OIl over 6 Years Old

[Mike Rocket]

I have some Valvoline Fully Synthetic oil that has been stored for 6 years. It looks ok and is still in sealed containers. Has anybody used old oil like this. What are the views of the folks on this forum on this subject. I can find no use by date on the bottles and the Valvoline web site says nothing about end dates.
Until now i wasn't aware that oil went stale. Somebody has just mentioned it to me this week.
Any comments welcome please.

 

[atlsrt44]

Might be a nice experiment. Send it off to a lab and test it maybe. Blackstone labs here in us does tests. Not sure about europe

 

[Mike Rocket]

Might be a nice experiment. Send it off to a lab and test it maybe. Blackstone labs here in us does tests. Not sure about europe

Thanks. Yes i would like to know but it's not really worth paying to have it tested as i might as well buy brand new oil in that case.
As it's fully synthetic i thought it would not age in a sealed container.

 

[Tripps]

Well, if it survived 250 million years, another 6 years shouldn't hurt it.
I really can't think of anything that would chemically degrade it, myself.

 

[Dr.D]

Well, if it survived 250 million years, another 6 years shouldn't hurt it.
I really can't think of anything that would chemically degrade it, myself.

It's synthetic it is not 250 million years old. You are older than that oil.

 

[atomsplitter]

Should be fine since the containers were sealed. I doubt they put a "best when used by" date on petroleum products so as long as it hasn't separated into it's constituent parts (like modern gasoline) it should be good to go.

 

[stingray]

That oil is just fine, no need to test. Synthetic oil has just been synthesized during refining, it's still made from a base of crude oil that is billions of years old.

 

[cootertwo]

At the current prices, I wouldn't throw anything out.........use it! Chit, I'm old enough (72) to remember gas stations selling "re-cycled oil. Came in 1 quart glass bottles with a pour spout on top.......

 

[Mike Rocket]

Should be fine since the containers were sealed. I doubt they put a "best when used by" date on petroleum products so as long as it hasn't separated into it's constituent parts (like modern gasoline) it should be good to go.

Thats what i thought, as long as it's not separated in the container.
I have since read that Castrol and some other companies state 6 years. Valvoline do not and i have never seen any use by date on a can of oil., only a package date when it was canned.
You can only get any information when you start looking on their web sites.
Too much information i guess.
If it really mattered they should print it on the containers.

 

[Mike Rocket]

At the current prices, I wouldn't throw anything out.........use it! Chit, I'm old enough (72) to remember gas stations selling "re-cycled oil. Came in 1 quart glass bottles with a pour spout on top.......

Very true