Diesel fuel in carpeting...

[backwoods_lex]

I have a coworker whose wife spilled diesel fuel in the carpeted hatch area of his ford explorer recently. He removed the carpeted area and thoroughly hosed it down and followed with the typical febreeze type chemicals, but the odor is still very strong.



I read in another thread that an ozone machine might help, but nobody really confirmed it.



1. What cleaning process (extract with APC or other specific cleaner) should he use? Would an enzymatic cleaner have any effect?





2. Would the fumes have coated the rest of the interior requiring him to scrub every surface for odor removal?





3. Would the painted surfaces underneath need any special cleaning?





4. Should he rub his wife's face in the carpeting so she learns to never do it again?



Thanks for any help and insight guys.

 

[Lonnie]

The "problem" is it's a petroleum-based stain, not a protein-based stain, like blood or urine. I don't think an enzymatic cleaner is going to help.

Depending on how much diesel fuel was spilled, it may have run underneath the carpet and into area within the vehicle body that may not be easily accessable for cleaning. You aready asked if cleaning these surfaces require "special cleaning". I assume you could use an APC and try to clean it. But as stated above, the inaccessable cracks and creavases where the fuel has seeped into may be the cause of those odors you cannot get rid of.

With the carpet itself, my sugggests are:

1) Take the vehicle to a carpet cleaning place and let them extract it for you.

I would think steam would be better than chemical cleaning, but you can decide that based on service availability and price, although I have no idea what that may cost.

2) Replace the carpet. Since the vehicle is a Ford Explorer, you may be able to find a used carpet of the same color at a salvage yard, since you have the experience of taking out the carpet from the current vehicle in an attempt to clean it.