Extremely dumb question
 

Will I kill my transmission with transmission oil (exposed to air) leftover in non-air tight bottle?

I'll ask a few questions and you can come to your own conclusion.

Does exposure to normal "air" change the properties of transmission oil?

Is the transmission air tight?

If the purpose of oil is to lubricate, how would exposure to air change its ability to do so?


(You already know the answer to your question. . .)

Well I think he has questions 1 and 3 in mind already. And he probably wasn't thinking about question 2. Regardless, there's no common sense answer to any of the 3 questions, which is why he's asking his question.

In the ol' days, oil was used to prevent rust in doors, etc. as it is naturally water displacing.

Oil and vinegar don't stay in suspension very long.

Mineral oil is best for protecting butcher block counter tops as it will not go rancid exposed to the elements (and it is healthy).

etc. ... etc.

Common sense is your friend. ;)

As long as the oil didn't get dirty, it's fine.

Apparently the brain can become so egocentric it assumes things are common sense that aren't.

Have you ever had olive oil or italian dressing that's been kept too long? It tastes spoiled. This example question would serve as a counterexample to your "common sense" example.

Without knowing specific details such as the particular chemical reactions that can happen over time, yiksing's question is inarguably a common sense, i.e., reasonable, question.

I see your point.

So, assuming the oil isn't very very old and separated or anything, it'll fine to be stored in a non air tight bottle and then used in the trans with no problems.

^^ that's why I cited mineral oil that will not go rancid like olive oil will. Motor/tranny/diff'l oil is mineral oil.

You also need some more common sense (and remedial reading). ;)

And so how is the average person to be expected to know the detail differences between mineral oil and olive oil using "common sense"?

Quite obviously, it's not common sense. That much IS common sense.

Alas I must concur that common sense is indeed an uncommon commodity these days in the land of ever increasing mediocrity. Given the modern instant access to information it should be just the opposite, yet we seem to be regressing.

But at least yiksing asked (and I do believe the only dumb question is the one unasked) and now has acquired more 'common' sense. cudos! :)

edit: olive oil being derived from a vegetable/fruit rots (goes rancid), whereas mineral oil being derived from minerals does not. Common sense (aka deductive reasoning).

Actually common sense is not deductive reasoning, no matter what some "experts" say. The experts who assert this don't really understand what common sense is precisely, which is not that easy to understand.

The plain vanilla definition of deductive reasoning is making necessary conclusions from observed premises. It's self-contained, so to speak, and doesn't depend on the real-life truth of the premises. Some argue that deductive reasoning doesn't require prior learning (although the ability can be strengthened with prior learning). I would agree.

Common sense, on the other hand, is ENTIRELY based on previous experience. It goes hand-in-hand with the relevant previous experience. Such as answering the question: Will the sun go down tonight and come up tomorrow morning? Most people in the world think that a lot of knowledge is common sense, meaning that some things we are born knowing. In fact, NOTHING that we take for granted is gotten from some connotation of innate common sense. What happens is that we get so far away from some beginning state that we forget (once the neural circuits are created) what it was like in the beginning and start to take some things for granted, and we feel as if we had always known. This of course is untrue, because how could we have always known when we didn't even have the neural circuitry to begin with (they had to first be created)? To give some perspective, intuition, or a gut feeling, is often associated with common sense. Accordingly, intuition IS NOT some gut feeling that comes mysteriously out of nowhere, as in most people's connotation; rather, intuition comes directly from prior learning (i.e., acquired).

So back to the topic of this thread, please.

I prefer common sense = deductive reasoning (in my egocentric world). ;)

Back on thread.

Thank you all for the answers

no problem!!!

Amazing thread. The answer was not necessarily that obvious. For example, if the question had been about brake fluid, you don't use stuff that's been opened and sitting around for a long time, even if the cap was put back on. There was also a thread not too long ago about using motor oil that had never been opened but sat around for several years. Surprisingly (to me, anyway) the answer to that was that there could be problems.

Ken

Thanks, Ken, for your post. :wink2: