Hello to all. Just purchased a set of Michelin Pilot Exalto All-Season
205/65 H15 for 98 Camry XLE V6. Next day I went to Toyo dealer for wheel alignment and filling of tires with nitrogen. As for the wisdom of spending extra money on nitrogen, time will tell. I like to ask for recommendation on inflation pressure. Should I stick with Toyota factory recommendation, or go up few notches. Telling by rougher ride, the shop set the pressure a bit higher, as they usually do. I am not too concerned to maximize thread life or extract best mileage from the car, I just like good traction for left-lane spirited driving at interstate speeds. I almost went with V rated rubber but was afraid those may be too noisy for long trips. Thanks in advance, -Sveta
I would go 2-4 PSI higher that specified by the Camry User manual. Most auto-service places (including some dealers) set the pressure way too high. I use about 33 PSI when the tires are already warm (which is about 30-31 cold tire pressure) for my 98 XLE V6 using Michelin Pilot 92H tires. The above cold tire pressure numbers assume that the ambient temp is about 70 degrees.
You should use the same pressure for nitrogen as compressed air. If you bought the tires at Costco, they'll pump them up with nitrogen for free as they've gone nitrogen in just about all their facilities, if not all already.
what do you do when you need the tires lose pressure? can you mix air and nitro? if so what are the benefits of having nitro? eventually all tires need added pressure so do you go to someone who uses nitro or can you get a tank ful and keep it in your garage?
I will ask shop to check/add nitro when I have my oil/filter change. Otherwise, adding coulple of lbs/sq" regular compressed air would be rather small procentage of total volume so it would not change things too much. It would be nice if they started marketing compressed nitro in cans like those of tire repair/inflator so one can keep it ready in trunk.
it seems like a hassle more than a bonus to me, but here's another silly question. say you get a flat tire and need to use the spare that is factory filled w/ air, does it affect the handling or ride of the car?
And yet another silly question- Do they evacuate all the air out of the tire after mounting it, then add nitrogen?? I'm not even sure it would even be possible without unseating the bead. I guess you could put the whole wheel and tire assembly into a vacuum chamber....
Well, my guess is that at highway speed, spare tire filled with regular air would increase in pressure a bit more than tire with nitrogen.. I doubt that a 'regular driver' like you and I would notice any difference in handling or performance. But then what do you think about spares that are not even full size? What kind of difference in handling would that combo produce, probably more than difference in pressure alone. There is a good reason why auto manufacturers recommend use in emergency only and at maximum 50mph when using 'tiny' spare tires. Even full size spare tire of different make (michelin vs pirelli) or type (touring vs high performance all season) would behave differently than other 3 tires regsadless if there were filled with air or nitro. Yes, filling with nitro is a bit extra hassle, but I am willing to spend a little more money and effort for a small increments in safety. Example, we can all handle a tire blowout at 50-60mph on straight, dry road. How about a tire blowout at triple digit mph speeds. I don't feel too confortable in that scenario. That is why I never buy tires just because they're on sale, always pick higher perf. If brakes unexpectedly fail, I still have good steering and good tires. In worst case, I'll steer myself off the road and maybe have chance to pick which tree I will hit (always pick smaller tree - trust me on this).
I am not preaching using nitro or anything else. I posted my question about tire pressure to get second opinion. My, now advanced age, makes me think that I am definitevly not the smartest one on the road. I used to pressurize exactly by book, now I will add a bit more on top on manufacturer's spec.
As I understand, they fill nitro once without tire valve core present. Then, release all air/nitro out, screw in the core, fill nitro second time and that's it. The result is not 100% nitro, but close to it.
Think about this a little bit. Air is about 70% nitrogen. If nitrogen leaks less than oxygen (20% of air), the tire will concentrate nitrogen as it leaks down. Top it up a few times and you'll naturally end up with a very high nitrogen concentration.
Let's see now, if you just pump "air" into your tires, your pumping in
78 percent nitrogen and 20 percent oxygen. So approximately 8/10ths of the "air" you pump in for free is nitrogen. How much are they charging for nitrogen alone?
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