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I went to the O'Reilys near my house to get rid of some used motor oil, and they said they just filled up and I could take it next door to the oil change place. I got to talking to them about bringing in some tranny fluid later on....nope only motor oil, and if we mix anything else in there we'll get fined up the wazoo. I went next door to the oil change place and told them what the parts store guys said, and he looked at me like i just sprouted a second head. He told me that they dump all fluids together, except coolant, and they get paid per gallon.
Most parts stores here have the same rule. There does not have to be any logic to it; their store, their rules, abide by them or go elsewhere!
Does the same recycling company pump out the tanks for the parts store and the oil change place? If they use different companies, their rules may be different.
now I don't know who to believe.....my world is shattered.
A couple things to consider.
1. Most of this used motor oil is bought by people who use it to heat their shops. Unless things are completely different in different parts of the country, this is not a government regulated thing. Yet...
2. If you mix 1 quart of transmission fluid with a gallon of motor oil, and take it in, they'll never know.
Location: San Ramon, Seattle, Anchorage, Reykjavik
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Quote:
Originally Posted by K1500
A couple things to consider.
1. Most of this used motor oil is bought by people who use it to heat their shops. Unless things are completely different in different parts of the country, this is not a government regulated thing. Yet...
2. If you mix 1 quart of transmission fluid with a gallon of motor oil, and take it in, they'll never know.
Not always true. Where I live the conventional motor oil is recycled back into motor oil. I can see why mixing would be an issue. Synthetic is pretty much always recycled.
That being said, there is a case to use this used oil as heating oil. A friend has a shop and they burn all oil products as fuel oil in the winter. Really depends on the price differential between the fuel oil suppliers and the recyclers.
My neighbor takes all my oil to recycle. He said it’s all dumped in one tank. I used to have all these separate containers. Now it all gets dumped in my rolling oil drain container and pumped in buckets.
My local auto store takes various fluids but it’s all dumped in one tank. So I don’t get the crazy rule. But whatever I just mix it all together and take it to the haz-mat drop off if it becomes a problem,
Worse comes to worse take it to your local dump. The have a hazardous waste recycle area. You’ll have to leave it in the container. I used to hit up the painters on jobsutes as they had this of buckets. I just washed out all the paint. Or go buy 5 gallon buckets with lids at the hardware store
You can mix used motor oil and ATF yourself. They are remarkably similar in lubricating properties more than most people would like to believe, anyways. (Why do you think you can put a small amount of ATF in an engine to clean it, similar to when you fill a crankcase up with diesel fuel or kerosene and let it idle, you can do that with ATF as well, as an engine flush. Let it idle for up to 30 minutes...)
Advance Auto, you can then dump your container of motor oil in there. I used to live near one that let me dump it myself, and didn't ask for ID.
I used to hit up the painters on jobsutes as they had this of buckets. I just washed out all the paint. Or go buy 5 gallon buckets with lids at the hardware store
I went to the O'Reilys near my house to get rid of some used motor oil, and they said they just filled up and I could take it next door to the oil change place. I got to talking to them about bringing in some tranny fluid later on....nope only motor oil, and if we mix anything else in there we'll get fined up the wazoo. I went next door to the oil change place and told them what the parts store guys said, and he looked at me like i just sprouted a second head. He told me that they dump all fluids together, except coolant, and they get paid per gallon.
The store I go to says oils mixed together are acceptable, just not antifreeze or other non-oils.
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