Good morning! Our Saturn dealership has an offering for $30.00 to fill the tires with nitrogen which, the dealership claims will saves you over $300.00 a year in fuel and tire costs, enhances handling, extends the life of your tires, reduces catastrophic blow outs and helps keep tires at a consistent pressure.
Your thoughts.
Thanks!
This has come up and been discussed many times before. Here is a link to the most recent:
r $300.00 a year in fuel and tire costs
Don’t walk…RUN to another place to service your car. These guys are crooks.
What a pile of BS! There’s absolutely no truth to any money saving claim for nitrogen, except the $30 they’ll put in the bank after fleecing you. None of the claims you list are accurate.
If there is a benefit, it couldn’t possibly equate to $300 per year. That $300 figure is totally bogus. As long as you regularly check your tire pressure and get the tires rotated, they should last just as long as if they are filled with Nitrogen.
I once found myself standing at the counter of a Chrysler service department where they had a sign advertising their Nitrogen tire service. I asked the guy if he knew that Tom and Ray from Car Talk said this service was total bunk. He quietly acknowledged that it is a waste of money.
If you can’t trust your Saturn dealership to be honest about this, are you going to trust them to maintain your car? You should find a good trustworthy shop or independent mechanic to do your maintenance and repairs. It will save you money and you won’t be lied to like this.
Save your money. Air is 78% nitrogen, so your tires already have nitrogen in them. The arguments your dealer offer are completely BOGUS. They just want your $30.
Stay away from this snake oil dealership.
I top agree that you should run from these crooks and not look back.
As McP said, your tires’ air is already 78% nitrogen, the balance of the gas (about 21% oxygen and 1% argon + misc) will remain in there even if they pump in more nitrogen,…and nitrogen has zero benefit for street use. It’s a gimmick.
Race cars use it for reasons entirely irrelevent to you. Everything about race cars and their tires is different, and they have the danger of oxygen feeding a fire in the pits…which nitrogen will not.
When I get told of the benefits of nitrogen all I hear is blah,blah,blad, blather, blather, blather, drivle, drivle, drivle.
I politely interupt and tell them their nitrogen is a bunch of garp.
I usually play dumb and ask them (1) how much smaller ARE nitrogen atoms? and (2) is there any nitrogen in the air already?
I love the answers. Then I proceed to politely clarify the issue for them. Whereupon they become very sheepish.
You could also ask them how they are going to get the air out since you only have one valve stem.
Rims that are designed for Nitrigen use usually have two valve stems so they can pump the air out of one as they pump Nitrogen into the other.
I’ll remember to add that question the next time. Thanks.
James Bond, when he was under water and his air ran out, released the air from a tire, and was, thus, able to go on and defeat the bad guys. What would have happened if somebody had replaced the normal air in the tire with nitrogen? Oh, woe! Woe! And, alas!
There are ripoffs everywhere. It won’t save anything more than checking the tires every six months or once every two.
Costco Wholesale fills your tires for free w/ nitrogen. It seems that the pressure doesn’t change as much when the temp changes.
That’s a bargain, my Toyota dealer wants $49.95 for the Nitrogen service.
Seriously though, spend the money on a good quality dial-type pressure gauge and a small compressor, then check your tire pressure on a regular basis.
Ed B.
t seems that the pressure doesn’t change as much when the temp changes.
Any difference would be too little to measure with commonly available tools.
Well, it may seem that the pressure doesn’t vary as much with nitrogen, but it’s not true. Both oxygen and nitrogen behave identically with temperature at these conditions. Another misconception pushed by the nitrogen folks.
Good point, I will keep air in my tires just in case. The name is Bond…James Bond.
I work at a Costco tire shop. The only thing we use is nitrogen which makes up of about 85% of the air we breathe. But with that being said the nitro we use is 98% with 0 moisture. That is the difference. Moisture changes the psi in your tire based on temp. So 0 moisture = 0 pressure changes due to temp changes. Unfortuantly Costco only works on tires purchased at Costco. So next time purchase them there and you can get this service for free as long as you own your tires.