I’m driving home from work today and there is a light rain. I’m about 1/2 home so there is about 10-15 more minutes left in my commute. I switch lanes because the guy in front of me is driving too slow. (From the left most into the middle.) In front of me is a garage truck. I have this pet peeve where I hate driving behind garbage trucks so I try to get out of behind him asap. There is some room in the far right lane so I boot it to get over there.
What happens next is what sucks. A hydraulic/oil line on the truck somewhere blows and covers my car in oil. Wipers on raining out. Fuck me. Covers the windshield and I can’t see shit. The one spare towel I keep in the car doesn’t clean up much so I take off my shirt and use my under shirt. I drive home home looking out a little clean port hole. :lol:
Just one of those completely random mother fuckers of an even that happen time to time.
Anyone know what takes oil off the entire front of a car well? :ohnoes:
Typically paint safe degreasers are fine if properly diluted and not allowed to dry however I’m not sure what you have local to you.
Most bug and tar removers used to be petroleum distillate based so that should act as a solvent to emulsify the oil.
Obviously hotter water will help to mobilize the oil too but I would do a test spot just to be sure.
What do you have available to you?
EDIT: Here are a couple suppliers in your area. I would try to call AutoMagic first, they make consistent products. Just explain the situation and ask for something paint safe.
Obviously it may take a few applications and rinses because hydraulic oil is not some super light weight oil spilled on the car.
I had something similar happen, but I had no idea where it came from. Some kind of mysterious oil/grease all over the side of my car, on the roof, the windshield, etc. I figured it would clean off like regular motor oil- wrong- it was a real bastard. I ended up cleaning the windows with degreaser and a scrub brush, and even that took some effort because the stuff just smeared. I ended up just leaving the oil on the paint until it was covered in dust because I didn’t care about the car, and eventually it wore away.
2 months ago I was behind a cassela’s(sp) waste mgmt garbage truck when it blew something motorwise and my truck was covered in coolant and engine oil. Luckily for me, they immediately had me bring the truck to a local body shop who took care of everything for me. I believe that they used a 3m product iirc to clean it initially, I will give them a call tomorrow to find out which one.
yeah try and clean your wipers good or replace them, ive had a few times where hydraulic oil leaked onto the wipers and they leave black streaks of rubber on the windshield as the hydraulic oil eats away at them
It was in the M3. I washed it in dish soap and it helped but it is still rough. I checked the wipers and they are smoked. I’ll have to get some new ones. I might call one of those places tomorrow and see if I can get something better because the paint was perfect on the car before this.
I really wasn’t planning on detailing the entire car right now but it looks like I’ll have to.
Totally forgot about Dawn since I never ever use it on cars… they do use it on animals in oil spills so it has to have some level of “gentle” to it, though it can dry out some trim pieces.
If you end up calling automagic you could try your dawn wash 1-2oz per gallon of water again with a little of a cleaner (I THINK triple seven or maybe AM special cleaner is what im thinking - havent used their stuff in a couple years) should help. Also something with D-limonene should be ok on paint and readily available though products with this in them take longer to work(as in dwell time) than something more geared toward explicit degreasing.
One of the things with emulsifying grease and oil is spending adequate time on the panel when you’re washing. Work a panel at a time, keeping the solution wet with suds, and agitating every so often. Then rinse to check your progress. Even then it may take a couple washes.
Importance with this is keeping it wet, not allowing it to dry on the surface