Oil Shelf Life

As long it's in its original sealed container, it's probably OK, but I wouldn't use it any anything other than a old 4 cycle lawn mower. Doesn't meet current specs for auto use, unless you vehicle is at least

10 years old.

James C. Reeves wrote:

Its probably as good as it was 10 years ago, but do you want to run

10-year-out-of-date oil in a car? Maybe a lawnmower....

I wouldn't use 10W-40 dino oil in any engine I cared about.

I didn't think lawn mowers took multi-vis oils.

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There is absolutely nothing wrong with 10W-40 dino oil, although you certainly have the right to your opinions.

I'd put that oil in my oil can and use if for oiling hinges and things.

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Well - I've had some Havoline motor oil which is clearly labelled with a date on the case and on the bottles. It may not exactly be the bottling date, although it sure looks like it. Chevron bottles now have a date on them.

When I called Mobil about the shelf life of Mobil 1, I was told that the bottle would likely disintegrate before the oil got bad. Apparently unusued motor oil is stable.

Most name-brand multi-viscosity motor oils nowadays seem to be made with hydrocracked base oil. Pennzoil calls theirs PureBase, Chevron IsoSyn, and Havoline just "Type II base oil". I understand that it has better multi-vis properties than previous base oils, and likely requires fewer VI improvers. Some people used to blame the large amounts of VI improver in 10W-40 for gumming up engines as they broke down. I guess 10W-40 might be useful for an excessive oil burner - that's what various dealer service depts have recommended.

I believe single weight oils are less likeley to contain hydrocracked base oil. Some Pennzoil 30wt bottles do carry the PureBase label, while others don't. Strange.

Put it on EBAY. There are collectors of old oil cans. If it's in mint condition and full of oil then it'll go for a premium price.

Oil does not have an expiration date.

Consider this concept: Dino-based oil has been sitting around in the nasty, filthy ground for several million years. Do you *REALLY* think that 10 years of sitting in a nice clean can/bottle on your shelf makes any significant difference?

What the heck. They still have the price tag on them...89¢!! :-)

Don't some transmissions use regular motor oil instead of trans fluid and specify change intervals longer than three years? What makes sitting on the shelf more stressful to the oil? The sendentary lifestyle?

Isn't antifreeze less stable on the shelf than motor oil is? But Prestone and Texaco said that their Dex-cool type coolants were made to last ten years on the shelf.

Some older Hondas specified motor oil for use in manual transmissions.

Older Honda manual transmissions specified motor oil - anything from

30wt to 10W-30 at various times. The recommended change interval was up to 30K miles or 2 years. They've gone up to 90K/6 years and beyond with the new Honda MTF. There's speculation that it's just gear oil. A good deal of newer cars claim that tranny fluid is a a "lifetime" part (like my new Wubaru), although I'm highly skeptical.

Saabs also used to spec motor oil in manual transmissions.