OLD oil (20 years)!!

New_Dude

Any oil experts here? I have a big barrel (plastic type) Quantum diesel oil, bought from VW dealers, from 1990....just found it in the back of shed during a clear-up. Is this still useable after so many years? Or has it gone "off"?

flashy

I'm certain it will be good, but i wouldnt use it for the new cars, the new VW Diesels have PD engines and will go bang if you use the wrong oil. The new petrols dont use 10w40 either, usually 5w40 or 5w30.

5L of oil nowadays is about £15 to buy. So unless you need to use it, i wouldnt.

flyingscotno1

flashy wrote: »

I'm certain it will be good, but i wouldnt use it for the new cars, the new VW Diesels have PD engines and will go bang if you use the wrong oil. The new petrols dont use 10w40 either, usually 5w40 or 5w30.

5L of oil nowadays is about £15 to buy. So unless you need to use it, i wouldnt.

I'd agree with that, there may be some problems with the oil depending on storage but oil is not just oil, and since 1990 there would be significant developments with oil due to changes with car engine types and performance to cope.

As mentioned the PD diesels are the classic cases and will see a lot of metal in the wrong place on the wrong oil- but just don't use 5W40 as all oils aren't the same- use the codes- for example Esso did 5W40 with VW 505.01 good for some PD engines but also 505.00 not good!

CHR15

If the barrel is big enough, get a couple of loose women over to have a wrestle in it, othewise, 20yr old oil?? just bin it. I wouldn't put it in any machine I wanted to protect.

Coaster_2

Maybe a farmer would be interested in it, they often operate diesel kit which is over 20 years old. Tractors often have huge sumps as well, and could need 10-14 litres for an oil change.

pianeet

i think it's probably about 20 million years old when it comes out of the ground anyway,i can't see another 20 doing it any harm

Volcano

pianeet wrote: »

i think it's probably about 20 million years old when it comes out of the ground anyway,i can't see another 20 doing it any harm

Motor oil bears little resemblance, physically or chemically, to the stuff that comes out of the ground.

As long as the barrel is sealed (mainly to protect from water ingress), then it should still be usable. As others have said, maybe not so good an idea for modern vehicles, but selling it to a farmer sounds feasible. Stick it on ebay maybe?

vaio

pianeet wrote: »

…..I think it's probably about 20 million years old when it comes out of the ground anyway, I can't see another 20 doing it any harm

Good point but I think modern synthetic oils owe more to a test tube and lab than to dead dinosaurs.

OP the barrel should have specification codes on it, check those and if it’s suitable for your car then there will be no problem using it. If it’s not suitable then stick it on eBay

northern_munky

Have a look what they say on 'oil bible', scroll down half way to 'engine oil shelf life'

http://www.carbibles.com/engineoil_bible.html

AdrianHi

vaio wrote: »

Good point but I think modern synthetic oils owe more to a test tube and lab than to dead dinosaurs.

They owe everything to both in a manner of speaking.
Synthic or sythesised oil is regular mineral oil that's been through an (expensive) synthesising process which changes the molecules which greatly changes the nature of the oil.

20 year old oil in a modern engine - definately not. By the looks of the carbible it may *probably* be OK is stored right, but I would not risk it.

vaio

AdrianHi wrote: »

They owe everything to both in a manner of speaking.
Synthic or sythesised oil is regular mineral oil that's been through an (expensive) synthesising process which changes the molecules which greatly changes the nature of the oil……….

I thought synthetic oil had never been near an oil well, it’s all lab based.

http://autospeed.com/cms/A_0875/article.html gives more details

“Mineral oils - Lubricants whose base stocks are derived solely from direct distillation and separation of crude oil.

Synthetic oils - Lubricants whose base stocks are pure chemicals. They are not based on the simple refining of crude oil but are manufactured by the conversion of certain chemicals into synthetic bases with controlled structure and predictable properties.

Part or partial synthetics - These are mineral oils blended with synthetic oil. This has the effect of combining the desired features of each into the single oil. The term semi-synthetic is sometimes used to describe these oils. This is misleading as this term is used to describe a quite different fluid as shown below.

Semi-synthetics - These oils use the same raw material as mineral oils. However, the oil is further chemically manipulated after distillation. This process removes many unwanted compounds (such as those containing nitrogen, oxygen and sulphur) and converts many of the sludge-forming compounds into less reactive hydrocarbons.”

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