We used to have a lovely red-bricked driveway, then i brought a zuki! Last summer the big end went in my engine, i put engine oil all over the driveway playing with it, before it was replaced. Over the winter i've had plenty of little drips, and friends with dodgy engines parking all over the place. Then just this week, i've swapped in a new front diff, whilst it was off the viechle i let oil spill out of it. My parents are not best pleased with the state of the drive since i've got my bigboys toy, and nothing i've tried seems to get the oil off!! I'm off to university shortly, i think it would be pretty mean to leave it in this state...

Can someone suggest anything that would get oil and numerous other engine fluid marks off!??

Thanks guys
Andy

Dawn dish detergent and a still brush will do wonders...  and an engine degreaser for hard spots..

Should take care of it.



I think they make specialty product to do that too... never used them

Dawn dish detergent and a still brush will do wonders...  and an engine degreaser for hard spots..

Should take care of it.



I think they make specialty product to do that too... never used them

I'd suggest engine degreaser(Gunk or other brands) and rent a pressure washer, it should come off of brick, but asphalt would be ruined, and concrete would probably be forever stained. There are driveway mats on the market to prevent this

How to Clean Oil Spots From a Garage or Driveway
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     
A big oil spot in the middle of your driveway can make the most meticulously maintained home look dingy. Whether a leak from your car or someone else's created that mark on your concrete driveway, garage floor or sidewalk, it can all be lightened enough as to be barely visible. Try the first suggestion, then work your way down the list as necessary. Whatever you do, don't procrastinate. Bare concrete floors are porous and permanently stain if oil, grease and dirt are not removed quickly. End each remedy by hosing down and air-drying the treated area.
 
 
Steps:
1.   Pour cola on the oily or dry stained areas, and leave the cola on overnight. Squirt a generous amount of dishwashing liquid into a bucket until you have a good lather. Rinse with the soapy water, then with a garden hose. 
 
2.   Sprinkle baking soda or an absorbent powder such as cornmeal or sawdust on the oily spots. If the stain is dry, wet it first to make a scouring paste. Scrub with a stiff brush or push broom. 
 
3.   Sprinkle automatic dishwasher detergent on the oily concrete. Leave it for several minutes, then pour boiling water on the stained area. Scrub with a stiff brush or push broom, then rinse. 
 
4.   Try a commercial concrete cleaner such as Garage and Driveway Cleaner by Red Devil Co. or a grease solvent such as Benzine. Follow the manufacturer's instructions. 
 
5.   Sprinkle trisodium phosphate (TSP) on the oily concrete. If the stain is dry, wet it first. Let it stand for 30 minutes. Scrub using a stiff broom. TSP is a dangerous product; if you must use it, wear rubber or latex gloves, safety goggles and protective clothing. Also, never wash a TSP product down storm drains. 
 
6.   As a last resort, combat tough spills with muriatic acid and a pressure washer. Apply the acid following the manufacturer's directions, and let it soak for several seconds. Follow with a pressure washer set at 2,500 to 3,000 lbs. per square inch (psi), or 176 to 211 kg per square cm. Like TSP, muriatic acid is a dangerous product; likewise, if you must use it, wear rubber or latex gloves, safety goggles and protective clothing, and never wash such a product down storm drains. 
 
7.   After trying any of the strategies above, sprinkle baking soda over the cleaned area to neutralize the solution you've used. 
 
 Overall Tips:
 Place cardboard under an oil drop or lawn mower to catch stains before they happen.
 
 Seal concrete to prevent staining. See How to Seal a Garage Floor.
 
 Get that leaky car fixed!
 
 
 Overall Warnings:
 Grease solvents are flammable, so make sure you have excellent ventilation and avoid spark and flame.
 
 
 Who Can Help You With This:
 Find Prescreened Closets Contractors at ServiceMagic.com
 
 
 Tips from eHow Users:
 Tide by Kim in Iowa
Just use liquid Tide and a stiff brush or push broom and hose it off. It usually takes the oil stain right off.
 
