Dear friends,

If I buy lots of engine oil/ATF and store them in the garage for several years (e.g. 5 years), will there be any degradation in their lubrication or additive-assisted anti-sludge & soot control quality?

I think they should be OK almost forever. What are your opinions?

Thank you very much.

Best regards,

Eric

I asked myself that question some time ago (since I buy oil the same way you do) and found an answer on the Mobil oil website. They say their oil is good for 10 years in an unopened bottle. I mentioned this to my friend who is an expert lubricant consultant for the Big Three and he scoffed, mentioning that it can probably last considerably longer.

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95 E320 Cabriolet, 159K

I agree. The shelf life of oil in a sealed container is indefinite as long as it doesn't see environmental extremes, especially on the hot side, but keep in mind that oil is continually improved as indicated by the API specification for motor oil and also improvements in automatic transmission fluid such as Dexron III versus Dexron II.

On the subject of maintenance product shelf life, conventional inorganic inhibitor anti-freeze that have silicates only have a shelf life of about two years, but organic inhibitor coolants such as those used by Mercedes and GM (Dexcool) have indefinite shelf life.

Duke

Its kinda like the man, my car is running bad, it must be old gas. Oil is really old it comes from the ground...Seems kinda funny, but old gas doesnt run as good...Wonder why? I like to cycle my oil once a year.

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Current Stable:
1994 S500 v140, 210k miles, white with grey.

Former Mercedes in the Stable:
1983 300CD Turbo diesel 515k mi sold (rumor has it, that it has 750k miles on it now)
1984 300CD Turbo Diesel 150 k mi sold
1982 300D Turbo Diesel 225 sold
1987 300D Turbo Diesel 255k mi sold
1988 300 CE AMG Hammer 15k mi sold
1986 "300E" Amg Hammer 88k mi sold (it was really a 200, not even an E (124.020)
1992 500E 156k mi sold
etc.