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Well, if you drive more than maybe a few feet, at a very slow speed, on that flat tire, you will at least unseat the bead, and probably ruin the tire.
If you take the wheel/tire assembly off the car and take it to the compressor or nitrogen dispenser, you will find that the tire is no longer flat once the weight of the car is off it.
No, my new car comes with regular air, but I can get free self-serve nitrogen at Costco. So I was planning on driving it there, taking the valve stem core out, and deflating it. Then adding nitrogen to the recommended PSI.
The advantage of pure nitrogen is that it remains stable over a wide spectrum of changes in atmospheric conditions. In other words, if you fill the tires with pure nitrogen you shouldn't ever have to add air unless you develop a leak. Normally I'd agree that the extra you pay isn't worth the convenience, but with the wide weather swings we've experienced in the Midwest this winter I've had to top off at least one tire a couple of times a week. At this point I think I'd willingly pay a few bucks to not have to do that any more.
The other advantage of nitrogen is there is no water vapor, so there is less corrosion on the rim.
A properly built, properly installed, and properly maintained compressor system for compressed air will have little or no moisture in the air lines after the filter/dryer.
Even a home system without a filter/dryer will have very little moisture in the air line.
If you encounter corrosion on your rims, you should clean the corrosion down to bare metal, use a good primer, and paint the inside of the rim with epoxy paint. That will stop the corrosion.
No, my new car comes with regular air, but I can get free self-serve nitrogen at Costco. So I was planning on driving it there, taking the valve stem core out, and deflating it. Then adding nitrogen to the recommended PSI.
You should have no problems doing this. Just deflate while stationary and refill with nitrogen. The bead won't break while deflating while stationary. If you are concerned about letting it go all the way down flat, you could use a jack and jack it up a bit so that the tire deflates but never sits on the rim. I have some trucks I use for farming that sit and sometimes the tires deflate over time. I just air the tire up when I need to use the vehicle. You don't want to let a vehicle sit on a flat tire for a long period of time though as it is not good for the tire. and could damage the side wall.
Tell him no need to pull the innards out, just push on the center pin until it stops hissing. You will still have a tire full of air, so when you fill it to about 30 psi (approximately 2 atmospheres) you will have doubled the amount of gas in the tire by doubling the gas which is mostly nitrogen, and reduced the ratio of oxygen or be down to about 6%. That is part of why there is no scientific basis for this stupidity. There is no practical way to eliminate all of the oxygen from your tire. Same with the water vapor.
Tell him no need to pull the innards out, just push on the center pin until it stops hissing. You will still have a tire full of air, so when you fill it to about 30 psi (approximately 2 atmospheres) you will have doubled the amount of gas in the tire by doubling the gas which is mostly nitrogen, and reduced the ratio of oxygen or be down to about 6%. That is part of why there is no scientific basis for this stupidity. There is no practical way to eliminate all of the oxygen from your tire. Same with the water vapor.
Actually you need to use PSIA to figure this. At atmospheric pressure you are at about 15 PSIA (14.7 at sea level, but, to make the maths easy, call it 15).
When you inflate to 30 PSIG (G for gauge) you are at 45 PSIA. So assuming 12% O2 in air, the absolute pressure is up by a factor of 3, not 2. So you are closer to 4% O2. Assuming the N2 is pure, which, for this "back of the envelope" type calculation, it is probably good enough.
I think your final conclusion is still valid though - the OP has to be hurting for something useful to do, to spend time letting the air out of his tires to refill with N2. Even if the N2 is free.
Probably most racers do the N2 thing just because an N2 cylinder and regulator is easier to pack around than an air compressor.
OP, if you have nothing better to do, you could just let air out of your car's tire, by using the deflate pin on a regular tire pressure gauge, until the tire is just low, not flat, then refill with N2, repeat a couple of times. You won't know exactly how much N2 versus O2 is in the tire, but, for practical purposes, you can get to an O2 concentration considerably less than in normal air, if you "bleed and feed" say 3X per tire.
But, again, you have to be hurting for something useful to do, to engage in this, even if the N2 is free. Definitely do this when you are going to Costco for other stuff!
Inconceivable! Some one more obsessive than me!
My daughter used to say, "Don't ask my dad a technical question unless you really want to know the answer, and have a long time to listen!"
+1 rep to you!
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Quote:
Originally Posted by milkit
No, my new car comes with regular air, but I can get free self-serve nitrogen at Costco. So I was planning on driving it there, taking the valve stem core out, and deflating it. Then adding nitrogen to the recommended PSI.
According to this you need be a Costco member and purchased the tires from them.
Curses! I followed that link to a pro nitrogen site, oddly enough sponsored by a compressed gas company, next door to an anti-vaxer website
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