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Leaking Phillips Oil Quart Bottles?

Noah

Well Known Member
Recently went on a 2500 mile trip, threw a couple quarts of Phillips XC-20W50 in the tool bag in the baggage compartment. A few days later, opened up the tool bag to find oil had leaked all over the place from these brand new, unopened quart bottles. What a mess.

Seems like these things need to be stored vertically to not leak. Drawing a vacuum on the bottle by going to altitude might be a factor, but you would think that aviation oil containers would be designed to be able to fly without leaking. Anybody else had this happen to them?
 
Same thing last week with AeroShell. it was a mess to cleanup but lesson learned I now place in gallon ziplock, removing as much air as possible to prevent "decompression" at altitude.
 
The bottles seem to prefer verticality... since my first flight I've carried a spare bottle of Phillips X/C (or two) stashed upright in the forward bin on my -8, never spilled a drop. Throw in some positive G acro and a few climbs to 14.5k, no issues.
 
Reminds me of a scene from Steve Martin's movie, THE JERK.
"Look that oil can is defective"!!!
more shots ring out
"Look, they are all defective"!!
 
I purchased 4-cases of X/C 20W-50 the last time I bought oil. I had one of the cases stored sideways under a bench. ONE (1) bottle in that case leaked. Did not have too big of a mess as it was still inside the unopened cardboard case. Taking the one quart bottle out that was leaking, I found that the CAP on that bottle was lose.
 
For oil containers in the plane, I clean the cap and adjoining area of the bottle with some acetone, make sure caps are tight, then put a couple tight wraps around the joint with silicone fusion tape.
 
I've had a similar experience (perhaps not quite so messy) and make certain that my traveling oil bottles are vertical or nearly so. Perhaps if they actually filled the bottles instead of leaving head space, this would not be an issue.

Greg
 
fly w spare Exxon Elite

I carry a couple of quarts of Exxon Elite oil, plastic containers, upright in the plane. No leaks of unopened containers noted in > 200 hours of flight.
 
Phillips Oil

I've carried a spare quart of Phillips for over 600 hours, highest altitude has been 12,500, no leakage noted!
 
leak!

Haven't had a leak, yet,,, but thanks for sharing your story. I will keep extra oil up right from now own.
 
Phillips oil

800+ hours, 0' to 17,500', always one or two quarts stored, always upright and never leaked. It is good to be aware that the possibility exisits, if they are not stored upright, before I did it. Thanks for test flying them.;)
 
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