Diesel Spillage and Odour Removal | Audi Video

Petrol, diesel and oil are some of the worst things you can spill in your car.. They will eat plastics, permeate through paintwork and of course they stink.

It is very difficult to get rid of the smell, and diesel is the worst of the lot. We use detergents to break down the diesel, which is a light oil, and wash out as much as we can, but this won't come close to removing the odour.

It will completely destroy carpets and if it gets into foam and sound deadening materials, it is just not worth the time to try and save them, it's more cost-effective to buy replacement parts. 

Once the diesel is cleaned up, the smell will remain as it will have settled on every surface, soaking into paintwork and plastic, so we follow up with a deodorant which we fog into the car to break up any remaining traces of diesel.

Finally, we use a technique called pairing. All smells are made up of notes, and while you cannot just add an air freshener into the car and cover up the smell, you can add a smell which fits, adds new notes and creates a new chord.  For this we fog the car with Kentucky Blue Grass which is good for combining with acrid odours like fuel and cigarette smoke. 

With time, this added odour will fade, but by then so will the smell of diesel because nothing lasts forever, oxidization sees to that... which is why we also have ozone and UV in our tool kit for dealing with bad smells in cars.