As I work through clearing out my pickup, I’ve found some quarts of oil. Should this be okay? Just shake it up really good to get all the stuff homogenized?
Or does it just get too special to be good?
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Only ‘special people’ will tell you an unopened bottle of motor oil isn’t any good.
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Kinda like putting an expiration date on salt, eh?
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Yes! But give it a few moments and a differing opinion will chime in…
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Specific to me, what if the unopened Qt has been sitting where it gets hot, like emergency kit in my car sitting in TX heat each summer?
Do you think a bottle of oil sitting inside your 4runner gets warmer than if it was inside the block making everything slippy?
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If the bottle is still sealed it’s fine for practically forever. If it’s opened… maybe. Depends on how much you care about what you’re putting the oil into and how long the oil has been sitting around (like a few years or like a few dozen years). Old oxidized oil is better than no oil but not as desirable as sealed/fresh oil. Oil oxidation is a thing. It’s why old oil like you might find in a barn from decades ago gets sticky and thick instead of smooth and fluid. It’s accelerated by use like high temperatures in an engine but it’ll happen over long enough periods at lower temperatures and prolonged exposure to oxygen.
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In your vehicle, it is already getting some motion.
I did see a YT video where some oil that had been sitting on the shelf, for something like 40 years, had something separate out and coat the bottom of the bottle. But not something I would expect within the life of the typical car carrying it around.
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It’s already millions of years old before you bought the bottle 
(I realize it’s not the same thing)
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