Honda’s recent Technical Service Bulletin (TSB) states that when it comes to filling automobile tires, they (Honda) recommend only using dry, compressed air. At SouthBay Auto Service, we agree. There’s been a lot of hype over nitrogen, and we aren’t buying it! Automobiles are subjected to an entirely different set of conditions than the aircraft/vehicles that have been using nitrogen for years. Think about these points:
“Nitrogen generators produce nitrogen gas from ambient air, but it’s something less than 100 percent pure. To get just that same level of purity into a tire, you’d have to deflate and fill it several times to purge the remaining air. And if you don’t do that, the purity level drops even more. Compressed air is already about 78 percent nitrogen.”
“Although tires filled with nitrogen leak more slowly over time than those with compressed air, they still leak. If you can’t find a place that offers nitrogen, your only option is to fill with compressed air, which, as we’ve said, drops the nitrogen purity.”
“Nitrogen doesn’t offer any better protection than compressed air against cuts and punctures from road hazards. So no matter what you fill the tires with, you’ve still got to check their condition and pressures at least once a month, as we clearly state in the owner’s manual. And on vehicles with TPMS, filling tires with nitrogen won’t reduce the frequency of the low tire pressure indicator coming on in cold weather.”
“Tires filled with compressed air and properly maintained offer the same fuel efficiency and performance as those filled with nitrogen.”
*Honda TSB/Nov 2012
