Nitrogen Uniflate

April 24, 2003

I just took my ae92 for its mot which it passed with flying colour's but on the wall of the shop where i had it done (xtreme motorsport in Harlow) was aposter for a company called UNIFLATE saying that 'F1 technology was here....blah blah blah' I asked the guy what it was all about and he explained that for £1 per wheel they'll inflate your tyres with Nitrogen instead of air !

i asked why ?

he said: well F1 cars have been using it for ages now and its mandatory for aircraft.

the reason for this is that it does not expand as it gets hot so your wheel is ALWAYS at the correct inflation no matter what the conditions are.

what a load of ***** i thought, but novel anyway.

then he explained how there is moisture in AIR but none in Nitrogen so infact the air will slowly oxidse the inside of your wheel (if you are tubeless) which can be really detremental to alloys over time.

Ok may have a little something there and i laughed about it with the guy, then he takes my car out of the mot bay and into the wheel section and inflates all my tyres with nitrogen for free........

i'd be f :censor: ked if i was going to pay for it LOL..... but i know the guys there a little and they remembered the car so its all good.

I still think its a gimmick though, although with 100% correct inflation my tyre ware should be a little more even :)

April 24, 2003

I might be wrong here but isn’t air about 75% nitrogen anyway? (It’s been a few years since I went to school)

And as for normal air oxidising in the wheel and damaging it, Alloy wheels are porous anyway which means air will get into and escape from the wheel over time.

Sounds like a gimmick to me.

April 25, 2003

took the car for a good thrashing just after and i have to admit that the handling of the car was superb on tight twisty country roads, normally after a while it gets really twitchy after lots of hard cornering but not this time..... might just be the correct tyre pressure though LOL :P especially as the nitrogen doesn't expand but you can bet your ***** the rubber tyre will, in effect deflating your tyre LOFL...