How long a shelf life for oil?

[Jimmy9190]

I am sure this has been asked before and I searched for it but did not find anything..I am thinking of taking advantage of AAP's sale on the 4 quart jug of Valvoline dino and stocking up at $7.98 per jug. I know a lot of folks here have their "stash" and am curious to know if there is a shelf life or a "best when used by" date for the jugs. Any info is greatly appreciated...

 

[Raceman]

Don't worry about shelf life unless you have oil that has been on the shelf since Nixon bailed out. I have never seen a shelf life limit on oil. I am a junkie and buy oil whenever I see a bargain. Valvoline is my oil of choice, but I recently bought 25 qts of Castrol with Bosch filters at Auto Zone. The per quart price was $1. My current stash is 140 qts but I have 16 internal cumbustion engines that I change oil in.

 

[ProfPS]

I did a fast search and there were at least 10 threads within the past year on shelf life. The consensus is five years storing it inside or in the basement.

 

[Triple_Se7en]

No reason for consumer purchasers to store oil for more than five years anyways.

 

[Jimmy9190]

Well you have good reason to be an oil junkie Raceman. I always used to buy the oil & filter for one OC at a time but AAP has bogo on their filters and the good price for the Val 10w30. Gas is going to get a lot more expensive later this year and I'd like to save some money if I can. With that deal I did an OC last week for $10.00.

 

[TallPaul]

It'll take me about 10 years to use up my stash, so I'll let you know if something bad happens to my engine.

 

[ProfPS]

The 5 year consensus was based on a FAQ response on Mobil's site; I am sure it is longer. I think there is some truth that suspended ingredients will settle over time but that can be combated by shaking up the bottles every now and then. None of the threads stated anything related to ingredients going bad. I have a few cases in storage that are being exposed to colder temps then I would normally have them stored. This summer I plan to shake each of the bottles to re-mix the stuff.

 

[Jason8691]

Its hard to say, but it did sit underground for millions of years before is was refined and sealed in a bottle.

 

[eddy21]

I bought some maxum oil off E Bay and everyone had goo settled on the bottom they were from 1998

 

[Mr Nice]

I would use oil that is 10 years old without any worries.

 

[Jimmy9190]

Thanks for the info guys. I just didn't know whether there were any adverse effects to using oil that had been stored for a year or two. I'm going to hit a couple AAP stores next weekend and stock up on the AAP Totalgrip filters and the Valvoline dino. It will save me a lot of money in the long run. I drive a lot and change oil between 2800 & 3000 miles, about once every 2 months. This last oc was my first one with the AAP filter, and I sure did like how easy it was to get that filter tightened up on the engine block. Plus with the bogo offer the filters cost me less than $1.50 each, compared to more than twice that for the Purolator Premium Plus. This last oc only cost me about $10.00, so stocking up for the next year or two makes perfect sense to me now.

 

[Bill in Utah]

Originally Posted By: Triple_Se7en
No reason for consumer purchasers to store oil for more than five years anyways.


I sure wish I had MORE of the 49 cent Chevron Oil I bought hundreds of quarts of right now.

The last oil I bought was 99 cent PP but you can only get 6 quarts a month and I need ALOT more oil than that.

The last 3 oil changes I did for the Family cars has been with Mobil 5000 bought at Wal-Mart for $8.97 for 5 quarts ($1.79 a quart or 3 times more than the Chevron)

I've used oil a lot older than 5 years and never an issue.

Bill

 

[mpersell]

Most of the oil companies say to use it before 5 years as long as its stored properly.

 

[kkreit01]

I would think the "5 year" claim is due to new ratings, specs, etc. -- and NOT that the oil is actually going/gone bad. Shake it up, and pour it in.