I ran 20 year old oil in my car...here's the UOA

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pbm

Joined
Apr 19, 2004
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10,206
Location
New York
2008 Hyundai Elantra 2.0L
Mileage on Vehicle: 62200 miles
Miles on Oil: 7755 miles (Pennz Performax 5w30 SH)
Oil Filter: older (sparkly blue) oversized Pureone PL 24458
30% city/ 70% freeway (approx.)
Makeup Oil: maybe 6 ounces to bring it back to the 'full' line
Aluminum: 4
Chromium: 2
Iron: 6
Copper: 1
Lead: Tin: Moly: 142
Nickel Silver: Titanium: Boron: 45
Silicon: 14
Sodium: 12
Calcium: 2055
Magnesium:17
Phosphorus: 777
Zinc: 973
Barium:
cSt Viscosity @ 100°C: 11.6
Coolant: No

Water:(%)
TBN: 2.0

PS: I didn't get much feedback when I posted this earlier so I changed the 'Subject'...I figure people would be more interested if they knew the oil was sitting in my house for 20 years before I installed it....even the blue Pureone filter was at least 12 years old.
 
I think this UOA proves that oil doesn't 'go bad'....it just goes out of spec...
 
It looks good. So much for the latest and greatest base stocks and add packs. Lets not forget the four or five year shelf life either. IIRC Blackstone had an article about older oils, and IIRC this UOA backs it up nicely.
 
I used an ancient fram 3614 filter on my saturn, its box said it fit dodge omnis and yugos. Shows them.
wink.gif
 
Great results, low iron ppm.
Funny, for all the talk about ZDDP levels down in SN oils, I noticed that your SH oil actually meets the SN limit of Wondering if some ZDDP and calcium detergents settled out. Did you shake the 20 year old bottles?
 
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To the OP:

What prompted you to run oil that has been sitting around for 20+ years on a shelf in your car?

SH rated oil was late 80s, early 90s.
 
Originally Posted By: stchman
What prompted you to run oil that has been sitting around for 20+ years on a shelf in your car?


From the looks of the UOA, just common sense.
 
The add pack looks pretty stout.
This oil would also have been Grp IV, wouldn't it?
Can't question the results you got with this old brew.
 
Originally Posted By: DoubleWasp
Turns out there is nothing noteworthy about running 20 year old oil, and I mean that in a good way.


Double... I notice you post two and three times per post!?
 
Everything looks good, even SH can be used in an engine requires SM. One question, why you add 6oz to bring the oil level to full ? I don't think you need to add any oil when the level is between full and add.
 
I've had an accidental double post before,,but a triple is a new one. Can a mod delete two of those for me?

This keeps happening when I post from Dolphin browser on my phone. I'm unonstalling that right now.
 
Originally Posted By: HTSS_TR
Everything looks good, even SH can be used in an engine requires SM. One question, why you add 6oz to bring the oil level to full ? I don't think you need to add any oil when the level is between full and add.


I added 6 oz. to bring it to 'full' because my daughter takes this car away to college (5 hours away) and sometimes I don't see it for a few months and I want to keep it 'full'.

To those who ask why I would run an SH oil...because I have it and 'Performax' was one of the best synthetics of it's era. I figure it's a PAO and I could run it for 7 or 8K
without issue (apparently I was correct). I wouldn't run this oil in my 2014 Focus or in a car that 'burned' oil but in a 2008 Elantra I have little to lose.
I was wondering if this oil would have gone 10K (with 2.0 TBN left)? Thoughts?

This isn't the first time I've had a very good UOA with oil from the Clinton era...this is why I laugh when people ask about using 1 or 2 year old oil.....
 
Nice job! Thanks for taking the time, and nerve, to run this OCI and provide a UOA. This is why I love BITOG!

Now back to the regular scheduled & boring 2015 expensive syn UOAs run for 5k miles
grin.gif
 
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