date of production of oil???

[bmwmini_cooper_s]

just curious.. is the date of production stated on the packaging of the oil? i just bought mobil 1 oil and there is a date printed at the bottom back.. what is that date supposed to mean? thanks!!!

 

[mechtech]

Do you mean a Budweiser 'born on' date?

 

[dave1251]

bmwmini_cooper_s I think that this is unqiue to markets outside the US. Anyone see this on there M-1.

 

[Meistersinger]

I don't know about M1, but Shell dates every bottle with the batch code and fill date.

 

[eljefino]

There was an old thread where someone found a date code under ultraviolet "black light". IIRC, it was on M1, but one could barely see the ink under regular light.

It could be an industry practice not limited to oil, so go through the pantry with your kid's party lamp.

 

[pepper32]

Chevron oil has it on each bottle.

 

[bruce381]

API requires a LOT code on all bottles.
bruce

 

[Mr Nice]

"but one could barely see the ink under regular light."

That person was me.

It is hard to read, but you have to hold the bottle at an angle and it is under the back label.

 

[AndyH]

Castrol Syntec 0W-30 ("GC"), and likely all of the Syntec line I'd think, have a date-code stamped on the bottom of the bottles.

Info from Castrol:

quote:

---

"Thank you for contacting Castrol North America.

You can determine the date of manufacture by locating the fill code on the bottom of the back panel.
It is composed of a series of letters and numbers, with the first five characters being the most important.

For example, if you have M04023...., the "M" would represent the plant location.
The five digits '04023' represent the date of production.
The number 04 represents the last digit of the year (2004) and the '023' represents the day of the year, based on 365 calendar days, on which it was produced (January 23).

Therefore Lot# M040236ATW2418346 16:38
was manufactured on January 23rd of 2004."

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[blupupher]

I know Castrol and Valvoline do date their oils, and I would guess all others do also, it is just a matter of figuring out what the #'s and letters mean. Castrol is pretty easy (first 2 are the year, next 3 are the day of the year) and someone had posted Valvoline's codes here a while back.

 

[bruce381]

quote:

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Originally posted by bruce381:
API requires a LOT code on all bottles.
bruce

---

 

[TallPaul]

Typical Valvoline production date code is on the lower back label. It looks like this:

F114... (... means I don't know how it ends)

The F is month (A=Jan, B=Feb, ...)
The 11 is day of month
The 4 is year.
I guess you know it's not '94 if it is SL
The rest of the code is production related.

NAPA bottles have the same type of code.