Tyre wear and pyrometers

[chillidog]

Still trying to get the best life out of the p-zero corsas I was wondering if it was worth getting a pyrometer. Any recommendations?

ps. Silverstone was great fun yesterday but the throttle cable got sticky and the damned exhaust bracket went again. Kerridges fixed both today at very short notice (thanks chaps) with a new throttle cable re-routed via the sill all under warranty. The drive back from the circuit was best described as an "interesting" exercise in using only the barest of throttle pedal movements

[joust]

I have one, but not managed to find anything wrong with the Corsas's wear if you leave them cold at the stated pressures.

You'll get slightly "uneven" wear due to the camber which has already been discussed by Micknall on here.

J

[Ash M400]

Get em filled with Nitrogen.

I did this on the 3R and about to on the M400.

[Mr Noble]

Does that not make plants and flowers grow out of them?

[joust]

Ash M400 said:

Get em filled with Nitrogen. I did this on the 3R and about to on the M400.

78% of air is Nitrogen......

J

[jmg944t]

The reason people use nitrogen in tires is because it does not absorb water like air. This keeps tire pressure more stable as temperature changes. Most people assume it is because nitrogen changes volume less than air with temp changes but the important factor is the influence of moisture which is not present in nitrogen.

[joust]

You should read Toyo's page on this

www.toyo.com.au/tech_info11.html

Unless the car is very close to the tyres load rating (which the Noble isn't), it will make bugger all difference.

In their words "the tyres fitted to this vehicle are under-stressed regarding load carrying & speed capabilities. In this application, nitrogen filled tyres would only run marginally cooler than with compressed air. The expected increase in tread life from this marginal decrease in running temperatures would be expected to be very small."

On the water vapour argument, unless you modify the pressures using Nitrogen, even small amounts of air will negate the effect.

Bridgestone say the results on the road are debateale as well

www.bridgestone.com.au/tyres/products/car/care/nitrogen.asp

Me, I've no firm opinion either way.

J

[Mr Noble]

Wish they could fill the light pods with nitrogen, to stop them misting up.

IIRC there is really no fix for this issue. Not really too bothered but it does look a bit tacky having water dropletts and fog in one of my light pods.

Kerridges said they would try and look at it today but I would be amazed if they manage to fix it.

GN

[AMG Merc]

Mr Noble said:

Wish they could fill the light pods with nitrogen, to stop them misting up. IIRC there is really no fix for this issue. Not really too bothered but it does look a bit tacky having water dropletts and fog in one of my light pods. Kerridges said they would try and look at it today but I would be amazed if they manage to fix it. GN

Vegantune said they were working on a fix for this - perhaps they'd like to update us?

This is a common problem (I saw this on the light unit of a >£100K Lambo a while back) and I've always thought that a small, low-power heating element under, or even engineered inside of, the pod would sort it out.

[jeremyc]

AMG Merc said:

This is a common problem (I saw this on the light unit of a >£100K Lambo a while back) and I've always thought that a small, low-power heating element under, or even engineered inside of, the pod would sort it out.

Aston Martin connect the air conditioning to the pods to clear any condensation.

[chillidog]

Thanks for all the replies on this.

As far as I can see (after googling a bit) there's little difference between dry compressed air c.f. nitrogen for this particular use.

So I'm going to get a cheap tyre pyro, a better tyre pressure gauge along with a simple tread wear gauge and then do some checks. It's not that I doubt the factory guidelines, I'm just curious.

[jmg944t]

joust said:

78% of air is Nitrogen...... J

I thought you were saying that it makes no difference as most of air is nitrogen. For a set of tires used on the street and track I would agree it makes no sense to use nitrogen. As I always have a dedicated set of wheels and tires for the track nitrogen does make sense though I don't use it. I have seen several people at the track using nitrogen and the best thing about it is that they had very small bottles that were handy for pressure adjustments, they looked to be the size of 1L soda bottles. Good read on that link, I was not aware of all of the other benefits in comercial applications etc.

[joust]

jmg944t said:

I thought you were saying that it makes no difference as most of air is nitrogen.

Nah - I was just making a (poor) joke

jmg944t said:

Good read on that link, I was not aware of all of the other benefits in comercial applications etc.

Quite interesting isn't it.

On the "adjust whilst on track", the little bottles are quite handy, but you could do the same with a compressed air one just as easily. If you know anyone that's in a hospital you could get "medical air" which is dryed and purified air.

Oh - see www.boc.com/education/production/index.html for how they make nitrogen.

J