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Three weeks in and a puncture experience

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900 miles on the clock and I get the tyre pressure warning. I knew something was afoot when I thought I clipped a kerb parking up this morning. A didn’t realise it was the sensation of a two inch screw burying its way into my lovely new Michelin.

Anyhoo, thanks to this forum, I’d stocked up on the ‘essentials’ prior to delivery and my trusty tyre inflator did its thing and got me to a Kwik Fit. With my rubber pucks at the ready, I was half expecting an issue with the Jack not being able to get low enough. I was wrong. These guys were super on it and knew all about safe jacking. Apparently a colleague elsewhere had not and had “split the battery”.

£210 lighter, but what can you do?
 

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Glad to hear you had a good experience. Funny enough I went to our local Jet Tyres yesterday, as I wanted to get my tyres switched over to Nitrogen to see if it would stop me getting TPMS alerts everytime the car got cold.

Watching llike a hawk, the young lad came around with his jack and called over to his senior saying "Can you show me how to Jack these up, i've never done one before"

The response of "Its just like any other car, just look for the jack point underneath" did not please me. I then promptly produced my pucks and casually guided the young lad while talking about damage to the batteries, while his senior exclaimed "WHAT? Damage the batteries?" in a sort of, don't talk rubbish mate tone of voice.

No harm done as I was there, but could have been a different story.
 
I've noticed the TP display doesn't like the cold. Has nitrogen made any difference?

Too early to tell as only had it done yesterday. Plus it hasn't really gotten cold and I've not been to work yet. Our work car park seems to be bang in line with the artic winds or something because it always seems to be full of carcicles when the weather drops and my light is often on at the end of my shift (about 4am)
 
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Well they use Nitrogen in aircraft tyres, because of the change in temperature....so i'm hopeful that the next time I'm coming in to land.....

Oh I don't know. It was free lol so figured i'd give it a go. Supposedly there is a lot less moisture when using nitrogen than regular air, which means they should fluctuate less.
 
Well they use Nitrogen in aircraft tyres, because of the change in temperature....so i'm hopeful that the next time I'm coming in to land.....
Yeah, google tells me they use it for racing cars, too. I suspect eliminating oxygen is more to do with minimising oxidation (or, worst case, combustion) of the rubber at the very high temperatures those tyres are operated at.

I can't immediately see why moisture would affect the gas law (as long as you don't have actual liquid water in your tyres LOL)
 
I don't see how replacing air with pure nitrogen will make any difference. The ideal gas law will still hold: pressure is proportional to absolute temperature (at constant volume).

You cannae change the laws of physics, Captain! Sounds like a gimmick to me...
Perhaps he's expecting really low temps. IIRC liquid O2 is magnetic and could affect performance in an EV 😂
😂
 
The motorsport application of dried pure nitrogen is supposed to result in a more consistent/predictable expansion as the tyre warms up during racing. This means they can be inflated to a pressure prior to use (which is underinflated), knowing that once at race temps the pressure will be at the point where maximum contact/grip occurs.
 
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The motorsport application of dried pure nitrogen is supposed to result in a more consistent/predictable expansion as the tyre warms up during racing. This means they can be inflated to a pressure prior to use (which is underinflated), knowing that once at race temps the pressure will be at the point where maximum contact/grip occurs.
Ok. Theoretically, this should help you predict the pressure more accurately, and maybe in motorsports it matters (particularly since the temperature change will be larger). But I struggle to see that the deviation from the ideal gas law in road tyres is going to be at a level detectable by the TPMS.

Unless I'm missing something. My physics is very rusty.... (Or is it physical chemistry?) Is there something about water vapour that I'm forgetting?

EDIT: So, as I see it. if you want to be able to calculate exactly what to pump your tyres up to from cold so it reaches 42.00 psi when hot, maybe it helps with that. It won't, at all, change the fact that your pressure will be lower when cold than when hot.
 
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Ok. Theoretically, this should help you predict the pressure more accurately, and maybe in motorsports it matters (particularly since the temperature change will be larger). But I struggle to see that the deviation from the ideal gas law in road tyres is going to be at a level detectable by the TPMS.

Unless I'm missing something. My physics is very rusty....
Yeah for normal road use its of limited benefit, but there's plenty of other racing enhancements that fit into that category also.
Since the advent of track days and before that, there's always been a fair bit of cross over in parts and applications between motorsport and road use, which companies like Demontweeks have catered to very successfully over the years. Some folk like to know they have something a bit more advanced over their OEM counterparts.
 
EDIT: So, as I see it. if you want to be able to calculate exactly what to pump your tyres up to from cold so it reaches 42.00 psi when hot, maybe it helps with that. It won't, at all, change the fact that your pressure will be lower when cold than when hot.
I always understood the cold pressure* was supposed to be 42 psi. The hot pressure is simply whatever it gets to?

*(though of course they don't define 'cold' specifically).
 
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I always understood the cold pressure* was supposed to be 42 psi. The hot pressure is simply whatever it gets to?

*(though of course they don't define 'cold' specifically).
Sorry, you are of course right there. But the general point still stands. 42 psi will have been selected as the cold temperature so that the tyres reach the optimum (unspecified) driving temperature during driving.
 
Unless I'm missing something. My physics is very rusty.... (Or is it physical chemistry?) Is there something about water vapour that I'm forgetting?
The only other thing is that Nitrogen molecules are quite large whereas oxygen and other gases in air will seep out through the rubber - your cold tyre pressures remain stable for longer if you use Nitrogen.
 
I suspect the issue is water vapour. At low temperature the moisture in tyre gas will start t condense to water, reducing its volume and so lowering pressure. Conversely if the tyres get hot then moisture will become hot vapour or steam and increase pressure.
Nitrogen fill means less variability in tyres pressure.

Does this matter to Mr Average?
Not one jot!
 
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I had a flat last week. Luckily I was on the driveway at home. RAC came over but their jack was too high so I had to drive the car onto a small wedge to lift the car up. He then used my puck on the jack. Can this have caused damage lifting the car like this?