Bought Pennzoil Ultra SM by mistake

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I was up late and saw 12 bottles on eBay so I bought them for my 2005 Toyota 4Runner. I have 12 SN bottles already but the V8 2005 4Runner takes 7 quarts so figured why not. Anyway, it turns out that these are SM (2010) and not SN. Is the SM oil okay for 5K-6K at least? Should I go less and keep it at 5K? Also, it is okay to mix the two? All are 5W30. I figure it can't hurt so why not keep them but wanted to ask here. I could sell them if I needed to. Once I run out of Ultra, I'll likely switch to QS UD or Amsoil. Thanks in advance.
 
Should be ok for what you plan to do with it
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Originally Posted By: Nick1994
It's probably better stuff than what is made now, no worries at all.
Especially if it was made before the natural gas Base stocks.
 
Except Pennzoil says its oils have a shelf life (when properly stored) of 4 years. Your SM bottles are likely older than that.
 
Petro Canada says that properly stored oil has a shelf life of way more than 4 years... Depends if you keep it out of direct sunlight or not.

But I'd run that oil in a heart beat. Better oil than what's on the shelves now
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Originally Posted By: Danh
Except Pennzoil says its oils have a shelf life (when properly stored) of 4 years. Your SM bottles are likely older than that.


Source...
 
The bottles are 6 years old. The bottles seem to have been in a box and not stored in sunlight. Hopefully, oil or add packs do not deteriorate too much in that time.
 
Originally Posted By: gathermewool
Originally Posted By: Danh
Except Pennzoil says its oils have a shelf life (when properly stored) of 4 years. Your SM bottles are likely older than that.


Source...



It's actually 5 years - my mistake. It was a response on BITOG from Pennzoil tech support. Try googling "shelf life of Pennzoil ". Either way, the SM has likely "timed-out" by Pennzoil's standard.
 
Originally Posted By: HK_Ace
The bottles are 6 years old. The bottles seem to have been in a box and not stored in sunlight. Hopefully, oil or add packs do not deteriorate too much in that time.


Shake it up and use it, no worries. Blackstone did VOA of oil a lot older that that. Several brands and the oil was fine, in fact shaken or unshaken the oil was fine. I can't find the link but it was discussed here, and someone linked to the report IIRC.
 
No,no,no. Do not use. Tell me how much shipping is and I'll take them off your hands so you'll sleep better.
 
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Originally Posted By: demarpaint
Originally Posted By: HK_Ace
The bottles are 6 years old. The bottles seem to have been in a box and not stored in sunlight. Hopefully, oil or add packs do not deteriorate too much in that time.


Shake it up and use it, no worries. Blackstone did VOA of oil a lot older that that. Several brands and the oil was fine, in fact shaken or unshaken the oil was fine. I can't find the link but it was discussed here, and someone linked to the report IIRC.


Dunno about that one, but IIRC I've linked to this before.

http://www.machinerylubrication.com/Read/172/lubricant-storage-life

Its entitled "Lubricant Storage Life Limits - Industry Needs a Standard" but if you read it, you might just as easily conclude that "Industry doesn't need a standard" since they don't seem to have one.

If they did have one, it wouldn't mean that it had any basis in fact. There is absolutely no evidence presented in that article for on-shelf deterioration of motor oil.

Its served up as a ready-cooked "given", with a side order of "The Sky is Falling" panic-salad.

This is strange, because, from their own survey of industry recommendations, there is a notable lack of consensus about this. 1 year to infinity is a pretty wide range, and one year is a plainly ridiculous, CYA number.

IIRC the Blackstone report was sort of incomplete, because they promised a follow-up report on old oil in service (obviously harder to do) but never published any results.
 
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I see that Valvoline does not publish any expiration or shelf-life timing either. I think I'll just do a 5,000 OCI with these and get two oil changes out of them, while keeping a close eye on anything unusual, which I doubt I could notice anyway but I do know that the oils starts to go darker at 3,000 and none burns in this vehicle.
 
I have been finishing up some Pennzoil Platinum 5w-20 (SN) with 2010 and 2011 dates on it in my wife's Scion, I did not think twice about using it. I have 5 more 2011 qts, and just went and checked and also have a 5 qt jug of 5w-30 SM PP from 2009.
So long as it is in a sealed container stored indoors your fine. I would have no issue using 10 year old sealed oil (so long as the oil met the engine specs).
I always wonder what is it in ad-packs that people worry about deteriorating over time? I can kind of understand if sitting in an engine (even if rarely driven) for a long period since it is not sealed and can absorb moisture, is in contact with metal and such, but in a sealed bottle, nothing gets in, nothing gets out.
 
Originally Posted By: blupupher
...but in a sealed bottle, nothing gets in, nothing gets out.


Oxygen gets in. Volatiles get out. BUT VEEERRRYYYY SLOWWWWWLLLLLEEEEE.
 
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