Green tire valve caps = Nitrogen filled tires

[RussW]

So I’m glad that my friend who is a mechanic was riding with me in my new 2024 Nautilus. He pointed out to me that the green valve stem caps on the four tires indicates that the tires are 100% filled with Nitrogen and if they get low, I need to go to the dealer or another place that is equipped to fill tires with Nitrogen.

Or if I want “regular air” in them, I need to bleed them dry of Nitrogen and then fill with air. Mixing the two is not recommended.

Benefits of Nitrogen on tires is supposed to make the tires more stable in temperature differences (not lose/gain a lot of pressure during heat/cold).

We shall see.

 

[Linc 24]

The air we breathe is almost 78 percent nitrogen. Same air that goes into all air compressors that fills our tires.

 

[JMAB]

So I’m glad that my friend who is a mechanic was riding with me in my new 2024 Nautilus. He pointed out to me that the green valve stem caps on the four tires indicates that the tires are 100% filled with Nitrogen and if they get low, I need to go to the dealer or another place that is equipped to fill tires with Nitrogen.

Or if I want “regular air” in them, I need to bleed them dry of Nitrogen and then fill with air. Mixing the two is not recommended.

Benefits of Nitrogen on tires is supposed to make the tires more stable in temperature differences (not lose/gain a lot of pressure during heat/cold).

We shall see.

FYI - Costco has free Nitrogen air dispensers (with auto PSI regulators) at most all of the warehouses. No charge and no membership required.

 

[bbf2530]

So I’m glad that my friend who is a mechanic was riding with me in my new 2024 Nautilus. He pointed out to me that the green valve stem caps on the four tires indicates that the tires are 100% filled with Nitrogen and if they get low, I need to go to the dealer or another place that is equipped to fill tires with Nitrogen.

Or if I want “regular air” in them, I need to bleed them dry of Nitrogen and then fill with air. Mixing the two is not recommended.

Benefits of Nitrogen on tires is supposed to make the tires more stable in temperature differences (not lose/gain a lot of pressure during heat/cold).

We shall see.

Hi RussW. That information is incorrect. You do not need to “bleed them dry of Nitrogen and then fill with air”. You can fill with compressed air as you normally would. You just won’t get the small benefits which a nitrogen fill may sometimes offer. However, those benefits are minimal at best.

As Linc 24 stated above, the air we breathe is mostly nitrogen. So compressed air itself is a mix of oxygen, nitrogen etc.

You are free to top off and/or fill with compressed air or nitrogen.

Good luck.

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[RussW]

FYI - Costco has free Nitrogen air dispensers (with auto PSI regulators) at most all of the warehouses. No charge and no membership required.

Great information! Thank you!!

 

[APL Rep]

Biggest scam in auto tire history.

 

[JMAB]

Biggest scam in auto tire history.

Really......Biggest?????????????????? One of so, so many.

 

[bbf2530]

So I’m glad that my friend who is a mechanic was riding with me in my new 2024 Nautilus. He pointed out to me that the green valve stem caps on the four tires indicates that the tires are 100% filled with Nitrogen and if they get low, I need to go to the dealer or another place that is equipped to fill tires with Nitrogen.

Or if I want “regular air” in them, I need to bleed them dry of Nitrogen and then fill with air. Mixing the two is not recommended.

Benefits of Nitrogen on tires is supposed to make the tires more stable in temperature differences (not lose/gain a lot of pressure during heat/cold).

We shall see.

Hi RussW. In addition to all the good information supplied by others above, take a look here: https://www.tirerack.com/upgrade-garage/should-i-use-nitrogen-in-my-tires?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIp9Oa2OPshgMV6UtHAR20xA_nEAMYASAAEgLOofD_BwE&ef_id=EAIaIQobChMIp9Oa2OPshgMV6UtHAR20xA_nEAMYASAAEgLOofD_BwE:G:s&s_kwcid=AL!3756!3!354820920608!b!!g!!why is nitrogen put in car tires&gclsrc=aw.ds&gad_source=1

For visibility, I thought it would be better to add it as a new post, instead of as an edit to my previous post. You can also find many other good sources by simply Googling "Compressed air versus nitrogen to fill car tires".

Either way, the morals of the story are:
- You can add compressed air to a nitrogen filled tire with no bad side effects, other than losing the very small advantages which a nitrogen fill offers.
- Nitrogen fills are good if free. But not necessarily worth paying much for.
- Periodically checking our tires with a good quality tire pressure gauge is more important than compressed air versus nitrogen, and necessary no matter which we use.

Good luck.

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[APL Rep]

Really......Biggest?????????????????? One of so, so many.

I feel it’s the biggest. Charge you initially for it. Make it silly hard to maintain as hardly nobody has nitrogen. You need air nitrogen ain’t close. If it is it’s a pita to find. Put a tiny bit of regular air in it defeats the whole purpose. I’ve never seen anything concrete that shows a definite advantage over the trouble maintaining it. To ME it’s snake oil.

