Cleaning hydraulic oil gearbox fluid out a van.

[Greenbot35]

I've been given a new van for work from another engineer who has left. Unfortunately he spilled a 25l container of oil (hydraulic and gearbox oil) in the back. It's under the floor cover in the front and back,on the seats and spills out when you go round corners all over the steps etc.

Can anyone think how I can get the van cleaned out because its horrible and making me feel ill at the moment.

Edited by Greenbot35 on Friday 23 July 08:19

Edited by Greenbot35 on Friday 23 July 09:08

[steveo3002]

no magic tricks to it ...remove all the trims /seats and clean it up , degreaser and wash/repeat , doubt you will get the smell out in a hurry

[normalbloke]

Hand it back to the company to sort out.

[Greenbot35]

They say its been valeted, I've jet washed it out and decreased it but its been pretty ineffective. I will keep trying it when I can.

Edited by Greenbot35 on Friday 23 July 11:38

[Carlososos]

Greenbot35 said:

They say its been valeted, I've jet washed it out and decreased it but its been pretty ineffective. I will keep trying it when I can.

Edited by Greenbot35 on Friday 23 July 11:38

Depends on the situation but sounds like this isn’t your problem to sort. If you let them push you around they will. Send them a message in writing. “I appreciate you’ve cleaned the van but there is oil underneath all the panels. This needs cleaning because it’s spilling out on the highway, ruining my tools and dripping out onto customers property etc etc, I’m happy to do the work myself but it will take me about a days worth of work that’ll you’ll have to take out of schedule to do “

[Paynewright]

Report it as a safety issue - if you get it on your shoes and your foot slips on the brake pedal causing an accident your company will be in deep mire if you have reported it as such.

[grumpy52]

If it has found its way into carpets and seats the only way to clean it and get rid of the smell is to strip it back to bare panels and get it professionally cleaned all the carpets , underlay , sound deadening, seat covers and foams and any soft trims will need to be replaced .
We had a vehicle that a customer managed to spill catering cooking oil in and we ended up having to do the above . It was undriveable in the winter with any heating on as it made the eyes stream.

[Carlososos]

What did you do in the end?

[Greenbot35]

I've cleaned and cleaned, spead sand allover the plastic liner amazing it actually soaked up oil from the plastic evening after het washing.

The only thing that got rid of smell for a few days was a really strong deodorising spray and it comes back again.