Nitrogen at Costco

[Xerox]

I was reading the Costco magazine (The Costco Connection) and found a 2 page spread on Michelin winter tires. It mentions that a benefit of buying tires from Costco (Michelin or otherwise) is that they inflate tires with nitrogen (rather than compressed air).

I thought that was pretty cool and wondered if any other places are doing it (aside from performance auto shops). Wonder if there are any free public places. And also to what PSI would you inflate your tires to? If recommended cold is 32PSI on compressed air, would you inflate to about 36PSI on nitrogen? (I think the rule of thumb is add 4PSI to warm tires).

[Skarbro]

Nitrogen is available at a lot of places.

The advantages of Nitrogen is that it holds much more constant pressure in extreme temperatures and doesn\'t lead as easily as air (bigger molecules than oxygen). Airplanes and the space shuttle use nitrogen. It is also moisture-free, which is good for the rims. Supposedly they run cooler as well - which will make your tires last longer.

But it\'s not free anywhere.

Personally, I\'ll stick with free air. I\'ve never had any issues with air in the past. I have a portable electric air pump in my garage.

[Zaku_4]

well

one of the guys at a costco near my parents restuarant gave us a deal on tires (we gave him a deal on food, mutual thing) so he got us a good price for some michilline (i know, im very very off with the spelling on this one) tires and naturally they used nitrogen.

we\'ve been using these tires for a while (should be more than a year) and the psi difference from getting it till now is only about 4psi for each tire. obviously if u hit something hard like a pothole or a speedbump u will lose more. but its pretty cool stuff.

also, just put in the recommend air for the tire, u dont need more or less if u use nitrogen. (but if its recommened to add while running hot/cold then maybe?)