Nitrogen in your tires?

Our advice to this client is probably good for everyone

A client recently returned one of our Comment Cards with a question about refilling their tires with nitrogen.  We don’t get a lot of people asking for it here at the shop, but nitrogen refills have become popular enough that we do get the occasional questions.  The short story is that we’re not big fans, but here’s the longer story that we gave Elena M…

Hi Elena,

I’m writing about your recent Post-Service Reply card.  Thank you for responding, because these cards are critically important to us and we read every one!  You mentioned that your tires require nitrogen, and suggested we look into providing nitrogen as a shop.  I don’t think we can be very encouraging to you on this, but maybe we can be helpful.

I talked with our ASE-Master-Certified Technician and Shop Manager, Chad, who didn’t think highly of nitrogen at all.  He jumped on me as soon as I said “required” because he said NO tires “require” nitrogen, not even high-end racing or aviation tires.  Any tire CAN use it but none REQUIRE it. You won’t hurt your tires by using nitrogen but you can choose regular air without harming them at all.

Even if it’s not technically ‘required’, is nitrogen better than regular air?  The air around us is 78% nitrogen with about 2% water vapor, so right off the bat we’re at almost 80% pure nitrogen.  Chad did recognize the actual advantages of going that extra 20%; nitrogen leaks slower than regular air so tire pressures remain stable between top-offs, and pure nitrogen has no water vapor at all so there’s no moisture to contribute to ‘tire rot’.  But he didn’t think either benefit was significant.  Yes, nitrogen leaks slower, but not enough to make a difference in tire life, traction, or handling.  The threat of tire rot from water vapor is remote because (if the car is driven much at all) the tire tread will be ready for replacement long, long before the tire rots from the inside. 

And those minor benefits don’t come for free.  If we were to offer nitrogen we’d have to either buy tanks or invest in a nitrogen-from-air system, and we’d have to charge clients more for a nitrogen fill than regular air.  We don’t think the expense, to our clients or to us, is justified by the minuscule advantages.

Fundamentally, it doesn’t matter nearly as much what you inflate your tires with as how much you inflate them.  The inflation gas gives the tire its shape but the shape itself is what matters.  Under-inflated tires let the tire ‘squoosh’ down and wear the tire on the sides as well the tread.  Over-inflated tires make the tire bulge toward the bottom, resulting in less tread on the road and reduced braking and traction.  Whether you use regular air, nitrogen, helium, or just pack them with straw, as long as the tires have the correct shape they’ll work beautifully. (Though there may be a noticeable difference in ride quality if you use straw!) 

The most important thing is to keep your tire pressures at the proper level.  If you’re coming in for regular oil changes with us, we’ll be topping them off every time as part of our Minor Interval Service.  In between changes it wouldn’t hurt to check the pressures with a tire gauge (we’ll give a free one to any client that asks) and we’ll gladly top them off for free if they’re low.  Healthy tires shouldn’t lose pressure more quickly than this, so if they are then there’s a bigger problem.

I guess I’m hoping that I can convince you to reconsider using nitrogen at all, but if you want to continue, Les Schwab will do it for $30 a tire + $5-7 for refills and Costco offers it free as part of their package if you buy tires from them.  But like I said, our guys were not in favor… Chad used the term “snake oil” several times.  We won’t be offering it here because we don’t think the advantages are worth the cost.  If you seek it out elsewhere then you won’t be doing yourself any harm, but in our opinion your auto-repair dollars could be more useful to you elsewhere.

I hope this answers your nitrogen question, but please feel free to call if there’s anything else I can do for you.  We look forward to seeing you again soon, but of course never TOO soon!

Sincerely,

Digging Deeper

Should You Use Nitrogen in Your Car Tires? Jeff Bartlett at Consumer Reports, Oct 2025

What are the benefits of nitrogen-filled tires? Continental Tires

Are Nitrogen-Filled Tires Worth the Cost? Les Schwab Tires

Nitrogen Filling At Home, thread on 124Spider.org, 2021