Using nitrogen instead of air has been a popular practice adopted by many race car drivers. Some tire manufacturers have indicated it provides for better fuel efficiency while others recommend against it for both safety and cost reasons.

What many people fail to realize is compressed air is approximately seventy-eight percent nitrogen and, twenty-one percent oxygen and a mixture of water vapor and other gases. This is traditionally what most tire shops is accustomed to using and minimizes the need for specialized equipment to inflate tires. Using pure nitrogen will likely limit the options open to the car owner, as well as pose potential logistical issues throughout the life of the vehicle.

There will likely be additional costs incurred and when purchasing tires can be an expensive proposition to start with, most tire shops opt for using cheaper compressed air.

Why would you opt for using pure nitrogen over compressed air in your tires?

Compressed air is more likely to seep through the rubber compound used to manufacture tires. Using pure nitrogen will provide a more stable tire pressure for a longer period of time.

Race car drivers noted as well tire pressure remains more constant through changing temperature swings. Tire pressure will remain fairly consistent when nitrogen is instead of compressed air even as the tire warms while driving. This will offer better handling and fuel economy, as well as extend the overall life of the tire.

When compressed air is used water can build up inside the tire that can ultimately lead to corrosive damage on the rim. It can also lead to premature rotting of the rubber in the tire. This water or water vapor results in swings in the tire pressure as you drive that could result in poor fuel economy and poor handling during changing driving conditions.

Tires inflated with nitrogen avoid this build-up of water because each tire has to be purged of any air. The process of inflating the tires using this gas means each tire has to be inflated and purged several times in success to remove any unwanted oxygen in the tire. This will also remove any unwanted water.

This process can be time consuming for your tire technician and result in additional costs in both gas charges and additional time charges.

Using pure nitrogen in your tires may also limit your options should your tire pressure drop for some reason. Not every gas station or tire shop has this type of technology installed. You may be forced to top up with compressed air until you can get to service station with the capability to purge and re-inflate your tire.

Critics of using pure nitrogen in tires for safety reasons have little basis for their claims. Race car drivers traveling at much higher speeds continually stress their tires in conditions not seen by regular drivers. In fact, the better handling and ride created by tires inflated with pure nitrogen enhance safety.

Ultimately it will come to a matter of preference. Drivers may opt to have more stable tire pressure and a better ride with enhanced handling and braking over convenience when making the decision to use nitrogen or compressed air in their tires.

At an average cost of about $225, why exactly should somebody invest in professional car detailing service? You can clean your own car in your driveway for about two dollars in materials, right?

A pro-car detailer’s training and equipment allow him to fix and prevent some issues that simply cannot be done by a do-it-yourselfer. Perhaps the most obvious of these is their ability to clean areas and the interior that you simply cannot reach with a rag and some cleaner. Pro car detailers use a compressed airgun and a variety of detailing brushes to clean into areas like buttons switches vans and map pockets that you simply cannot clean with the items that you have in your garage. It’s areas like the console and under your seats, between your seats, and the contoured areas of your steering wheel that get completely cleaned. When this is done the car just has a different feeling to it. It feels nearly brand-new.

Pro detailers also have electrical polishing and buffing equipment to correct the problems with your car’s clearcoat. Oxidation, hologram in, swirls, and light scratching in your paint can all be corrected with the right combination of compounds polishes and places. Although you can buy these polishes, compounds, and glazes at your local auto parts store, if you don’t have electrical polisher at least 50 hours of experience using it, you just aren’t going to get the results that are pro-detailers can achieve.

There’s other areas of your car that can be restored by pro-detailers in ways that a do-it-yourselfer cannot. One would be your headlights and tail lights. These often become oxidized with UV exposure. A pro-detailer can wet sand these in various grades and buff and polish them to a glossy finish.

Odors are a major problem with a large percentage of cars. Pet owners tobacco odors and food orders make your car difficult to sell. A pro-car detailer with a combonation of a deep and thorough interior cleaning and ozone odor removal box can make these odors virtually go away. For people selling their car this can mean a recovery in resale value of up to $1000.

So if you have never had a professional detail your car just try it once. There’s something about the details they address that make your investment well worth it.

If you sit down and talk to a carwash owner at Starbucks about the mobile carwashing business, you will generally get an earful of complaints about how they don’t recycle the water, and how they often work on commercial properties without permission, and even that they allow the waste wash water affluent to run into the storm drain. Yes, those are common complaints and condemnations of mobile carwashes, although, I can tell you after 27 years in the industry that not all mobile carwashes do those things.

Of course, if you do talk to a mobile operator, they will have reciprocal complaints about fixed site carwashes. For instance the mobile operator might say something like; they hire illegal aliens, they make you wait in line, they charge too much, they leave streaks on your car, the equipment can scratch your automobile, and you better check to make sure nothing is missing out of your car once the wash has been completed. Indeed, those are common complaints and condemnations, but not all fixed site washes in the industry do those things. Are you beginning to see my point?

It seems to me that there is a way to solve these ongoing feuds between the two different methods of operation. First of all I can tell you this, I have worked with fixed sites before in the industry, and I’ve had our crews purchase purified water from them so that our crews could wash without streaking the windows when cleaning car dealership new cars on the lot. I’ve also worked with fixed site carwashes, where they would offer services to their customers such as motor home washing at their home, and send our mobile crews to do the work, taking a 20% fee for getting the customer.

This way the fixed site could offer additional services to their customers, and farm out the work to the mobile crew, while still making money. It makes perfect sense. Sometimes it pays to bury the hatchet in industry, and work together towards a common cause. There’s no reason that both types of operations cannot cooperate and profit from working together. That’s always been my belief, although I still see the animosity in the industry between the two sides of the coin.

If I were giving advice to a fixed site or mobile auto washing company, I would sit them down and explain this to them, and actually I have in the past, it is amazing how that light bulb goes off in their head is soon as I explained the potential eventualities in making more profit. Please consider all this and think on it.