Driveway cleaning to remove old Powersteering fluid

[Colin Lindsay]

Any tips on removing this horrible substance from a tarmac driveway? It covers an area of about four square feet following a leak on the Power Steering pump on my Discovery and nothing that normally removes engine oil will touch it. Three months or so on from the pump replacement and it’s still sitting there, discoloured brown and apparently unremoveable except by digging out the affected area of tar...

Anything I should try?

[Mike Crewes]

Colin

 

Oil and tarmac generally are a bad mix, oil degrades tarmac.  The only thing that might improve it, but it might be too late, is scrubbing it with something like almost neat fairy liquid and lots of it.

 

Good luck

Mike

[JohnD]

Steam cleaning?

 

Not the wet steam, wallpaper remover style but proper Live Steam, under pressure and more than boiling hot.

 

But where you could find such a service, I have no idea.

John

[Clive]

I fear a steam cleaner and tarnmac may not get on well. 

Biological washing powder, made with warm water into a thin paste is VERY agressive, trouble is it will attack the tarmac too if left too long. But I exopect the fluid has seeped into the tarmac by now. But worth a try?

[Pete Lewis]

may not be the best for tarmac but ....petrol  used with care,   no dont light it  !!!!

 

 but    Jizer. Gunk, Polyclens   all disolve oil and wash with water , but the atf dye may have permanently  got into the tarmac

 

   pete

[Clive]

If the tarmac is sound, you can "paint" it with a special bitumen stuff. Actually makes the driveway look like new (did this when we sold our house, for obvious reasons!) Still looks OK 2 years on when I drive past.

[JohnD]

Petrol on tarmac?

 

I had a small leak, while working on the car on the drive..  Spilt maybe quarter pint?

Next day, the tarmac had a small area, the size of your hand . with no tarmac.

Just a hole with gravel in it.

 

The petrol had dissolved the tar, and washed it down into the ground.

Had to dig out the gravel and patch it with some cold cure tarmac.

 

John

[PJM Stag]

A handful of cement powder can absorb oil stains but it may have been left too long. I would try it and leave it down for a week or so then clean with a paste made from bio washing powder and hot water rinse as post #4

[PeterH]

Not quite on subject, but for general oil spills - Cat Litter is great.

I had a part time job with a well known supermarket, and they use it for spilt cooking oil and I can tell you a whole bottle of that makes one hell of a mess.

[Casper]

 

 

Cat Litter

 

Make sure it's the Fullers Earth type, not the paper type.  

 

C.

[Colin Lindsay]

Yes cat litter is excellent for oil, really unbelievable for soaking up huge quantities off clean concrete… don’t ask how I know but the cat didn’t go for a week afterwards until stocks were replenished. The problem with this stuff - power steering fluid - is that it dripped heavily for about two weeks until a replacement pump arrived and was fitted, so there’s discoloured patch about two feet by two feet where the bonnet of the Discovery usually sits. No cleaner known to man - or me - has so far done anything to it; I think it may come to digging out the patch of tarmac and refilling. The drive is overdue for a topcoat anyway; I’ve been recommended a product called Bitumen Coldfix which brushes on.