Removing oil from carpets

[Lugy]

I've had a bit of a disaster with the Vectra, loads of fresh engine oil has spilled onto my passenger footwell carpet. It's very wet to the touch.

So far I've used Vanish and had a wee shot of my Granny's carpet shampooer but neither work.

How can I get rid of it?

[MSG]

remove as much as you can using paper towels or some other absorbant tissues, then use white spirit as a solvent and using paper towels remove as much as you can, then use meths spirit and disolve any residue and remove using absorbant paper towels, finally shampoo using strong detergent, and finally shampoo and apply perfumed spary to overcome any lingering oil/solvent smells.


(best way would be yto remove the carpet from the car and have it washed off in white spirit several times and finally give it a good detergent wash, and rinse, and dry and refit back in the car, clean the car floor of any oil using any solvent cleaners like meths, or some other alchole cleaner.

[Tathan]

take the carpet out and replace it

[paddy>gsi/turbo]

the carpets had it. as thathan said replace it

[Turbostevo]

I had some savage oil stainage on my carpets In my old gsi! Little trick from back In the army days when I dropped boot polish on the carpets, what I did was waited till it had dried fully to the touch and then sprayed the whole area with shaving foam, leave it for half hour to soak in and then with a hard plastic scrubbing brush you can start scrubbing the area until all the shaving foam has gone and you can't see any more. That will take 90% of the stain out and leave the carpet smelling very fresh too!
I'll post pics of before and after to try and show how effective it is!
Good luck!

[Turbostevo]

Before...

http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/...o/31178288.jpg
http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/...o/b36f7270.jpg
http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/...o/c77cba33.jpg

And after...

http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/...o/bcd8bf3e.jpg
http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/...o/91f85b9c.jpg
http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/...o/b8c02f4c.jpg

Hopefully the pics will show that it's a pretty decent and cheap way to deal with stains!
Took me about 2 hours to do the whole carpet and parcel shelf.
Stevo

[MSG]

he might as well change the whole car if he is going to bother to change the carpets. It would be cheaper that way than to buy new carpets from Vauxhall Dealers.

[Tathan]

But taking the carpet out to wash is your recommended course of action? Putting a £5 carpet from a scrappie in is the same job as removing and refitting as you advised.

wtf planet are you on

[MSG]

you are missing the fun factor of cleaning a dirty soaking carpet full of oil and bringing it out pristine using a bit of elbow grease, can't beat that against getting hold of dirty old crapets from a scrap car full of dried semen all over!

[Tathan]

We obviously have different ideas of fun.

[Turbostevo]

If I was to look at taking the carpet out to clean, I'd probably just simply replace it In all fairness. If it was repairable by any means I'd leave it In the car and get scrubbing!

[Tathan]

Have you considered putting a mat over it, and never mentioning or thinking about it again?

[Lugy]

I think I'll go with the new carpet idea then, it's just a cheap runabout but I'm wanting to keep it for another year.

Have you considered putting a mat over it, and never mentioning or thinking about it again?

It soaked through the mat that was already in the car, I've steam cleaned that which did eventually clean it but the oil soaked back through it.

As for cleaning the carpet when it was out, I always thought that it lost it's shape and became a ball ache to fit again.

[DrewyCoupe]

if was me i would just get new carpet from scrap yard

[BigDave1979]

As for cleaning the carpet when it was out, I always thought that it lost it's shape and became a ball ache to fit again.

I've done a few minging carpets by pulling them out and pressure washing then vaxing them. I never pay attention to trying to keep the shape of them either, usually just throwing them roughly over the fence to dry them out and they always go back in perfectly.

If I were faced with the same problem I'd pull the carpet out (and the insulation as well if the oil had gone through and was seeping back up) and wash it with plenty of warm detergent followed by a blast with the pressure washer, then the vax just to suck up the excess water. A good soaking with a detergent degreaser (Gunk/Jiser etc) or just good old fairy liquid mixed 1-4 with warm water should do the trick.

Edit to add: Don't suck up fairy liquid from the carpets with a vax unless you want a foam party! (I learned the hard way)