  Thanks. Your vote has been counted.Rate this tip:
 
 
 WD-40 by eHow Friend
An excellent solvent. Spray it on, let it sit and then hose the driveway (or garage) down.

Cleaning an Oil-Stained Driveway
 

Q: Can you tell me how to get oil off of a concrete driveway?
      --A. Burge

A:  If you have a cat, you are in luck! If you don't ?- just look in your pantry. You can use clay-type cat-box litter to absorb fresh oil stains. Sprinkle it on and then sort of crush it with your foot. Or, rub in with a broom and let it set a while.
For those of you who don't have kitty litter handy, you can also try baking soda or even cornstarch ?- which are both very absorbent and will soak up a lot of oily stains. If needed, you can then pour some liquid laundry detergent on the area, scrub well with a good stiff brush and rinse off.

Of course, there are commercial driveway cleaners at auto and home improvement stores, but I say let's try a home-style remedy first, which can be safer and cheaper. Then move on to the commercial products if necessary.


 

Just a quick suggestion but what I use in our garage after oil changes and the like is brake cleaner, let it sit for a minute, and then hit it with a rag.  It won't make it 100% gone but it will make it a lot better than if it just sat there.

Another product that I have used successfully is Simple Green.

It is easier to do this cleaning process in small sections - less than a square foot- at a time.

Apply it on the area, let it soak in a few minutes (don't let it evaproate) then scrub the area with a wire brush.  It takes a bit of elbow grease to loosen up the oils in the lower parts of the concrete surface.

Rinse and repeat as necessary until the grease stain is gone.

The Gar-oun-teed method is to sandblast the area.  The downside is that you must have access to the equipment and you have to do the whole driveway if you are anal about the surface color matching up when you are done...

Hope this helps!

Do you have a Halfords over there? they usually stock a product for this purpose. Otherwise I would suggest asking at a trade outlet like Cafco. You could try this http://www.travena.co.uk/oiloff.htm
I've not used it but it sounds ideal.

Do you have a Halfords over there? they usually stock a product for this purpose. Otherwise I would suggest asking at a trade outlet like Cafco. You could try this http://www.travena.co.uk/oiloff.htm
I've not used it but it sounds ideal.

Rhinoman, you are truly an organized person!

You  took the time at some point  to look at skandy32's profile and discover he's on your side of the pond!

Which means that your post is way more relevant than mine (probably anyone else's, too) in terms of product availability.

5 "ataboys" have direct-deposited to your forum user appreciation account!

With humility,

But the oil stains keep the door to door salesmen at bay . What I found is effective is engine degreaser(gunk in an aerosol can) a stiff brush, and the pressure washer. I have used this method to remove wheel bearing grease from my driveway, which is much harder to remove than oil. The dish soap method works as well, but if you dont use a degreaser to thin the oil or grease first, then you have to use a lot of dish soap, directly on the oil stain, before you wet it down(wet concrete dilutes the power of the dish soap). Another thing that works good is laundry detergent.

I have used an oil eating enzyme to get rid of
Diesel fuel residue from a wash rack settling
tank, it's supposed to eat the oil and turn it into
water and CO2, it's the same stuff they used for
the Exxon oil spill several years ago.

I spilled some of this stuff on a dried surface of
asphalt slurry coat and it ate the stuff away in
about 3 min.    it's absolutly amazing stuff, not
super cheep, I think we bought a 5 Gal pail and it
was $150  but this saved us about $12,000 in
Hazmat disposal of the waste water.

I don't have a link, I found it be doing an internet
search, wish I had it bookmarked

Good Luck
Wild

Check out this link
http://www.esiclean.com/consumer.asp

and a snip from another page

 Based on technology used to clean up major oil spills and containing billions of oil eating microbes, or "natures janitors", every bottle of CHOMP is literally an enzyme factory whose natural enzymatic action makes it a tremendous cleaner.

thanks guys, plenty of suggestions!

Im a bit lazy about things i personally dont want to do, so i think i'll order some of rhinoman's suggestion soon and give that a whirl!

Cheers
Andy