Morning,

What's the easiest and cheapest method of removing gear oil from concrete, its about 500ml I reckon, not a small spill anyway!

Still fairly fresh, less than a week old. 

Foam and spray engine degreasers seem to have had very little effect and now there's a second puddle of oil to remove as well.  

Heard things like washing powder and coke but not sure if they actually work lol??

Cheers

Tom

I've found cat litter is the best to remove an oil spill, particularly Tesco Ultra Cat litter, which is a wood fibre based product.

http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=252867475

It's also good for printer ink spills and vomit, I've found too, in addition to the obvious cat requisites

Cover your spill with the cat litter, leave it for at least an hour or so to absorb it, and then sweep it up. 

It's mostly soaked into the concrete now, will that still work or is it too late?

Washing up liquid in water in a bucket, poured onto the oil and brushed then well rinsed with cold water. Gets most of it off then what's soaked in eventually weathers away.

I've tried washing up liquid on oil spills before without much success so want to try something different this time, that is a back-up plan though!

I have just seen that tomorrow will bring heavy rain...so I may move the car over first thing and hope the rain cleans some of it!  Currently left the car so it's covered up and not visible.  

1 hour ago, TomsFocus said:

I've tried washing up liquid on oil spills before without much success so want to try something different this time, that is a back-up plan though!

I have just seen that tomorrow will bring heavy rain...so I may move the car over first thing and hope the rain cleans some of it!  Currently left the car so it's covered up and not visible.  

http://m.wikihow.com/Clean-Oil-Off-a-Driveway

i particularly like the Coca-Cola method ;)

Cola doesn't work, watched many youtube vids on that this morning!

The only one I've seen that does appear to work is burning it off with a blowtorch, not something I have access to though!

2 hours ago, TomsFocus said:

It's mostly soaked into the concrete now, will that still work or is it too late?

Whilst it's good at, for want of a better phrase "sucking it up"; it would take a lot longer to draw it out of the concrete, you'd be looking at days.  That's assuming you can keep the area dry and out of any rain or morning dew: it's rather hydroscopic

Have you got a access to a commercial steam cleaner or hot water pressure washer? 

24 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

The only one I've seen that does appear to work is burning it off with a blowtorch, not something I have access to though!

Machine Mart have one, meant for weed burning in drives and paths

https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/gbt1-grass-weed-burner/

I've got a pressure washer (which I could run on hot water) but have read that's likely to push it deeper into the concrete.

Its not actually 'mine' as such, but is a shared car park so I don't want to be spending much, but do feel guilty for making a spill when I've been moaning about my neighbours leaky car!   I'm usually so careful but this was an unexpected leak that only started after driving the car so I didn't know.  

25 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

I've got a pressure washer (which I could run on hot water) but have read that's likely to push it deeper into the concrete.

Ooh you don't want that, I was thinking the hot water would break down the oil, but if it pushes it deeper, that' won't work.

If you were nearer, you could borrow my Steamtech 3000 steam vacuum, I've yet to find a stain and/or spill it can't remove

If you have a leaky neighbour, won't everyone else think the oil spill is his?

Hot water doesn't seem to do anything to oil tbh, needs a degreaser but I've tried some engine degreaser which again didn't really do anything.

Lol, they may think it was the neighbour, but I know it was me, damn conscience.  

bit of petrol and burn it off

I've always found Jizer very good.