I have 4 unopened litres of yamalube 2 stroke from the 80s.
Oldest unopened oil in your stash?
- Thread starter cwilliamsws6
- Start date
anyone else come here because it makes them feel like less of a weirdo? because i’m pretty weird, but compared to some of you guys ... 
CleanSump
Site Donor 2022
I am pretty sure all my oil is SN or newer, but I may have some SM in the stash.
Nothing loony about hoarding oil, I am sure there are things you do many may consider loony (like being on a forum about oil).
You want to pay full price for oil, fine.
I prefer paying pennies on the dollar for oil, so I have a stash.
I have self control, it has been over a year since I bought any oil (almost 2 years if you figure my last "purchase" I got paid to buy it after rebate and pricing error).
I also service 7 vehicles, so while I have a large stash, it is 2-3 years worth of oil.
Yet Valvoline states no shelf life for oil, just check that the API matches what you are using it in and shake bottle before use.
Nothing loony about hoarding oil, I am sure there are things you do many may consider loony (like being on a forum about oil).
You want to pay full price for oil, fine.
I prefer paying pennies on the dollar for oil, so I have a stash.
I have self control, it has been over a year since I bought any oil (almost 2 years if you figure my last "purchase" I got paid to buy it after rebate and pricing error).
I also service 7 vehicles, so while I have a large stash, it is 2-3 years worth of oil.
I had a stash of two cycle marine oil that I purchased in 2003. I just used the last of it, which was 18 years old. It worked fine.
“ExxonMobil recommends a five-year maximum shelf life for engine oils, including Mobil 1™ synthetic motor oil.”
www.mobil.com
This is a place where people check the date code sticker on batteries and buy the one made month ago, and won’t buy tires more than a year old. While others have stashes of hundreds of bottles of 10 and 20 year old oil they know they can’t use up and think it is normal. It’s like the cat lady who has 120 cats in her house and thinks that is normal too. The oil manufacturer says five-year maximum on motor oil, maximum as in even five years is stretching it.
Mobil 1™ shelf life | Mobil™
ExxonMobil recommends a five-year maximum shelf life for engine oils, including Mobil 1™ synthetic motor oil.
www.mobil.com
This is a place where people check the date code sticker on batteries and buy the one made month ago, and won’t buy tires more than a year old. While others have stashes of hundreds of bottles of 10 and 20 year old oil they know they can’t use up and think it is normal. It’s like the cat lady who has 120 cats in her house and thinks that is normal too. The oil manufacturer says five-year maximum on motor oil, maximum as in even five years is stretching it.
I am mainly here for the laughs. And there is occasionally some useful information about car repairs found here, if you sift through it very carefully.
And, yet, today I went to Costco and they had limits of 1 package of TP per person and still no toilet paper, and this is what the oil shelves look like at Walmart, with thousands of supply chain problems around the globe to deliver goods.
And as many here have attested, we've all used 20 year old oil without issues.
You cannot look at these Walmart shelves and feel optimistic that you'll just "go get oil" when you need it. I took these photos recently at Walmarts locally. I'd estimate, 80% empty.
Americans are incredibly spoiled with our Just In Time supply chains and people not making contingent plans. You might wake up and find you cannot "just go buy it." Hence, the hoarding of goods and if you can do it smartly as I have, it's free with just a bit of labor and storage.
4 year old Supertech conventional. I bought it for a car I no longer own.
CleanSump
Site Donor 2022
Exactly. It isn't hoarding and it isn't crazy cat lady. Some people have lives and lives move forward. Stuff sometimes doesn't move as planned. Some should look in their own backyard instead of judging others' garages. He who is without sin, let him cast the first stone.....
we live in a world where full grown adults dress up as “furries” or put on leather armor and have swordfights at the local elementary school. hoarding oil is a little esoteric but it hardly registers on the crazy scale by comparison!“ExxonMobil recommends a five-year maximum shelf life for engine oils, including Mobil 1™ synthetic motor oil.”
Mobil 1™ shelf life | Mobil™
ExxonMobil recommends a five-year maximum shelf life for engine oils, including Mobil 1™ synthetic motor oil.
This is a place where people check the date code sticker on batteries and buy the one made month ago, and won’t buy tires more than a year old. While others have stashes of hundreds of bottles of 10 and 20 year old oil they know they can’t use up and think it is normal. It’s like the cat lady who has 120 cats in her house and thinks that is normal too. The oil manufacturer says five-year maximum on motor oil, maximum as in even five years is stretching it.
Putting back valuable supplies is not only NOT crazy, it's completely rational behavior called "planning ahead." Companies do it. Governments do it. We all do it with some resources, and some choose cash which is a depreciating asset whereas others choose gold or bitcoin or a big house or other commodities. It's human nature and fully rational to obtain valuable stuff and then use it or trade/sell it.
As for oils, seems the consensus is many of us have used 2-decade old oil without bad effects.
As for oils, seems the consensus is many of us have used 2-decade old oil without bad effects.
Yeah that SJ motor oil is quite a valuable asset in the barter economy some people are imagining. Let’s see, J, K, L, M, N, N+, P. Only six classifications behind the curve. Maybe they can use it to lube bicycle chains when we’re all riding bikes, after the big one.
I bought that SJ oil for 25 cents per qt at a garage sale a decade ago. I was able to do an oil change for $1.50 + filter cost. This saved me from having to go to the store and pay 20 times this amount for new oil. Not hard concepts. When you don't have it, you have to go buy it and that's a hassle. Having it on hand, often at near free prices, is smarter in every respect.
When the shelves are bare, things like oil become real commodities.
Shel_B
Site Donor 2023
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I have some 0W-40 Rotella T6 that was filled in September of 2015 or thereabouts, the next oldest is some CJ-4 Delo 400LE 5W40, was filled in 2015 or 2016, I used up a jug that was filled in 2013 recently.
Hate to break it to you but AutoZone and Advance Auto do clearances. I could care less how long “oils shelf life is”. I still have late 80’s Amoco and Ames brand motor oil still sealed to use. Rebates are a pain also as Astro14 said. If you want to pay full price for oil: go right ahead. I now have over 550 quarts of oil and selling some today
Jackson_Slugger
$50 Site Donor 2022
Gotta be worth something.
I kick myself when I think back to the 90's and when I worked at a garage. People would leave old cans like this, or Pennzoil ATF. I'm sure we'd have quite a man cave decor right now if we hadn't cracked it all and dumped it in the dirty oil tanks....
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