How many years of oil do you keep?

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Apr 6, 2020
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DFW
I've been pondering my oil supply for my two vehicles. Prefer to buy oil based on value/bargain before I need it. Hate to pass up good deals, but there is risk in buying too much.
My current stash:

My truck: 2 years worth. Bottled in '18 and '19.
Wife's car: 2.5 years worth. Bottled in '17 and '18.

How much oil do you keep on hand for oil changes?
 
"Hate to pass up good deals......"

Oh boy.. I know all about that.... I didn't pay attention to my stash and just took advantage of several deals.

I then counted the number of quarts and looked at our average yearly mileage and realized I had about 10 - 20 years worth of oil.

The size of my stash was not intentional.

I'm now offering oil changes to friends. :)

-A
 
Originally Posted by farrarfan1
None. I buy the amount I need a day or two before a scheduled change.


I usually do the same. I'm always trying something else or thinking about it. The last car I had only had Mobil 1 throughout the entire time I owned which is unusual.
 
Typically about two to three years.
I've got 4 cars, 3 fun karts, one ATV and 8 or 10 pieces of OPE so it's a decent stash.

Back when the Castrol green was a hot item on BITOG, I had a lot more, maybe five years worth.

Since I'm retired, a lot of this stuff gets changed on time elapsed rather than miles run.
 
I'll just put it this way, I'm still using on oil I bought back in the '90's and '00's when I could buy oil for under $1. a quart and still have several cases of it. Counting the older oil and what I've bought in the past few years I'm pretty sure my oil supply will outlast me. One reason I have so much is because I used to drive 30-40K miles a year and since becoming disabled 20 years ago it's only 10-20K most of the time now. I'm using Citgo Superguard in my '16 Nissan Versa that was bought in the '00's at a store grand opening for 2qts./$1. The Versa takes 3.2 qts. and a filter at each oil change. When I bought the Versa I bought a dozen filters from Rock auto at $2. each so my oil changes on that car are costing me less than $4. each. The Exxon Superflo I'm using and have been using in the '97 Ford Escort since new was bought before I bought the car. I think I paid $ .79/qt. for it. I take care of the oil changes in my mom's '99 Grand Marquis and lawn mowers and am still using oil that my dad bought before his death in 2010.
 
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Pre-pandemic, I would keep an oil change or two on the shelf, at most. Especially if I found anything on sale. That was like 3 months supply, tops. Post-pandemic, that appears to now be 2+ years for the same amount...
 
Stay ahead 2 oil changes. Filters I normally buy in a 5 pack.
 
I buy on a sale, only keep enough for 2 oil changes and a spare quart in the trunk for top-off if needed.

2 oil changes, so that's enough to cover about a year of changes per my cycle. At that point, another sale will usually be near and soon, else I'll buy it when I do need it.
 
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I am currently keeping one oil change (oil and filter) on the shelf ready to go for each of our 4 cars. I use to keep a lot more.
 
I use to keep about 2 changes per vehicle but I needed 5w20 for the Ford and 5w30 for the GM and 10w30 for the Dodge and 15W40 for the Tractor and 20w50 for the motorcycle. It was getting crazy and I was running out of needed space so last year I changed all the cars and truck to 5w30 and the tractor and motorcycle went 15w40 Synthetic. Now I can just keep 3 jugs of each and I am covered for whichever comes up next and enough on the shelf that I can wait for the next sale.
 
According to my Excel spreadsheet, i have 211 qts. Or roughly 42 oil changes not counting adding oil into a couple of the cars between changes. Is that a lot? Do i have a problem?
confused2.gif


Granted we do have 5 cars, Garden Tractor, Ford Diesel tractor, and a few pieces of smaller OPE.
 
You are about exactly what I do. 2 years is my max then I start passing up deals. Had to pass on the Mobil 1 deal that was 5 jugs for $25. I cried a little.
Had 2 years worth on the shelf and this would have put my at the 4-5 year mark. Too much.
 
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I wasn't seeing discounting going on, but after I found out Pennzoil and Quaker State had discounts on synthetic oil in Canada, I maxed out on the four jugs of each for two years and ended up with about a year of surplus oil. I use about six jugs of oil per year but accumulate eight. At the end of this year I'll probably buy only four more jugs of Pennzoil synthetic. They're 5 liter jugs.
 
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