefit. The actual brand and design of the tire and the wheel you put it on has a much more noticeable impact on stability of tire pressures.

No harm in putting nitrogen in the tires of course.. so ... your tires, your choice. The downside is as nitrogen does slowly leak away over time, or weather changes, you cannot readily replace it unless you go to a location with a nitrogen service for tires... so you just end up topping it back up with regular air in most cases anyway. Personally, I lower and reload the air pressure on my tires during warm summer time (low humidity) and it seems to work as well as purging with nitrogen for me as it provides essentially the same stability in PSI. And through the rest of the year, when I need to add a pound or two of pressure.. it does not inject much water moisture, even in winter, in terms of total air volume in the tire. Of course I have to wait until middle of summer for this... but I also don't have to go to a local tire shop that has nitrogen either.