Indefinately except for opened containers of brake fluid. I have used transmission fluid and antifreeze that has sat around over ten years without any adverse behavior.
Coolant 5yrs for me once opened and stored in a temp controlled environment. If there's dew on the underside of the cap it's garbage.
Same here. It's brake fluid that's the problem. Never had any other issues with other fluids that were open, other than the occasional leak from a plastic container.
The permeability of the container is going to depend on the material in which it's made off and the how well it's sealed at the cap. Of course storage temperature and humidity levels also have an influence. The properties of the fluid themselves also mater. Due to all these variables there are general rules like 1yr for opened brake fluid containers, and formulator recommended 5 yrs for unopened motor oil.
Why would coolant in a plastic container go bad. Its alcohol, water and corrosion inhibitor? There is nothing for the corrosion inhibitor to bond to and the other two last more or less forever no?
If that were true, I would believe there would be an expiration date on the bottle.
The “once opened” must have effects - how much - who knows
I have 6 year old sealed Motul RBF 600 that I was just going to assume shouldn’t be used.
