# Shelf Life



## DasCC (Feb 24, 2009)

Whats the shelf life of oil? My 06 Passat used to drink oil at a high rate so I would stock up whenever autozone had a sale. Fast forward to today the Passat is gone and I have roughly 35 qts of oil in my garage. My current cars barely use any oil between the free dealer oil changes, maybe 1/2 a quart. 

Should I be concerned with it "going bad"?


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## cuppie (May 4, 2005)

It's oil, not lunch meat.  It doesn't go bad just sitting on the shelf.


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## DasCC (Feb 24, 2009)

cuppie said:


> It's oil, not lunch meat.  It doesn't go bad just sitting on the shelf.


lol- just checking, I'm not a fluid expert.


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## Dennis M (Jan 26, 2012)

Pennzoil says:



> Pennzoil Platinum® Full Synthetic motor oils with PurePlus™ Technology can have a shelf-life of up to four years if stored properly and it is not necessary to shake the motor oil bottle before dispensing. Our formulations are carefully balanced to ensure that additives stay suspended within the motor oil. You can contact the Pennzoil helpline if you wish to identify the date of when your purchase was bottled.


http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/pennzoil-q-a/

ExxonMobil says:



> Normal Shelf Life: In general, the recommended shelf life for oils and greases is typically five years when stored properly in the original sealed containers.


http://www.mobilindustrial.com/ind/...g-oils-greases-shelf-life-recommendations.pdf

Blackstone testing of REALLY old oils:



> Would there be anything to even see in these samples? And, does oil go bad? We get this last question all the time, and my answer has always been no, but I was dealing with oils from the 1930s,1940s, and 1950s here--really old stuff. Maybe all the additive in there (if any was even used) would settle out and there wouldn’t be anything for us to read. Fortunately, I had bought some oil that would help answer that.


http://www.blackstone-labs.com/Newsletters/Gas-Diesel/April-1-2012.php


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## jimbbski (Jun 3, 2007)

The oil itself won't go bad. The additives may over time degrade or break down chemically. I don't think they would cause problems but just not work as intended or as well. 
Remember oil is millions of years old!


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## bobvomac (Oct 24, 2015)

jimbbski said:


> The oil itself won't go bad. The additives may over time degrade or break down chemically. I don't think they would cause problems but just not work as intended or as well.
> Remember oil is millions of years old!


If anyone would like the information a research chemist might offer, here you go...Oil as in motor oil is not obtained as oil from the ground. It comes out of the ground as CRUDE OIL and is graded according to the composition of the crude and as such is different in every oil field in the world as it comes out of the ground. Once it's in above ground it is sent into an extremely complex process that separates a fraction (a part) of the crude that includes molecules that are of the proper weight and type that is the basis of oil to be used for lubrication of machinery. From there it has additives mixed in to make it into OIL for engines. That is the short story. So although the crude may be old, it does not mean the CRUDE does not contain undesirable fractions (parts) that would never be able to lubricate anything. They remove that fraction before separating the good fraction that will be used for oil. So a part of the oil that is millions of years old is completely inadequate for use in lubrication.

Synthetic oil is not from crude per se, rather it is made from natural gas or other petroleum products by modifying the chemical structure of the molecules to make them shear resistant under the heat and shear in a machine. Again, it is chemically made to have a different structure physically speaking. The oil molecules are linked together in a way that makes them longer and interconnected to better resist SHEAR when metal parts rub against them. Think of a spring that is made from thin wire versus a spring made from so-called spring steel. The latter is stiffer and resists wear, use and heat much better.

Today's synthetic is the BEST you can do to protect your engine vs non-synthetic oils. Don't be duped into using non-synthetic because it's cheaper. But then again, hardly any of you on this forum would be putting non-syn in your engines anyhow.


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