My husband borrowed my car last week- his Camry is in need of a new fuel pump and won't run at the moment. Anyway, with him working in the shop and walking all over oily floors and what not, even when he changed out of his work boots before entering the car he got grease stains all over the tan carpet! The front carpet mat was terrible! A big, black spot where his heel was resting as he drove, and other gray areas where his other foot would rest! I was pretty upset with him when I saw this. (not to mention the black streaks all over that kick panel near the parking brake... grr!) Also, he got grease in the rear cargo area which I haven't yet taken care of. I imagine this trick will work there too. I just brought in the floor mats to try to remove the stain. I found a very good way to take care of some heavy duty stains! I took a wet towel and sprayed carpet cleaner on it (in this case I used Resolve because it was sitting around) and wiped them down thoroughly. [edit: I wouldn't recommend applying it directly because it left a very, very light-colored spot when i tried.] It worked quite well, considering the magnitude of stain I was dealing with. I waited a while for the mats to dry out a little, then did this over again. They look much better. Not perfect, but much improved anyway. Thought I'd share.
First off you need to go thank your hubby for NOT doing what a coworker of mine did. He got in the rear of the veh and out of worry for the new floormats he flipped it over so the OIL/GREASE would not be on the carpeted side of the mat. What he did not think about was he had to flip it back as he got out and OMFG did i come unglued. :cussing: I was almost to the point of letting him know what the replacement cost of the mat and carpet was going to be. Then i calmed down 4 notches ( ) and went to work cleaning it up. Its best to use a good degreaser/carpet cleaner and a shopvac(or in galaxee's case a towel) . That was 5 vehicles ago and now i'm like LOOK USE THE MATS THATS WHAT THERE THERE FOR!! and i can replace them every few years. Also a good rubber mat for the driver side and rear cargo area is a good investment. :mrgreen:
Ah, another tip. Some Mr. Clean (again, just sitting around and thought I'd try it) and a little light thumbnail scraping action did wonders for that grease-streaked kickplate near the parking brake. And the plastic bit in the hatch. Wonder if that "magic eraser" thing would be any good on that bumpy plastic surface? Maybe I should get one just in case hubby takes the car again anytime soon! Finally, my car is clean again. Only wasted 2 hours of my day...
