cleaning engine oil from fabric or carpet

tomterm8

Is the problem the smell? if so, To remove the smell from your clothing pour a cup of vinegar into the wash cycle. It will remove the smell.

Other ways to remove odours from clothing is to soak in a solution of vinegar and water over night. Then wash as normal.

Is there a visible stain on the t-shirt?

Fitzio

It's not the smell, it's the black oil stain. It's only just happened, so I was wondering if there is anything I should do straight away to prevent it from staining. It's completely splattered all over (as is my dad's face/head/glasses etc).

tomterm8

see http://www.tipking.co.uk/tip/4190.html .

One of the best things you can do first is to liberally cover the area with an absorbent powder, such as baby powder, talcum powder or cornstarch and leave it for a least 20 minutes (although ideally for several hours) to totally absorb the oils, before brushing it off with a dry cloth or soft dry brush. If the stain was quite fresh, you should then be able to just wash it with laundry detergent in the hottest water that is safe for the fabric. Allow to air dry. (If the fabric needs to be professionally cleaned, make sure you brush all the powder off before taking it in to the dry cleaners.)

However, if the stain is older or very heavy, you will need to use an dry-cleaning oil solvent: place the stain face-down on a clean cloth or paper towels and blot the back of it with the dry-cleaning solvent. The stain should be"transferred" onto the paper towels underneath. Rinse thoroughly and then wash as normal.
Another way to tackle the stain is to work some liquid dish-washing detergent into the stain (colourless detergent is best as coloured detergent can stain the clothing itself). Gently rub the detergent into the stain and you should see the grease gradually dissolve. Rinse the area with white vinegar, which should remove all the detergent, and then with water. Wash as usual. You may need to repeat these steps a few times with very stubborn stains.

Tracey04

my son has some oil on his shorts from sitting down next to duck pond. any ideas how to remove it. Thanks

IlonaRN

Hi,

I've just realised that there's a rather nasty oil (as in black grease) stain on my carpet. It's a circle, about 1 1/2" diameter from something that was left on the floor.

How would I go about getting it out? I haven't tried anything so far in case I get it wrong and make the carpet worse!

Thanks in advance!

"Ironside"_Burr

Hi, I have oil marks on my rear car seats due to transporting a motorised wheelchair about. Does anyone have any tips on cleaning my car seats as I really need to get these as clean as I can as I am now intending to sell the car. Thankyou.

Sherlock._2

Ironside wrote:

Hi, I have oil marks on my rear car seats due to transporting a motorised wheelchair about. Does anyone have any tips on cleaning my car seats as I really need to get these as clean as I can as I am now intending to sell the car. Thankyou.

What are your seats made from - leather, fabric, man-made leathery-type

"Ironside"_Burr

Hi Sherlock, I think they are just standard fabric seats. I drive a standard Peugeot 206.

"Ironside"_Burr

Any help on this would be much appreciated.

Barneysmom

It might be worth looking in Halfords or asking your local mechanic as they'd probably know the best thing to use?
I think there's a dry cleaning chemical you can use but I'm not sure what it is called.