I have a 2002 Ford F250 Super Duty. It takes 15 quarts of oil to do an oil change. I've been seeing a lot of cases of motor oil sell on online auctions lately, very cheaply, often less than a dollar a quart. I need to do an oil change soon. There is no way to tell from the listings how old the oil is. I've always heard don't use oil older than 2 to 5 years. How safe is it to use older oil?

Keith

Cheap oil or ammo I shy away from just not worth the “savings” .

Synthetic lasts a bit longer on the shelf as it's more refined but not that much longer. There should be a expiration date on the cases/bottles. When you get your oil change, the new sticker should have an expiration date of the oil used in the change.

Interesting, I’ve never heard of oil going bad in unopened containers.

Get on 'bob is the oil guy' website...everything you never needed to know about oil. My understanding is unopened oil doesnt go bad, the problem is when little Johnnie pulls the decade old bottle of 5w30 off the shelf with outdated JASO ratings and uses it a newer car that requires better JASO ratings. The newer 5w30 likely has the correct ratings while the decade old oil does not. Makes sense to me.

Im sure oil companies like the idea of homeowners throwing away perfectly good oil because of an 'expiration' just so they can run down to the store and buy some more for top dollar. Just the cynic in me....

I don't know about old oil in engines but it makes good bar oil for chainsaws.

I could see maybe a bottle that’s been opened but not closed, but I’m not an oil expert.

Oil, even synthetic oil is an organic material. It oxidizes and breaks down creating sediment/sludge. Maybe you can get away with it if you're running a real oil filter, not these filters that are practically empty.

as long as the oil was made after your truck you should be good

it is the ratings that change

I have oil in paper and metal cans that don't seem to have changed that came from my grandpas garage
but type F isn't much in need any more

costco just had/is having a deal on full synthetic it was 39 for 10 quarts in two 5 quart jugs but at checkout it dropped to 32 deal applied

a co-worker of mine belongs to costco and calls me about his car repair stuff questions so when he told me about the deal I said would you order me a 5w30 and 5w20 so 67.50 with tax going

The Tacoma takes 0W20 so that’s a newer oil never had an issue with older oil weights but I change my oil often I won’t lose sleep over it.

Me and my friends have a saying any oil is better than none lol , use what’s rated for your vehicle and use the rest for bar oil like the above quote says

There isnt any sludge or sediment in the bottom of the oil container when pooring into engine, it aint going to turn to sediment inside my engine within 5000 miles.