just a quick carpetty question (& oil..)

[Tahrey1043]

Problem:
Castrol make a well-hyped oil but their carton designers couldnt engineer an escape from a wet paper bag.

Result:
Mostly full (had already got a couple 1/2L topups out of it) 1-gallon carton of Magnatec bursts open in boot and lays undiscovered for two weeks while owner is on holiday. (I know, dumb for keeping a 4.5L in the boot). Three and a half litres of 10w40 all over the damn place; over the boot liner, the boot itself, the toolbag & tools, petrol canister, a little on the spare tyre (will that have to be replaced?)... all of which turned out to be fairly easy to clean or replace. What isn't, is the litre or so that leaked forwards from the boot and out under the back seats and down on the carpet behind and underneath the drivers seat.
I think so far i've done a fair job of getting it all out - lots of newspaper, kitchen towel, and random upholstery cleaner from the garage that claims to get oil out - but there's still a residual greasiness that can't be gotten rid of even with fairy liquid and several other detergents. Plus there's some still underneath the carpet that I'll probably never get to without some serious trim unscrewing and maybe even removing the seats, and all that still sitting under the rear bench and soaked into the foam rubber.

What to do, O mighty cleaning lords?

PS the upholstery in general was pretty good when the car was bought at 57k, but after having my fat ass in it for 11000 miles the drivers seat is looking distinctly more faded than the others. Just use the general cleaner again?

[Nelson_Wilbury]

Man! That is not good

Best thing I can suggest on something that serious is a trip to the valeters and they should be able to shampoo most of it out. It might cost a bit but the end result should be worth it.

Sorry I can't be of any more help but I think oil spills is beyond anyones cleaning skills on here!

[Josh_PoloGTi]

Valeters use proper wet shampoo vacs with hardcore detergent... Maybe it's time to give up and get them on the case.

I had my company car fully valeted by pro's when my mates sister was sick in it...

They did a PROPER good job.

[Tahrey1043]

OK, a few months on.... it seems to have just improved with time. Cargo, peoples feet, oil-eating bacteria, evaporation having done a fairly good job at wiping it away and drying. And the spare hasn't spontaneously burst either.

Still, there's probably some grease left and the seats are still awful. Maybe I will sort out a trip to get it cleaned by pros (there's some guys round here offering a mega service for £50... or a fabric clean for £20...). Once I've got the seats properly nailed back down that is, so they don't rock them out of the car with scrubbing!

Cheers,
MP

PS still buying magnatec for full changes, but keep an old (super secure!) halfords pull-and-screw design bottle to decant it into if any leftover needs stored... it's hard to even make that drip in a bad way when pouring Also using their regular 10W40 for top ups - just not worth wasting expensive stuff diluting it into cheap, do it the other way round instead!

[bstardchild]

Problem:Three and a half litres of 10w40 all over the damn place; over the boot liner, the boot itself, the toolbag & tools, petrol canister, a little on the spare tyre (will that have to be replaced?)... all of which turned out to be fairly easy to clean or replace. What isn't, is the litre or so that leaked forwards from the boot and out under the back seats and down on the carpet behind and underneath the drivers seat.
I think so far i've done a fair job of getting it all out - lots of newspaper, kitchen towel, and random upholstery cleaner from the garage that claims to get oil out - but there's still a residual greasiness that can't be gotten rid of even with fairy liquid and several other detergents. Plus there's some still underneath the carpet that I'll probably never get to without some serious trim unscrewing and maybe even removing the seats, and all that still sitting under the rear bench and soaked into the foam rubber.

What to do, O mighty cleaning lords?

My suggestions FWIW - take carpets out - lay on the driveway and soak them on Gunk or Jizer - let it rest for a short while for the stuff to work and then Jet wash. I had a similar incident and washed em out after a similar treatment on a garage forecourt using the jet wash they had - got some loverly rainbow patturns on the perspex divider between the two bays and the floor was white with the resultant emulsification of the oil - but the carpets came up a treat.

Took em in the boot in a big plastic bag after treating them at home. and took em home in another bag - hung them over the washing line to dry all afternoon - Job Done

Gunk has an oily smell quite pungent
Jizer has less of a smell actually quite like it but both dissapear after a few days

[Tahrey1043]

Thanks.... some day i need to take my seats out (to clean/fix/scrap...) so I may wait til then to try it. Like I say it's mostly worn away now, but there's still going to be some hiding...