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Motor oil. Tips to remove Motor oil stains on clothes and fabric

Motor oil stains on your clothes or fabric are most inevitable when you are working in the garage or just working around machinery in general.  Use these tips to get that motor oil stain out of clothes or fabrics so you can continue to look your best even when you are working!

When the accident first happens, take a paper towel and blot the excess motor oil from the fabric.  Don’t rub the motor oil or your stain will get larger.  Just blot.  It is best to treat the stain right away but if you can’t, do take care to clean it as soon as you get the chance.

Use a pre treat spray or stain stick and apply a saturating amount over the stained area. Rub the pre treatment on the stain front and back to work it out of the fabric really good.

Let the garment sit for about an hour, and then rub in some clear bleach free laundry detergent.  Rub this in with your fingers or a soft scrub brush and saturate the area with detergent working out the motor oil stain.

Rinse in water in a bucket or in the sink, and then launder as usual.  Recheck the stain and repeat if needed to remove any remnants of the stain.

If you have a very persistent motor oil stain and your fabric tag states you can use bleach, soak your fabric in a bucket of water with two cups of bleach or two cups of all color fabric bleach.

Rinse out the bleach with water.  Let the garment dry to check if the stain is gone. Do not dry the article in the dryer until you check out the stain for sure.

If all else fails, use a few drops of dry cleaning solution on the stain, and then blot it up with a paper towel to work any remaining stain out of the fabric.

Visitors comments

What a revelation! Comments By: Karen Cranston on 2007-04-29 I asked for advice on how to remove motor oil from fabric and followed the directions given with excellent results. There is still a little spot left but I will follow the tips again and hopefully this will resolve the matter. NO MORE RUINED CLOTHES. EXCELLENT.   Transmission oil in leather walking shoes Comments By: Theresa on 2007-09-03 How do you get transmission oil out of leather walking shoes? I was not sure if the recomendations listed above would work for my leather walking shoes that accidentally got covered in oil while in the same storage container.   Black motor oil on Nylon shell Comments By: Susan M. Smith on 2009-05-02 To his absolute dismay, my son accidentally splattered thick doses of used motor oil over most of his expensive Mountain Hard Wear shell while changing the oil on my car. I immediately researched tips on line how to remove the oil without leaving any stains. Following what I learned, I first blotted the shell with paper towels, then covered the soiled areas with baby powder which I keep on hand for any and all grease or oil stains. After allowing the powder to soak up some of the oil, I then brushed the powder off the shell with a small scrub brush then re-applied the powder and allowed more oil to be soaked out. I repeated this process 4 times until the brushed off powder failed to be very brown and was no longer soaking up the motor oil. Next, I doused the soiled areas with Dawn, scrubbed them with the scrub brush (what a mess!) and threw the shell in a full wash tub of very hot water. To our amazement, there is not one stain anywhere on the shell!   great tip Comments By: A Day on 2010-06-30 will try this, and sounds like it will work. ?I hope so, it's my favourite jacket. One complaint colour is spelt with a U not without in Britain. American spelling annoys me as much as the stain.   Color Comments By: David Bray on 2011-01-21 If you don't like the American spelling of color stay in Britain. You can spell color any way you want, but when in America, spell like American's spell and keep your idiotic comments to yourself.   its like magic Comments By: STUMAC on 2011-04-01 Ive just followed the tips on this site and i could,nt belive it. my jacket was covered in engine oil,used some wd40 on it scrubed it with a tooth brush put some washing up liquid on it put it the washer came out like new. MAGIC   British Comments By: Brit Remover on 2011-08-08 Yeah, keep up the stupid comments Brit and we'll remove you like we did the Brits a few hundred years ago. Â