synthetic oil & nitrogen in tires

I can't say much about synthetic oils, I haven't used them in any of my cars.
Nitrogen in the tires can't hurt, the military has been filling their tires with that stuff for years! It has bigger molecules than plain old air, so in theory it leaks out less. Only problem I have with switching over to it, is the cost! One thief get's $14 a tire! Not worth it yet.

"...how do you modify your ID to show all those cool photos and stuff?"
Use the link at the very top of the page, find USER CP, click on that, from there you need to find edit signature or change avatar, the rest is fairly simple.

 

Don't pay or drive out of your way for nitrogen fills. It's not worth it. You'd get more benefit from checking tire pressures at least monthly and keeping them inflated properly with plain old air.

 

Since Prius is not a Corvette or Porsche; while Toyota requires 5K mile oil change intervals, I think that a name-brand mineral engine oil is sufficient, especially living in southern CA with moderate climate conditions. I use 5W-30 Castrol GTX or Pennzoil, whatever I can buy on sale at Kragens for a net price of ~$1 per quart after rebate...

Since the use of synthetic oil causes no harm (and might keep the engine slightly cleaner), I have no argument with those owners who wish to spend 4-5x more on that oil. Some owners who live in very cold climates find that synthetic oil provides better start-up lubrication, which helps justify its cost.

I use the Toyota-branded oil filter, which is available for $3.29 each when buying a case of 10. I buy my Toyota parts from Champion Toyota Gulf Freeway (Houston) which is one of the dealers offering 25% discount from MSRP when ordering over the Internet.
http://www.toyotaworld.com/

 

My tires have about 78% nitrogen in them. SO sweet

I use all Mobil1 5w30 and have no complaints. I think enough people think synthetic oil is overkill that I'd have to agree at least that fancy synthetic oil is overkill.

I justify the cost of synthetic by doing my own oil changes... it's super easy anyway and I don't have to go sit around at a shop for an hour while they do a 15 minute job.

 

Most pro racing teams use nitrogen in their tires. The reason is that dried nitrogen expands much less as it is heated (compared to plain old humid air), so they can manage tire pressures more accurately as the tires heat up. There is virtually no advantage to using nitrogen in tires in a street drive car.

 

You're wasting your money with synthetic oil and nitrogen. If you keep to the OEM recommended service, regular oil is fine. Keep in mind that the ICE does not run as much as in a conventional car.

 

Actually that is incorrect. The reason it is used is it will not explode.

 

This statement is just plain wrong, except for the part about not hurting. It can't hurt, but it can't help either. Air is mostly Nitrogen. Oxygen, the next most plentiful component in air, has larger molecules than Nitrogen, producing a slightly lower diffusion rate. If it were simply a matter of reducing diffusion we would all fill our tires with Oxygen, not Nitrogen. Uranium Hexafluoride would be even better; that compound has a seriously big molecule, and it is plentifully available as a byproduct of Uranium enrichment. We should use that.

Another common misconception is that Nitrogen does not expand, or expands less than any other ideal gases. This is not true. It follows the gas laws too.

There are some good reasons that Nitrogen is used for tires in some applications. Note that most make no sense for common use:

1) Dry Nitrogen has been purged of water vapor. This prevents freezing at high altitudes in aircraft.

2) Dry Nitrogen, due to its lack of water vapor, has predictable expansion characteristics. Race car drivers use this to estimate tire pressure increases during high speed driving. Note that they still get expansion, it's the predictability that is important. Since the race cars are driven lap after lap under the same speeds and conditions, the tires can be precisely tuned.

3) Nitrogen will not support combustion. This can be a good thing for military equipment, aircraft, and race cars.

4) Nitrogen does not promote oxidation.

5) It is easy to carry around high pressure Nitrogen for filling tires. You don't need a compressor.

Tom

 

What brand of synthetic oil, and what viscosity, do you use? As far as the Lucas stuff, is that their oil stabalizer stuff, or their actual synthetic oil?

It's important to remember that most synthetic oils already have a pretty stout additive package and reserve TBN so no additional products are needed.

Do not use a racing oil in a street motor. The racing oil additives are designed for far different operating conditions, and will not protect against acid buildup or nitration in a daily driver. Additionally, the antiwear additives in racing oils will - over time - damage the O2 sensors and catalytic converter

 

I use Amsoil Synthetic 0W-20. I change the oil every 35,000 miles and replace the filter (with one additional quart if oil) at 17,500 miles.

Synthetic has superior wear characteristics, and I only have to worry of it twice a year.

5 litres of oil and two filters, with shipping, run about $75, so if a 5,000 mile oil change costs $15 bucks you can get about 5 oil changes for the same money. So the Amsoil is a little less expensive, but the real benefit is you only dispose of 4 litres of oil a year, instead of 25!

I hae 140,000 miles on a 39 month old package 9 , and have been using Amsoil for all but the first 15,000 miles. No problems.

 

That is the key benefit right there, drastic reduction in used oil stream. It's a fantasy to believe there is perfect custody of used oil.

It's no wonder most garages have high levels of GRO's, DRO's, and RRO's in their supposedly "sanitary" sewer system and the ground outside

GRO: Gasoline Range Organics, trace amount in used oil
DRO: Diesel Range Organics, trace amount in used oil from diesels
RRO: Residual Range Organics, lot of used motor oil

Of course, the API would frown at this dramatic reduction in waste oil as bad for the profitable qwik loob business

At one time, it was trendy to burn the waste oil in a waste oil heater. However, that puts a lot of heavy metals into the air

 

I have read that this still happens. If the used oil has 100 ppm lead (not uncommon, but unheard-of in Prius) that smoke would be 'somewhat unsafe'.

Waste oil also burned by ships at sea where environmental regulations = 0.

Reducing the waste oil stream is indeed a good idea. Maybe someday we can get a large fraction of Prius Chatters to run excellent quality oil on 10-12k mile change interval. 35k might be 'a bridge too far', given that we have not seen those used oil analyses yet.

Have we?

 

There are tighter regulations in place, for example Ontario has all but banned "small" waste oil heaters, industrial scale is still allowed. I suppose the lesser of two evils would be to burn the oil, rather then have a chance of it ending up on the ground.

Hard to believe that just until 6 years ago, it was widespread practise here to put used oil on gravel roads to control dust. Go back to the mid 1960's, it was common practise to have a drywell or leach pit at a garage. All the used oil went directly into the ground

 

I have found that "Siping" my tires has increased tire life, traction, and stopping power. The tires run cooler in the summer, and way better on wet roads. Worth looking into as I am convinced it has benefits from a small investment.

 

You guys have it all wrong...the nitrogen goes in the crankcase and the synthetic oil goes in the tires!!

I use a custom blend of 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and 1% trace gases. Highly recommended but difficult to find.

 

I always worry when I see people running those types of oil change intervals without analysis to back them up - you don't have any by chance do you? If so, I'd highly recommend that you perform one to check that those OCIs really are working for you.

 

If there is an oil that can do it, it is Amsoil. The next best thing I've found is Maxima 100% Synthetic. I just question the decision to use 0w-20 instead of 5w-30. Most I've gone on Amsoil is 15k. Analysis came back fine with several thousand miles left.

The Maxima is costly though.

Maxima Racing Usa - Maxum4 Ultra 0w10 & 0w30

 

Some folks have reported a heavily siped tire feels "squirmy." A modern studless winter tire is heavily siped and a lot of folks will complain about the mushy cornering response.

With the nice weather I recently took the studded tires off my Prius and the studless winter tires off my FJ. Geez, these vehicles actually corner again!

 

SSssshhhhh! That's a secret formula!