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Metal vs Rubber Valve Stem and Nitro Inflate

L

Luke_Miller

CEG'er
Joined
Jul 21, 2005
Messages
60
Location
Florida
Is there any reason to get a metal vs rubber valve stem other than appearance?

I bought my tires from Tire Rack. Nice experience. I ordered the 225/50/16 instead of the OEM 215/50/16. They called and made sure that I hadn't made a mistake. Their recommended installer offers a Nitrogen Inflation for an extra $5.00 per tire. Why would someone consider that? TIA.
 
nitrogen is a gas that will not be affected by hot or cold weather. in the winter your tire will not be lower and summer ( or hot tire) it will not expand.
 
Metal stems are nice looking but not as forgiving. They do stand up to the elements a little more but do have seals that wear just like a tire.

With my wheels I got small small stems that they use in lawn mowers. They don't stand out at all with my wheels. Love em.

Nitro is NOT worth it, especially if you get a leak. $20 here is a good 3/4 tank.
 
Nitrogen certainly IS affected by hot and cold, just the same as air. After all, air is 78% nitrogen. I work at a dealership where they sell a nitro fill service for $50. Normally this would be a rip off, but there is one very significant benefit: the air lines in many shops that mount tires often have tons of water in them. I'm a Toyota tech, and most of the new cars have electronic tire pressure sensors. Nearly every car that has tires mounted there comes back with a bad pressure sending unit due to moisture.

If you can be sure that the air going into your tires is dry, forget the nitro fill, it has no benefit other than being free of moisture.
 
mcgarvey said:
Nitrogen certainly IS affected by hot and cold, just the same as air. After all, air is 78% nitrogen. I work at a dealership where they sell a nitro fill service for $50. Normally this would be a rip off, but there is one very significant benefit: the air lines in many shops that mount tires often have tons of water in them. I'm a Toyota tech, and most of the new cars have electronic tire pressure sensors. Nearly every car that has tires mounted there comes back with a bad pressure sending unit due to moisture.

If you can be sure that the air going into your tires is dry, forget the nitro fill, it has no benefit other than being free of moisture.
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not from what i have heard from more than one source. but im not willing or want to get into it with you over this.
 
Big Jim said:
Here is a link to one of the bigger makers of nitrogen filling equipment, Ingersol Rand. Besides the dry air, another advantage not mentioned by any of the other posters in this thread is that there is less pressure loss over time with nitrogen as it does not penetrate the lining of the tire as rapidly.

http://www.irtools.com/products/nitrogen/
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I was a Blackhawk Helicopter Crew chief for the Army, we used Nitrogen to service the tires, and it's actually common practice across aviation. As we understood it, Nitrogen is simply a larger molecule. It is vulnerable to atmospheric pressure, yes, but not nearly as much regular atmospheric "air" (78% nitrogen, but also oxygen and CO2, and the last time I open a can of soda, CO2 is VERY susceptible to atmospheric pressure), making it ideal for aircraft. Being a larger molecule would also explain the fact that it loses pressure more slowly.
 
Nitrogen

Nitrogen

All professional racing teams (NASCAR,ALMS,IRL,ETC) use Nitrogen, primarily for the afore mentioned ability to maintain pressures (smaller increaces when heated , Etc).
It also does not absorb moisture easily this contributes to the maitainence of tire pressure.

For a lazy guy like me, who rarely checks air pressures it would be good, and I,ve had acess to it but have't tried it yet................
 
BigBEN said:
Nitrogen in tires is a waste of time and pointless...just some way that the communist Belle Tire tries to make a quick buck from us dumb americans...
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I don't think it is a waste of time and pointless but I agree that I would not spend $20 to have my tires filled.
 
when i first started working at jiffy lube way back i was doing vacuuming, tires and windows this elderly guy came in with a BEAUTIFUL 60-70's benz convertable, so a started doing the tires, and im like "oh hey interesting little green valve stems... hmm must like the color green or whatever" so i start filling them and i practically get spear tackled by my boss.... aparently the tires had nitrogen in them, but it was like my 3rd day and NO ONE had told me about nitrogen filled tires so how was i supposed to know, well at least thats what i told him....

i got switched over to another bay and im not really sure what happend all i know is the car was there 1+ hour..... yes my fault but aparrently i wasnt properly trained, and my boss could not have said "its something everyone knows" because when i applied for the job i need 0 experience, because they are supposed to train you, and i started working there beginning of last year, and i really didnt know much then so that job helped me alot, but i was never told not to put air into nitrogen tires....

anyway, i felt that story was appropriate..
 
Ok, there seems to be some good tech in this thread, and some confusion as well, so I'll see if I can make one post that explains it clearly.

Nitrogen is used in car tires for two reasons.

1. Nitrogen will not seep through tire rubber as quickly as regular air. This means that it will take longer for a tire to lose pressure if it is inflated with pure nitrogen than air.

2. The pressure changes in a tire due to the temperature of the tire are much more consistant with Nitrogen than with regular compressed air. This is mostly due to the moisture content of air. This is the reason race cars use nitrogen; because a good driver can usually feel as little as 1/2 psi change in tire pressure by how the car balance changes. The higher consistancy as the temperature changes helps the crews know where to set the tire pressures when they are cold to achieve the desired hot tire pressure.

Nitrogen is really not a necessity in street car tires, and generally not worth the extra money a lot of places charge. I have ready access to nitrogen all the time, and I don't feel the need to bother unless its a race tire.
 
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