Oil on driveways

Our last address had a Pebbled driveway. It was great for the Landies. Once the Patch got bug enough to show on the pebbles it was out with the cement mixers... shovel up the pebbles in the effected area, in the mixer with water and fairy liquid. If it was really bad then bung in a cheap box of brillo type pads from the local £1 shop... result dirty pebbles with sparadick clean patches ....Who said I never do the washing!!!

Lee D

-- Project Percy - Jaguar 4.2 and Auto in to Series IIa 88 see it @

101Ambi '76 / IIa - Percy '64 / Rangie TD '90

alt.fan.landrover hall of fame -

to the other poster who suggested diet coke - you`re spot on!

works a flippin treat. Just pour it on and leave it for a day then jetwash it off. i`ve had so many spots of oil, grease, ep90, brake fluid etc on my driveway from my old series2 that if i could gather all the spills together i could do a full fluid change! i bought a 2 liter bottle and just poured it out, gave it a brush and left it overnight then jetwashed it. My tarmac drive is now totally spotless.

Nick C series 2a `67 D90 300tdi `95

We don't have a problem with oil marks on the drive as we had a couple of lorries deliver some hardcore from a local quarry which has been finished off with gravel. It blends in quite well!

-- Nikki

1990 Discovery V8i 1985 Range Rover V8 1975 88" Series 3, 2.25 petrol

Comma hyperclean woks quite well. We've just had a new block drive and both the 90 and the Discovery leak. We will be soon sealing the drive like we did the last one then the oil just wipes off with a tissue. Richard

What brand did you use?....just so the neighbours don't call the local nut house whe I start tipping 5 different brands of coke acros the drive.

:-)

Lee D

I tend to bring home caustic clean in place (CIP) chemical that we use for cleaning our cooking vessels and pipework with. I disolves fats and grease, and orked wonders on my dads and mates drive. You do have to cover the whole drive though, as it leaves a lovely clean patch compared to the rest of the drive! Nasty stuff if you get on you as well, even diluted down to

2% concentration, though it gets used neat on the driveway and the hosed down with plenty of water!

-- Simon Isaacs

Peterborough 4x4 Club Chairman and Webmaster

3.5V8 100" Hybrid Part owner of 1976 S3 LWT, currently under restoration Suzuki SJ410 (ex-Girlfriend, at the moment......) Series 3 88" Rolling chassis...what to do next Pug 106 (offroaded once!!)

While it seems that it worked for you, caustic-based chemicals don't always work well on mineral oils. It's all to do with de-esterification!

On or around Thu, 9 Oct 2003 11:47:18 +0100, "Lee_D"

enlightened us thusly:

I have it on good authority that cheap diet cola makes excellent toilet cleaner, too.

Bruce uses it in large metal baths to dip and strip doors etc. Works better warm. If you do use caustic, read the instructions and wear suitable gloves, and wear eye protection. Bruce spent a few weeks in bed after he took a cupboard door out the caustic bath that he'd over looked - no goggles on.

I do rather feel that using anything with a severe CoSHH warning is somewhat inappropriate for cleaning oil off a driveway - especially CIP!. As QrizB has already mentioned, it is not as efficient as a solvent based agent and the potential environmental consequences are simply not worth the bother, IMO.

Martyn

Hey Simon...

I'm pretty sure you're aware of the following. But I'm compelled to write it in case someone else follows your lead in using caustic soda for cleaning, but without due care. .... Hey, it _works_ well !!! But eye hospitals have a constant stream of permanently damaged eyes because of careless usage.

When hosing the caustic soda ( sodium hydroxide) off the drive _DO_ wear _complete_ eye protection !!!!!... _complete_ goggles, not just glasses. ..... and have no-one around 'watching' ( without similar protection).

Caustic soda, especially, ***_will_***.. i.e. _DOES_.. _quickly_ cause irreparable eye damage !!!! ...... and there're only _two_ per customer for life. They come to you only _once_, as a 'one off' matched set. :)))))

Ya gotta be _so_ careful with some stuff that we all use from time to time......like caustic soda....... and also MEKP ( methyl-ethyl-ketone-peroxide) the resin catalyst ( hardener) used in fibre glassing/'bog' (resin and talc!!) making/filling. Just a small drop of this little beauty will cause progressive and irreversible eye damage.

........... Now stepping off soapbox.... Heheheheheh.

Best wishes... ( and cleaner drives)

.... frodo.

the cheaper the better! the really cheap colas use a different sweetener and have more ascorbic acid etc in them. The wifes a food technologist and product developer and told me about it - but i`ll be buggered if i can remember half the stuff she told me, let alone understand it!!! These technical types are quite scary. I use that naff own brand cola from asda. works great.

nick c

CHEERS!!!!!

Get it?

:-)

Lee D

My Dad was a food technologist too - Golden Wonder - its him you can blame Pot Noodles on!

worrying thing is, this circulates through pipework that then carries liquids used in food manufacture through it immediately once the CIP (clean in place) is complete. The main problem is that the other way to do it is to strip down the pipework each time and use a bottle brush to clean :-( The caustic used is the best method for thoroughly cleaning this pipework, and is diluted down from the concentrated form we use...

I can guarantee that if any of you walked around a food processing factory, none of you would ever buy anything processed again, either because of the methods used, people employed, or the "finest quality ingredients". It is very easy to see why the organic movement in growing.

As to the usage on driveways, I use literally a cupful, scrub with a yard brush, and then flush liberally. My old man has a patch he wants cleaning from where his Rover 75 has deposited oil (due to a bodged dealer filter change). I will measure the concentration level of the final chemical concentration., although you notify if it goes above 1.5% for our factory...

-- Simon Isaacs

Peterborough 4x4 Club Chairman and Webmaster

3.5V8 100" Hybrid Part owner of 1976 S3 LWT, currently under restoration Suzuki SJ410 (ex-Girlfriend, at the moment......) Series 3 88" Rolling chassis...what to do next Pug 106 (offroaded once!!)

This has been my understanding for a number of years. I find it a tad frustrating that 'organic food' is now very; "fashionable" and as a consequence, much more expensive. This was not the case until the 'greenies' got in on the act some 10 to 15 years ago..

That said, I'll still grab a horseburget, or kfc whenever I'm in a hurry and hungry, but then again, I've eaten worse, much worse actually! Things that would sicken the most hardened student :-( (Please do not ask. Even I don't like to think about some of the things I've eaten over the years on various travels and 'trips')

Martyn

Hi

I've always used Jizer by Deb, never needed to try anything else. Pour it on, scrub it in with a deck brush, hose it off!

Neil

Stop eating in Barnsley then.

P.

Oi! There's some very fine food in Barnsley. Well, I've just eaten it actualy (free range eggs, good bacon from the farm shop plus a tin of beans).

Organic is only expensive if you get it from the supermarket. We buy all our meat from the farm shop - quality is a world apart and most of the meat is cheaper than the supermarket stuff. And they sell those yoghurt Magnums, which seem to 'make my day' every time we go.

Tim Hobbs

'58 Series 2 '77 101FC Ambulance '95 Discovery V8i