Spilled oil on car seat.... Any suggestions?

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DetailingGeek

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I'm gonna try dishwashing soap right now.. Any other suggestions? Maybe a degreaser like the powerful simple green? The seats are cloth..

It wasn't that bad, just a little bit of oil from a filter through a box. Should have had a plastic bag, not sure what I was thinking..

It got a little on the carpet and floormat too, so I'm not really trying to replace the back seat. Plus I just don't have the money for that right now, AND a while ago, I ripped the metal that holds that seat bolt.. so I will have to weld it back before I unbolt it. It's a classic car so parts are extremely expensive, especially seats.
 
Lotsa different carpet cleaners out there to try, CG lighting fast is good, Folex is highly recommended on this site. Tuff Stuff is available OTC that might work for you.
 
The seats are cloth.

I have Folex and some upholstery shampoo from a parts store.. But they are both pretty mild in my opinion, though Folex is good for stains. But Folex requires rubbing which I later found out was not a good idea with engine oil.

I ended up using the dish soap and my steamer with some terry cloths in between to soak it up. It worked pretty good, though I regret using any kind of agitation. Agitation usually works good, but it only spread the oil this time. Laying the towel down and then steaming it like you were ironing clothes ended up working the best. It only smells like dish soap now, I'll see tomorrow morning if there's still any oil smell.

I do not have an extractor, but I do have a steamer and shop vac. I usually use the shop vac, but I wasn't sure if it would be OK to vacuum up engine oil.

Also I'm not sure if it was clear from me mentioning the filter, but this was engine oil. Dirty 3,000+ mile engine oil at that. Terrible idea, I know. Ounce of preparation is worth a pound of cure.
 
Yes, your shop vac will work for pulling out the 'wet stuff.'

Do you have a janitorial supply store nearby? If so, go talk to them about getting a "spotting bone" and have them show you how to use it.

I've tried to describe its' use, but it is one of those tricks that just doesn't transfer to words (plus when I reread it, it made absolutely NO sense, LOL)

Also, if you know anyone in the carpets cleaning biz, they could show you how to do it.

Just to add, Folex does a pretty good job on oil (from my experiences).

Bill
 
Dawn and simple green or dawn power dissolver will work wonders on oil and Grease ..
 
Well it definitely cleaned up the stain, but the smell is still super strong. I couldn't tell the night I cleaned it, or even the next day, because the dish soap smell overpowered it. It smells pretty bad of oil. I guess I will try some Folex and shampoo and steam clean it again.


Does it matter what brand of soap? I used palmolive. It says something about powerful degreaser on it. It seemed to work pretty good, besides on the floormat, which is still stained a little brown. But I didn't spend much time on it. The seat and carpet look better, but the smell is very strong inside the car. I didn't air it out since it happened at night, but I figured it was just gonna smell like dish soap.
 
Shop vac and hot soapy water working your way down to warm water with ammonia and sucking it out with the shop vac. I don't envy all the work you're going to put in. Use some foam reducer for hot tubs in your shop vac recovery tank to keep the foam down.
 
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