Spilled diesel on the drive

[BigGingerBob]

I was putting some diesel in the car out of a can and spilled maybe about half a litre on the drive.
The drive is tarmac and about 3 years old so in good condition.
I did this about 10 minutes ago.

The internet told me to get dish soap, a stiff brush and some water which I have done. It's dark so I can't see if it's all off

Any suggestions of what to do next? Ether immediately or in the next day or so?

[Silverage]

Not quite the same but a couple of times I’ve had delivery vans leave a bit of oil behind on my drive and I dealt with it as you plan to above. Result was the oil was removed but I also now have quite a few patches on the drive which are much cleaner than the rest and this contrast really shows when the drive is dry.

[164 coupe]

Brake cleaner should do the trick.

[dartissimus]

Coke original

[poo at Paul's]

Half a litre, sadly, in this colder weather which will hamper its evaporation, you’ll likely end up with a hole.
Diesel is what they use to clean the tarmac trucks out after dropping their load ooooer matron.

It dissolves the binder in the tar-macadam, and if it is in a concentrated area, washed it out, then the aggregate loosens etc.

I’d have got a blow torch on it and tried to carefully burn it off, and try not to melt the tarmac.

Edited by poo at Paul's on Wednesday 22 December 00:42

[Andeh1]

If all else fails, just several big tubs of hot soapy water to dilute it heavily?.

[BigGingerBob]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Yeah, those seemingly random patches of rough road on roundabouts and the like are caused by it so yeah, bad news for me.
I washed it as much as I could yesterday within about a minute of spilling it. Fingers crossed the damage isn't too bad. I don't fancy re doing the drive! Haha.
I left this morning in the dark and will get home in the dark too so I won't be able to see any damage until tomorrow.

What a tt

[mybrainhurts]

Move house..?

[Condi]

mybrainhurts said:

Move house..?

Cheaper to replace the whole drive, no?

[BigGingerBob]

I might have to move!
I tried coke and bio washing powder this evening. The washing powder seemed to do the trick but I'll see in the morning.

On the subject of Bob fking up his driveway, the car lights I used for my cleanup highlighted why I need a bit of wood to lean my bike on.....

[Vlad the Imp]

Lots of soapy water with either washing powder or washing up liquid is the right way to do it. Brake cleaner or a blowtorch will just bugger up the tarmac as badly as diesel.

[RC1807]

BigGingerBob said:

I might have to move!
I tried coke and bio washing powder this evening. The washing powder seemed to do the trick but I'll see in the morning.

On the subject of Bob fking up his driveway, the car lights I used for my cleanup highlighted why I need a bit of wood to lean my bike on.....

fking hell .... why were you worried about a little bit of diesel when you've already you've already ruined your driveway?

[BigGingerBob]

It's just the shadows, haha! You can barely see it during the day!

[Jonny_]

Vlad the Imp said:

Lots of soapy water with either washing powder or washing up liquid is the right way to do it. Brake cleaner or a blowtorch will just bugger up the tarmac as badly as diesel.

Absolutely this. Any sort of solvent - brake cleaner, thinners etc - will do even more damage than the diesel. Same goes for heat.

I managed to clumsily spill a load of gear oil mixed with solvent on my tarmac drive a few years ago, after cleaning out a neglected rear axle. I set about the resulting mess with warm water, stloads of washing up liquid and a hosepipe. Then covered it in washing powder, left overnight, and washed again the following day.

It survived intact, but there's a visible difference between this area and the rest of the drive. Fortunately it's in a in position where it's never driven over.