getting chain grease stains out of carpet?
 

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Like the title says - suggestions?

Yeah, I know, Mechanics forum, who better than us home mechanics to answer this question me thinks! :lol:

FWIW, the chain has been lubed with both Pro-Link and Pedro's, the stain is quite black and recent (about a week ago), and so far, untreated.

Mechanics hand-cleanser is the thing to use. The trade name in UK is Swarfega.
The gel forms an emulsion with the oil or grease and warm soapy water can remove the mixture.

Soap or detergent on it's own is much harder work. Solvents like WD40 or kerosene are much dirtier.

Greased Lightning, safe for fabric, followed by Resolve carpet cleaner.

Automotive brake cleaner. I have friends who have been mechanics for years and they use it to get grease stains out of the carpet of customers cars. I've done it, if you can handle the odor I recommend the regular type over the environmentally friendly stuff, it works better.

GOOP! hand cleaner might work.

I was wondering if GOJO would do it or if it'd just make a bigger mess.

Try dish soap first. If that fails, go to an auto store and get a jug of Super Clean.

Dishwashing detergent, like you use in your dishwasher, has excellent grease cutters, and is harmless...........

As said there's lots of products that will dissolve the grease. The bigger issue is likely to be removing the dissolved grime. here's where a carpet cleaner machine will be handy. Here in the states you can rent one from the local hardware or grocery store for part of a day for pretty cheap. When I moved back to town I rented an apartment for 3 months which was almost all carpeted. I used my moving blankets (after cleaning them...) as throw rugs. A sheet of plastic was under the one where i parked my bikes. I got my full deposit back (except the special and nonreturnable pet cleaning one) when I moved into my house. Andy.

There are a number of stain lifter products available. These mix a cleaner or solvent with a highly absorbent powder. The solvent dissolves the stain and wicks it into the powder as it dries. Then you vacuum it up. these do a great job on most grease stains.

But the real key is not to stain your carpet in the first place. Oil your chain outdoors or put down a plastic drop cloth. Likewise protect your carpet from possible drips where you store your bike, though chain oil shouldn't be dripping from your chain.

I have successfully used GOJO to get chain grease stain off of pant legs (yeah yeah yeah) and other fabrics, including nylon with out damage. Apply GOJO to the stain, scrub with a brush, toss iin washing machine.
That last part may be a problem with the carpet.

The problem won't be getting the stain out; the real problem will be getting the rest of your carpet as clean as the area you scoured to get the stain out...

Agreed. I do oil my chain outdoors, and even then very little doesn't end up on the chain. Although I must admit I've been rather careless about bike filth when I am wrenching in the living room, since our apartments carpet was pretty worn when we moved in and we expect to be here for several years. What prompted the post was borrowing a friends car and trying to cram my wheel-less bike into the backseat to get the car home from his place. In the process my chain scraped along the footwell leaving a nice black grease mark there.

Haven't decided which exact route I'm going to take to tackle the stain, but REALLY appreciate everyone's input. Since this stain is in a car, I'll use a car wash's vacuum to try and tackle that phase of it.

Spot Shot carpet cleaner works great. Shoot it on the spot, let it sit a minute, dab it off with a paper towel. BUY it at Wal-Mart or similar.

This. I'm sure you can get others to work. However, this works VERY well and very quick. I've worked on cars for many years. As careful as you are, things happen. This has always worked wonders.

Oh, and then stop working on your bike in the living room!!:lol:

'Resolve' works

^This , dissolves grease mud or anything else you will see tracked in. My bike room is in the house, I own a Lawn Company and work on Mowers all the time in the Garage. Sometimes grease inadvertently hitchhikes in and this stuff saves my arse. It is a solvent and should be treated as such.

I've used Simple Green ( full strength ) before with grease on vehicle carpet to remove the grease spot, so it should work for house type carpet. Test it on an inconspicuous spot because "you never know"!

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I ended up using WD-40 in this case and it worked awesome!

Thanks for all the tips folks! :thumb:

Works.......