Does Car Wax Have a Shelf Life?
 

I have a bottle of Meguiar's Cleaner Liquid wax thats been on my garage shelf for 4-5 years. The bottle is 2/3rds full. Any risk in using it?

Try it on your wife's car first.

As long as the chemicals aren't separated you should be fine. I have used wax that is 4-5 years old that was fine and there have been other times where it was set up like concrete and I had to toss it. You will know once you take the lid off and take a look at it.

You, sir, are a genius

I've noticed some wax lasts forever, usually paste wax. While the newer synthetic waxes have a shelf life of a few years depending on how they are stored. I opened up a bottle of 6 year old wax just last weekend that had completely separated and turned to a straight liquid that was very gritty. It was not usable. You'll be able to tell once you put it on an applicator. If you're unsure, just buy some new stuff. Wax is not that expensive.

If it tastes like vanilla, it's still good.

Just buy a new bottle of wax problem solved. In 5 years when you decide to do it again you can throw it out and get ya another.

This also brings up a thing I just discussed with some people I work with. One of the nurses, who is a guy, bought a new Ifiniti G35 sedan in 2011 (330 HP ride). He told me a few days ago it had never been waxed! He said he didn't know you needed to do that to cars and that he sometimes adds that "wax stuff" at the automatic car washes and figured that was good enough. Another nurse, who is a woman, said "yea, I'm not sure my husband has ever waxed our cars either."

Do people really think that shit they spray on at the car wash and then immediately rinse off actually protects anything?

Yeah they do

Also should be waxing enough to where you don't have a single bottle for 5 years.

Protect for a very short I would say but nothing like a hand done wax, dry and remove product. And most of these people going through the automatic washes strip whatever protection that "wax" left on their last cycle, the next time they go through one of those automatic washes again.

And the waxing more consistently is a good idea (every 3-4 months for me). Not sure what the OPs reasoning is for a 5 year bottle. Mine is that I have tons of car care products. I had this bottle get moved with us through 3 different cities and 5 different houses in 6 years. I just found it in a box the other day. I guess the 120+ degrees my garage gets here in Phoenix didn't treat that product too kindly! LMAO

Some seperation is normal just mix it back in. Kind of like sour cream store it smoothed flat.

Today's clearcoat paints don't really require the care that those in the past did in order to look good, so most people don't wax their cars at all anymore. The spray on shit at the car wash will help the water bead off a bit but other than that it doesn't do much.

Every 3-4 months? I clay barred and waxed my Jeep after I bought it 2 1/2 years ago and it has held up very well. Although I always hand wash it and it stays in the garage a lot so that probably helps.

I have mine detailed once every month or two... Washed waxed buffed out. My buddy owns a body shop has a large family. I trade our oil changes for it.

Well, I've got some high grade shit that I bought less than a year ago. Id like to try the cleaner wax on the nose where I have a build up of bug juice and hard to wash grime.