According to the Engine Oil Bible,
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,the shelf life for "Engine Oils and Transmission Oils" is only 3years. Presumably this is for unopened sealed containers and wouldalso include ATF. This seems excessively conservative indeed! Surelyan unopened bottle of these lubricating fluids doesn't go "bad" afteronly 3 years! What about the fluids in service? How often do peoplechange the ATF or the manual transmission oil?!(not to mention say, the differential oil in the old conventional rearaxel layout, as in my '59 MG Magnette or an MGA, but perhaps thiswasn't intended to be included in the category?)