Oil on Car Carpet

Lee_Howden

Unfortauntely my top up bottle of oil has leaked on the carpet in the boot of my car. It has been there a considerable amount of time and I've only noticed it recently.

Anybody got any tips for getting it clean? THe only method I could think of was to get it valeted. However, this may seem an expensive way to solve it.

Gordon_Hose

Hot water and some washing up liquid?

skiddlydiddly

If the carpet is removeable take it out and jetwash it.

harveybobbles

Call into a garage and ask a mechanic if he can spray some brake and clutch cleaner on it (BCE) and pass him a crisp fiver.

rev_henry

Carpet shampoo maybe? Or any of those stain removing products designed for clothes?

Hammyman

I'd start off by putting vegetable oil on it as its a thinner oil. That'll thin it out a bit more then work on that.

I bet it stinks. Could be worse, it could have been gearbox oil which is rancid.

Dippypud

Take it out of the car, yes it does come out you'll have to fiddle and take some clips out (don't lose them).

Dry the inside of the boot with kitchen roll / old T shirts whatever,or you'll make the carpet rank again.

Clean the carpet with WARM water and either carpet shampoo, human shampoo or washing up liquid. Brush with a stiff brush or broom, rinse well.

Don't put it back in the car 'til it's bone dry or it WILL stink.

Job Done...:D (guess who did this once).

pendulum

I trood used engine oil up our newly carpeted stairs and landing a couple of weeks ago, plenty of rubbing alcohol got it off, I kept putting a little bit of alcohol on the oil, got tissues and damped them with the alcohol and pulled the oil off in a "pulling" fashion from the carpet strands, and once I could pull no more off this way, I damped the carpet again with alcohol and gave it a good scrubbing, the results were far better than expected (I thought I had totally screwed the carpet but now you cannot tell it was even there, unused engine oil should be even easier to get off). Don't just scrub it straight away as you'll just spread oil everywhere, get as much as you can off in the pulling fashion first.

johnnyroper

as harveybobbles said above use some brake cleaner on it,carb cleaner will do the same job both are cheap for a can from a local factors.
spray it on and use a clean white cloth to work it in and remove the oil,it will get shot of it very quick and no need to fetch out/jetwash carpets.

Lee_Howden

Thanks to those who suggested carpet cleaner. I only got round to sorting this a few weeks ago and did it whilst he had possession of my mother-in-laws VAX Carpet Shampoo. It's brought the carpet up really well.