Detailing the Driveway

[Guess My Name]

Ok a friend came to visit and his car leaks like a spilled oil can. I swear it is huge like the Exxon Valdez.

I have tried bunches of stuff to remove it but nothing works. Dawn, Simple Green, used car wash soap, tire cleaner, you name it I have tried. I do not want to use bleach or an acid to remove it because then I would have this ugly white spot so I would have to do the whole driveway.

Anyone have any suggestions.

PS He has enough spare oil in his car to look like a auto parts store. I guess he is to cheap to get it fixed.

[HoneyGold65]

I have been told that sand or cat litter sprinkled liberally on the oil will soak up most of it. After that, sprinkle more cat litter on the area and grind it to a powder with a piece of wood (or something similar). It will work into the porous concrete and absorb more.... then rinse with water.

Don't know first hand if it works really well, since I don't have a driveway! Good luck and keep a large piece of cardboard handy the next time your buddy comes over.

[Guess My Name]

I have tried the oil absorb sand like car shops use. It did get most of the oil but I still have this ugly black stain. I even tried a pressure washer.

Friend parks in street now!

[JayDub]

hehe sounds vaguely familiar!!

I had a buddy come up from Albuquerque to visit in his Integra Type R which has a turbo. He got about an hour from me and calls with car trouble. He fixed his car up well enough to make it here and we worked on his car the whole weekend.

We put down all kinds of cardboard for his car to drip onto but he had soaked the undercarriage of his car in oil from the leak and it dripped all over my garage.

We tried just about everything and I just gave up. Sometime I'll probably order the garage floor paint from Griot's Garage or maybe get some black/white linoleum and cover it but for now, my side of the garage is polka dotted.

[Scooter]

There are some commercially available detergents that will remove a lot of the staining. You have to be willing to spend the bucks for them, around $180.
Another option is portland cement. Leave it one and DO NOT wash it off, and DO NOT wet it for a week or so. You have to remember that Concrete is porous and the oil will wick its way all of the way through the concrete. The portland cement will actually cause it to wick it's way back up because it is so dry. If it does get wet by rain or something, just wait for the driveway to get a little dry and put more on.

[Todd]

My best friend started going out with this woman last year and she owned a (part of a) crystler lebaron.This thing leaked BAD also,so I tried lots of things but finally pressure washed my whole driveway with 3600lb washer.My driveway is about 80 foot long and it took me about 6 hours.The next time he came over I would not let him park in the yard and he finally got the leak fixed for her.Good luck and hope you find an easyer cure.

[DaGonz]

You do have some options here...

1. Banish his vehicle to the street

2. Offer to give him rides to and from your house to keep the land based version of the Exxon Valdez out of your driveway.

3. Make him give you money for supplies to clean the Avalanche ...the oil in the driveway eventually ends up on the truck!

4. Call the Fire Department's hazmat team to follow him around...after seeing the big red truck everywhere he goes, he might get the hint!

5. A well placed hand grenade would do the trick!

6. Buy oil company stocks...he'll make you rich!

[bigboyhf]

I have tire rubber marks on my driveway from teenage drivers I have tried a few different chemicals with no results. The drive is cement with stain. About 6 months ago a door to door peddler came by with some type of natural cleaner. She cleaned the brass on my door handle and that chemical cleaned the tire marks very easily!! It was $40 a gallon but she said it is diluted 1:10 for most things. I thought it was way too much money for a simple cleaner. Boy was I wrong. I have spent at least that much searching for something that works half as well, even on brass! I think the name was HyPro or something like that and she said it was only direct sales. Haven't seen her around again. Anyone hear of this??

H

[Detlman]

Here is a product that works very well for me , I clean the driveway spots, heel marks in the car, tree sap and MANY other thing. I have never had it damage anything I have used it on...I love it .

The product is called solv all ( delimolene based product ) and I get it from Detail Depot

Its cheap and works wonders on stubborn stains ( removes chewing gum also )

[Brad B.]

The area on the right side (concrete side) outside my garage door used to be BLACK with oil stains from a leaky VW van that was parked there for a year. Scrubbing with a citrus cleaner and scrub brush got half of it away. The rest was removed by using Aerosol Carb Cleaner spray (Gumout) and a scrub brush. I followed up with water and a bit more scrubbing to wash away the residue.

I know, it's not enviormentally friendly.

I still take care of any spotting this way. Hey, I own British cars, I am an expert at oil leak problems!!

[Short Cut]

Have you tried Castrol Super Clean ? It is a biodegradeable degreaser but it is more aggresive IMO than Simple Green. I've applied it with a scrub brush to smaller oil spots with good results.

[Airball50]

I heard someone talking about putting bleach on the oil spots and letting it sun dry then simply rinsing off. Sounds easy enough but I cant remember where I heard that from though. Anyone else ever heard of that method??