OK, if you were to spill about a gallon of diesel in the back seat area of your ride (don't ask) after sucking up as much as you could with a shop vac, what would you wash everything down with to eliminate the smell? Thanx in advance for any input.
I've bought cars like that. Strip the seat covers off. and send it to a commercial Laundromat. Pull the carpet out if needed and nail it up to a fence and use a concentrated commercial detergent and a water blaster. The seat foam will need the same treatment but will need days to dry Don't clean carpet underfelt......replace it
If you can keep people out of the back seat area for a while........... sprinkle LOTS of coffee grounds all over it. Let it sit for at least a week and vacuum it up. Hope you don't have white carpet?
after the heavy duty scrubbing is over I'd leave a big bowl of baking soda with some chopped up apples in it a few days, works amazingly well....... At least it does for wet dog n cig smoke. Flux
You have to get rid of the diesel itself physically, it's stinky stuff as you've discovered. It won't all evaporate, at least not for a while. Lighter fluid or naptha should be able to dissolve it into suspension and soak it up. Do not use a shop vac for this operation however or diesel odors will be a distant memory.
We picked up a wave once in my 57 Chevy when I was in the Navy in 1967, well let's just say a whole bottle of CANOE cologne sprinkled over the back seat helped but didn't get rid of it all....
A 57 Chevy, in 1967, in back seat, a Wave?? Come on man, that brings back memories. What's the rest of the story??
Check with your local heating and air conditioning supply house, they sell professional cleaning products for these types of cleanups. Home heating oil is the same as diesel.
Thanx for all the replies, a buddy lent me an ozone generator that he uses to eliminate cigarette smoke and other nasty smelling stuff when he rehabs motor homes....worked great!
LMFAO I was going to say moth balls but didn't so when I read this and moth balls was one of the first answers it made me feel normal. An old used car dealers trick for making old heaps smell like new cars is ammonia. I think that removing the carpet and the pad are a very good idea though. You'll never get the diesel out of the carpet pad for sure.
Nope but when you it the upholstery with the ammonia it brings that new car smell out. it works and has been being done by used car dealers as long as I have been around.
The cheapest and easiest fix is to visit your local swimming pool store and pick up a pair of nose plugs. Seriously, like previously mentioned, rip out the carpet and padding then rent an upholstery shampooer and hit it hard with the best industrial cleaner you can find.
I made this "oops" in my last O/T car. Most of it vented out over the course of the rest of winter and spring. I left the windows open whenever I could to help it. Anything that might have been left was usually masked by cigar smoke.
I spilt used transaxle oil out of a VW (the transaxle rolled over) in the back of my SUV, 2 years later when I sold the SUV the oil smell was still in it after washing it out many times. Used truck wash, dishwashing liquid, degreaser and anything I could find and the smell still lived on,,, It was worse in summer, after opening up the car after being closed for a day or so the smell nearly made me sick.
We had a fuel delivery man overflow our tank (in the basement) one time, after cleaning up all that we could, an older gentleman told me to put a pan of of bleach (uncovered) overnight, and it would absorb all the odor. It worked like a charm, and people I have told said it has worked for them. You don't have much to lose at this point.
Get a foil roaster pan. Fill it up with Kingsford charcoal briquettes. Put it in your vehicle. If the smell isn't gone in a few weeks to a month, go ahead and light the briquettes.
Hi. Well the old redneck cure would be catch a live Skunk & with the windows rolled up chunk that critter in & slam the door. Come back the next morning & let it out. Guranteed you will never smell that diesel again. LOL Jimmie
Gotta get the oil residue out, or the smell will keep coming back. I spilled some mineral spirits in a car. Everytime I thought it was gone it came back. Ended up cutting out the carpet pad, repetedly filling that floor well with water and dish soap and scrubbing the carpet with a bristle brush shop vac'ING it out. Propped the carpet up and blew a fan under, thru it, then replaced the pad. A box of baking soda dumped on the carpet every 2 days for a while and vac out the old. The smell was finally gone.
i use secented cat litter. put it on the seat and carpet and let it set for a day in the sun with the windows rolled up. then take a brush and scrub it in. let it set a day or 2 then vacume it out.
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