Motor Oil & Carpets

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KyleWrap

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So... my uncle just called me and said he spilt motor oil on the carpet of my grandmas cavalier. He said he has been putting "stuff" on it, however he wants me to see what i can do tonight...when its going to be like 9 degrees where i live (south of Boston).

So what approach should I take?

I was thinking of either spraying straight up Optimum APC and agitating it with a detail brush and let a blow dryer sit on it so it doesnt freeze. I may try Blue Dawn dish soap as well as I've heard its good at breaking down the oil. After i do one of those two steps (or both haha), i was going to spray Folex on it and let it sit for 5-10 minutes and scrub it with a hard bristle brush (my cyclo DA brush and PC 7424XP just shipped today so I wont have that).

After the Folex sits and i agitate it more, i was going to use my Bissell and extract it with just hot water.

Any thoughts on this process? Any suggestions?
 
First off you need to take up as much of that oil as you can. Personally if it is a short nap carpet I would get a bag of cat litter and spread an even layer to absorb as much of it BEFORE you put any chemicals on it. Tamp it down and use a shop vac to remove the clump (but don't suck up the carpet until you know you got 99% of the oil clumped up and picked up). Last thing you want is to suck up raw oil and have to decontaminate your shop vac (which you will have to do anyhow).

A strong degreaser would be next, followed by power washing to neutralize the pH. Make sure it is textile safe, and test in an inconspicuous area. Don't forget that if you use your extractor on this mess without getting rid of 99% of the oil you may end up ruining your extractor.

Now if you cannot neutralize with water flooding, you will have to go to a weaker cleaner than won't require neutralizing. You will just have to repeat the process and know that some of the oil may remain.
 
The thought of ruining my brand new bissell urks me. I dont own any cats so therefore no cat litter..Would salt used for snow removal work as well? How long would it have to sit there for?
 
I don't think salt will absorb oil. May make even more of a mess...
 
Stop at the dollar store and buy some little. Rub the little into the carpet nap, let it soak then vacumn it up. Repeat if nessisarily.
 
I agree with the cat litter that will help. Maybe stop by the auto parts store and pick up a bag of an oil absorber. The oil absorber my collect the oil better than cat litter as some cat litter contains clay which will make a mess as well.

You also will need some white terry cloth towels to use to pick up the excess oil and to blot the carpet.

A good thing to use is some Dawn dishwashing liquid. Dawn is one of the best thing to use as it will help in breaking down the oil. Once you add a little Dawn to the carpet and agitate blot the area with the white terry cloth to remove the dawn and oil using a spray bottle filled with water lightly spray the area with water and blot with the towels. Continue until the towels when blotting do not pick up oil. This will show that you got the oil up.

Next you will want to vaccum the carpet. Get a good carpet cleaner and proceed with cleaning as you would normally do.

This is a slow process.
Good luck and let us know how you made out. Pictures and video are good to show your process and results
 
i will definitely bust out the camera. I think i may let cat litter sit overnight..is that a good idea? Or, should i use dawn dish soap tonight and do the blotting method, then leave cat litterl over night, reblot in the morning then proceed with normal cleaning?

Also just stumbled across this on Yahoo..my horoscope says "You can make child's play out of the most complicated projects today. " :D haha i find that funny.
 
You should get excess oil out before it spreads further and does orchard and gets deep into the fibers
 
I will be posting pictures of my procedure and steps tomorrow! Looks like it was fuel oil, not motor oil
 
I agree that the cat litter does contain clay and will make a mess especially if not all vaccumed up prior to introducing water. I suggested it over the autopart counterpart because it serves the same purpose without the cost, and both can be a mess if not picked up.

Personally, unless it was a removable carpet, I would not introduce Dawn to the equation. Dawn does have one of the strongest readily available alkaline based soap on the market (pH 9) but those surfactants/detergents are HARD to remove. If they any soap is left in the pile of the carpet, it will act as a detergent on the grime of the bottom of your shoes and transfer all that "junk" to the carpet. A little transfer does occur normally, but an APC or detergent laden carpet is much better at cleaning the bottom of your shoe. If it is a removable carpet then just follow it with a thorough rinse with the power washer and you should be able to flood neutralize.

