Slightly out of date oil, opinions?

[pyro]

I bought some Quantum Longlife III 5W30 oil (comes in a boxed bag like cheap wine, classy) to do an oil change on my 1.6 petrol. The date on the side looks like it says Mar 20.

I've been lazy and haven't done it yet although I bought it back in the summer. It was off ebay from a VW dealership's account so they were selling off old stock. It was probably already out of date when I bought it.

Is it still good to use? Opinions about using 'expired' oil? I'll be doing it soon, so it should be about a year 'out of date' when it's eventually put in the car.

 

[300bhpdaily]

Have you contacted the seller to ask them to replace it if it was already out of date when you brought it? That would be the best bet. Also does it say use before that date? Or anything on the box to suggest to that’s when the oil was put into the box rather then a use by date.

 

[martin j.]

Never seen a use by date on oil, how any millions of years old is it. I’m off out to the garage to check the cans I have lying about.

 

[pyro]

On the back in that typical dot matrix text you normally see used for sell by dates, it has "E022007 02 MAR 20 11:19". Perhaps this is actually just the datetime of manufacture?

 

[martin j.]

Just remembered to go go and check the cans in the garage, they appear to show a: date, day, month followed by a time, this would suggest that is a packaging code?

 

[R3k1355]

For a 1.6 I wouldn't worry too much, just chuck it in.

 

[t0m_t0m]

My mum would say "it'll taste the same, get it down yer neck!"

Engine oil expiry dates varies from manufacturer to manufacturer, some say that it is a hoax to make you buy new stuff, others say it can expire but decades after dates shown if unsealed in the original container. I suppose it would also depend on whether it was synthetic/part synthetic/cooking/etc oil. Whether you want to risk it or just pop down to the parts shop to buy some fresh stuff for £40 is up to you.

 

[Legojon]

Does it say "exp" or something like that. I did this recently with car cleaning products... gave them a good piece of my mind... and they said ""that's the date of manufacture".

 

[Woody_72]

Just use it. It's oil, not a punnet of peaches. It'll be fine.

 

[andylong]

Expiry date on oil...gotta be a manufacture date