How to Remove Grease and Oil From a Car's Interior

Step-by-Step Guide

1. 1

   Step 1: Understand the enemy.

   Whether you rubbed oil or grease on your interior ultimately doesn’t matter for cleanup purposes.
   
   Here’s why:
   Oils are defined as any compounds that are insoluble in water, soluble in organic solvents (non-polar things like gasoline), and liquid at room temperature.Grease, on the other hand, is simply an oil that has additives to make it semi-solid (kind of like Jell-O) at room temperature.
   
   These additives are solid and do not absorb into the surfaces inside your car.This means that, once you scrape off any excess contaminants from the surface of your interior, the stain left behind is an oil stain.
   
   Cleaning oil from cloth seats requires the same process you would use to clean it from carpet.
2. 2

   Step 2: Scrape off any excess oil or grease.

   You can use a paint scraper, spoon, or knife.
   
   It doesn’t matter if you use metal or plastic, but be cautious not to puncture your seat., This will remove any residual oil or grease that is left sitting on the surface of your interior.
   
   Use a dry paper towel or shop towel to do this., This will soak up the oil.
   
   Allow the baking soda to sit for 10-15 minutes., You can vacuum it up with a shopvac or sweep it up.
   
   If there is a large amount of oil, you might put more baking soda on the stain and repeat this cycle several times., If there is any stain left, you can repeat the process as long as you continue to see improvement.
   
   Instructions for sponging and blotting with a particular dry cleaner will be included on the manufacturer's bottle.
   
   Once you can no longer tell that this method is making a difference, you should move on to another method., A detergent such as Dawn is often enough to break up oil stains, especially fresh ones.
   
   You can also buy other over the counter grease/oil removers such as Goo Gone.
   
   This is the most common and straightforward way to remove a grease or oil stain., If a degreaser didn’t knock out the stain, you may need to use steam to coax it out.
   
   The steam will heat the fibers of your carpet and open up any pores in the fiber.
   
   This allows the carpet to “release” any trapped oil and gives you the chance to soak it up.
   
   You can use a traditional steam cleaner to do this job.
   
   If you do not have a steam cleaner, you can place a brown paper bag over the stain to absorb the oils.
   
   Then, apply steam by putting a clothing iron on top of the bag to create the heat and steam to free the oils.
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   Step 3: Blot the stain.

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   Step 4: Apply baking soda to the stain.

5. 5

   Step 5: Remove the baking soda.

6. 6

   Step 6: Clean the carpet with dry cleaning solvent if residual stains remain.

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   Step 7: Scrub with a degreaser.

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   Step 8: Steam the stained area.

Detailed Guide

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