As to your fuel oil or motor oil, you are dealing with the same issue of a hydrophobic petroleum product, just in a different composition and viscocity

Keep us updated, and good luck!
 
Whatever you do DON'T use your exterior until 99% of the oil is cleaned up. It will stick to everything in your machine and make the exhaust smell horrible for months (even after you clean out the recovery tank, etc.).
 
Dawn will disassemble the molecules in the oil, and a good heated extraction unit will be required too.
 
Hey so i have all the pictures here, but i cant upload them to a URL cause my work blocks all the websites...except for this one lol. I spent like an hour last night and it was freezing out, then spent like 4 hours this morning before i had to go to work.

It still smelt of oil i think it was on the carpets too. Since i was limited on time i did the best i could last night/ this morning and im going to finalize everything this weekend. Last night/ this morning was more of a "save face" kinda thing just to prevent it from getting worse than it already is really. It turned out better than i thought. Once i get home around 10PM EST tonight i will upload the pics!
 
99monguse said:
Dawn will disassemble the molecules in the oil, and a good heated extraction unit will be required too.
Click to expand...

If you use Dawn before the extraction you will need a MAJOR defoamer or you will run into some serious issues
 
Use a solvent cleaner. Por it on and blot it away. Xylen works mint
 
Okay guys...I was having trouble uploading pictures so i uploaded them to imgur (for some reason worked i think its my laptop)... so here is the link.

Cavalier Fuel Oil Cleaning - Album on Imgur

I first started by vacuuming all the power. After that i used a hard bristle detailer's brush to rub it in and work everything. After that I blotted with terry towels...i must have went through like 10. Next, i sprayed with water and extracted it.

By this time it was like 11:30pm and freezing out. So i blotted it again to semi dry it and threw cat litter on overnight.

The next morning, i used bissell pretreatment and worked that in. Next, i extracted it with hot water. Following that i used Folex, worked it in and extracted it again until i didn't see any brown liquid going through my bissell pro.

After that i blotted it again and ran the car with the heat running for an hour and used a mini leaf blower to dry it out.

As i said in a previous post this was more of a "save face" or damage control detail. The smell is still there, but not nearly as close as it was when i got it. This weekend I'm going to put some more work into it to try and get most of the smell out.

I've only been detailing for like 4-5 months so I'm still learning.
 
KyleWrap said:
I've only been detailing for like 4-5 months so I'm still learning.
Click to expand...

For a self-proclaimed 'beginner,' you did a great job on those seats. I must have missed something, because I had thought the spill was on the floor until I saw the pics ... that was just nasty.

Your next issue, the smell, is going to be the hard part. Oil by nature creeps into fibers and voids in a material, so even though you removed most of the visible fuel oil, I would bet that there is still a decent amount left where your steamer and extractor just can't reach.

I would start by removing the rear seat and make sure that there is no fuel oil puddled on the actual floor of the car. If yes, start with the cat litter to absorb the majority, then work as you did before. If not, then I might consider spreading baking soda or something similar under the seats and let it sit, since baking soda tends to absorb odors
 
Don M said:
For a self-proclaimed 'beginner,' you did a great job on those seats. I must have missed something, because I had thought the spill was on the floor until I saw the pics ... that was just nasty.

Your next issue, the smell, is going to be the hard part. Oil by nature creeps into fibers and voids in a material, so even though you removed most of the visible fuel oil, I would bet that there is still a decent amount left where your steamer and extractor just can't reach.

I would start by removing the rear seat and make sure that there is no fuel oil puddled on the actual floor of the car. If yes, start with the cat litter to absorb the majority, then work as you did before. If not, then I might consider spreading baking soda or something similar under the seats and let it sit, since baking soda tends to absorb odors
Click to expand...


First off, love your avi, show was a big part of my childhood. Also I am meeting up with him again this weekend the get the remaining smell out of the car. A guy on reddit made a good point saying i could just go get new seats at a junk yard for cheap, but I think that takes the fun out of it.

I'm most likely going to remove the seats and just go to town. Thanks for the feedback.
 
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