Shelf life for oil?

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Is it opened? If you keep it indoors it should be ok for a few years. Plenty of members have a good oil hoard. I have about 10, 5 liter jugs in my basement.

Regards, JC.
 
Originally Posted By: dparm
Years. Maybe a decade.

There really isn't a shelf life, to be honest.


Really? The additives don't degrade with time?
 
No, the additives aren't known to degrade over a reasonable time in storage. Some years ago, a few oil companies had stated a five year shelf life was a reasonable expectation. Many people were concerned about "additive drop-out" of stored oil, which has been known to happen. A simple solution is to turn the unopened container up-side-down and shake for a few minutes before pouring into the engine. I always up-turn and shake the container before use, even on recently purchased oil. YMMV.
 
Originally Posted By: Noey
Originally Posted By: dparm
Years. Maybe a decade.

There really isn't a shelf life, to be honest.


Really? The additives don't degrade with time?



Nope, not really.
 
The main point is additives falling out of suspension.
Thats why the 4 years is told.
As long as you shake it back into suspension it should not go bad.
Thats what a Shell Rep told me anyway.
 
From a chemical standpoint I would be very surprised if there are chemically unstable compounds in there. The chemicals in the oil are supposed to survive the pressure, heat, mechanical stress, and contaminants inside an engine for 15k miles. If they went bad at room temperature, I can't see them performing inside of an engine very well since any room temp decay would be greatly accelerated inside an engine.

I don't think this stuff has a shelf life if stored properly, and this worry about shelf life comes from people being paranoid about their engines.

Originally Posted By: DS9
Khm, khm...

http://www.total-distributor-partners.co.uk/hseq/guide-to-shelf-life.aspx

http://www.mobilindustrial.com/ind/engli...mmendations.pdf


In general, the recommended shelf life for oils and greases is typically five years when stored properly in the original sealed containers



From that Mobil PDF:

"Industrial and automotive oils may show deterioration by one
or more of the following:

• Cloudy appearance or strong odor. Engine oils stored
in UNSEALED containers for a prolonged period of time
will absorb moisture from the air and may develop a hazy
appearance.

• Significant sediment buildup. Slight sedimentation may
occur for some oils over time and generally does not have
an adverse impact on performance."


They say 5 years if sealed but they can't explain why and say it only goes bad if it's unsealed.
 
Originally Posted By: abycat
I go by api classification not by actual time. so once the classification is to old then the oil is.


4 to 5 years for an unopened pack used to be bantered here.

The above point is just as valid as the time period ie 4 to 5 year time IMO as a guide, including checking the correct grade and class for the vehicle use which I guess is a given.
 
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No need to over buy oil and have it sitting around 10 years in your garage.

I like to have at least 3 changes for each vehicle on my shelf at home.

Let the store be your back up supply.
 
As long as the containers are sealed & kept in a temperature,moisure,controled environment inside. I'd say 10 years easily if its synthetic oil. I keep my stash in two closets in my house.
 
I have found the additives in some oils drop out of suspension in long storage. I just had this with 5 tins of Motul 300v 10w-40.

MTF has a specific shelf like (normally 3-5 years). I had a nasty surprise with VW MTF that I kept for 6 years, when I opened the bottles the additive had dropped out, forming a heavy sludge, which ment I had to buy 4 new bottles.
 
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Unless you are putting something like 20w50 into and old original engine I think you might be better off taking advantage of the improvements in oils over the years.

Roger.
 
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