 

[hinckley]

I feel it’s the biggest. Charge you initially for it. Make it silly hard to maintain as hardly nobody has nitrogen. You need air nitrogen ain’t close. If it is it’s a pita to find. Put a tiny bit of regular air in it defeats the whole purpose. I’ve never seen anything concrete that shows a definite advantage over the trouble maintaining it. To ME it’s snake oil.

Hmmm . . . . I have green stem caps on my Nautilus.

 

[olderbudweiser]

Okay sounds like some folks let the Sumer air out of their tires switch to winter air and reverse when it warms up.......

 

[angore]

Have you tried distilled air?

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[APL Rep]

Hmmm . . . . I have green stem caps on my Nautilus.

It had nitrogen in them when we got it for you as the dealer we traded with to get it uses it. But we don’t have it here.

 

[JMAB]

It had nitrogen in them when we got it for you as the dealer we traded with to get it uses it. But we don’t have it here.

Bonus !!!

 

[APL Rep]

Bonus !!!

I’ve heard nitrogen in your tires makes the vehicle lighter which translates into better MPGs.

 

[creativepart]

Biggest scam in auto tire history.

One of, probably not the biggest. My dealer had the balls to put a $199 extra charge for Nitrogen air in the tires. He also had $795 for... get this... "Window Tint Protection" and $395 for VIN etched glass!

Needless to say, the first thing we demanded was for all that to be removed. They tried to say, "No, that's really a thing you want to pay for."

Sheesh!

If a dealer's mouth is moving... they are lying.

We ordered and bought a new BMW i4 electric car last year. The BMW dealer didn't do any of these tricks. They were honest and had a mandatory $595 charge the salesman's cost.

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[swindler]

I've never paid for it, but the tire shop I tend to use always provides my new tires nitrogen-filled. I maintain the pressure from then on with a pancake compressor at home. Whatever the mix, so be it

As alluded to in the Tire Rack link, I thought the advantage was simply that nitrogen molecules are bigger than oxygen and it escapes the tire less over time. The idea was that the initial nitrogen fill would keep it's pressure longer than a traditional air mix. It does seem to do this, but that might just be because they're newly sealed tires.

Also, I've heard nitrogen tends to hold it's pressure more over temperature, but I've not noted that to be true as the TPMS numbers seem to go up about the same.
.

 

[RussW]

I feel it’s the biggest. Charge you initially for it. Make it silly hard to maintain as hardly nobody has nitrogen. You need air nitrogen ain’t close. If it is it’s a pita to find. Put a tiny bit of regular air in it defeats the whole purpose. I’ve never seen anything concrete that shows a definite advantage over the trouble maintaining it. To ME it’s snake oil.

I certainly didn’t ask for it nor want it, but the ‘24 Nautilus came with it. I’ve always known it was a scam. The benefits of using Nitrogen over regular ol’ air is negligible at best. But at least I now know Costco has Nitrogen and there’s a Costco down the street from me.

 

[hinckley]

I certainly didn’t ask for it nor want it, but the ‘24 Nautilus came with it. I’ve always known it was a scam. The benefits of using Nitrogen over regular ol’ air is negligible at best. But at least I now know Costco has Nitrogen and there’s a Costco down the street from me.

I've learned a lot from this thread, including the fact that although my car was delivered with nitrogen-filled tires, my dealer doesn't have or use nitrogen (they swapped cars with another dealer who does). I've needed to top-off my tires for a few weeks, so that saved me a useless trip to my service department. I did however, go up the road to Costco this morning and got a nitrogen top-off (the tires, not me) for free. And I'm not a Costco member. Gotta love this forum!

 

[bbf2530]

Hi gang. Just an opinion and something else to keep in mind:
For those who purchase a used vehicle with green/nitrogen fill valve caps. Or Ben a new one. The reality is that the benefits of nitrogen fills is negligible for many/most drivers. Certainly not worth paying for. And also not worth worrying too much about whether to adjust with compressed air or nitrogen, especially if we don’t have a nitrogen pump readily available.

With a used vehicle, we have no idea when or where they originally got the nitrogen fill.

Therefore, it is quite possible that the previous owner may (very) likely have topped off with compressed air anyway, negating the nitrogen fill. In other words, the green caps may mean nothing anymore, other than the tires were nitrogen filled at some time, but not necessarily anymore. After all, the average owner is not going to switch the green caps back to black ones after using compressed air.

My point being…We actually have no idea what the tires are inflated with now. Could be full nitrogen, could already be compromised by compressed air
So in the future, if your tires are low, there is really no particular reason to worry about using only nitrogen. I would just fill with whatever is handy, compressed air or nitrogen.

EDIT- As an example…The tires currently on my 2007 MKZ were installed at Costco approximately 3 years ago. And Costco fills their tire installations with nitrogen. So the valves have green caps.
However, the 3 different Costco’s by me are each at least 20-25 minutes away from my home. And I have an air compressor in my garage. So over the last 3 years, I have adjusted tire pressures with my home compressor. But I have not bothered to switch to black valve caps. So I have green caps, but compressed air in the tires.

Hope that makes sense and good luck.