Charcoal fluid will take oil spots off a driveway

[JasonGotaProblem]

Holy crap I spilled a ton of embarrassingly dirty motor oil. After paper toweling up the excess, I looked around at what I had on hand, squirted some lighter fluid at the still quite bad spot, and was amazed to see it absolutely vanish.

Maybe I'm the only clumsy one here but i figured someone else might benefit from that.

[Brewcrafter]

Good tip.  When you say "lighter fluid" I am going to assume you are talking about what you use to get charcoal going.  I believe it is a slightly more refined version of diesel fuel, but don't quote me on that.  But I ask to raise the point that to those of us of a certain age, "lighter fluid" came in bright blue and yellow cans called Ronsonal and it was what you used to fill your Zippo (half the forum is saying "What the hell?") and was an entirely different product that I believe had a lot of naptha in it and was a hell of a solvent in it's own rite (in addition to being highly flammable and a ton of VOC's).  Not to worry, people carried that stuff in their pockets for decades.  Another tip - while I absolutely do not have cats, I always have a bag of kitty litter in the garage.  Really cheap and great spill absorber. - john

[philaroman]

now, if you did more wood work for the house, instead of hobbying
you would've had sawdust for petrochemical cleanup...  someone should tell your wife 

[JasonGotaProblem]

This glorious chemical cocktail from walmart.

[thrasher]

I think it might be Naphtha which has been used to clean all kinds of things. I do upholstery and have used it to get spots out of fabric

[Keta]

Assuming it is asphalt did it dammage it?

[Midway Tommy]

I start with the sawdust approach since I have plenty of it lying around. Next step is a heavy lacquer thinner soak, add a little more and then brush scrub the spot. The final step is a scrub with simple green or purple degreaser and then water rinse. It works really good on concrete.

Got a leaky main seal on my pickup and they have to remove the tranny or motor to fix it (big $), so I made a 2'x3' galvanized tray/box to park over in the garage that I keep sawdust in to soak up the leaking oil. I change the sawdust about twice a year.

[PacRat]

We always called charcoal lighter (or any other flammable fluid) "Boy Scout Juice".

[Brewcrafter]

I think it might be Naphtha which has been used to clean all kinds of things. I do upholstery and have used it to get spots out of fabric

Yessir, being involved heavily in hotrods back then, a can of Ronsonol removed many a spot in those velour seats of the time....-john

[day0ne]

Not to worry, people carried that stuff in their pockets for decades.

I always hated it when I overfilled a zippo and it leaked out and burned a spot on my leg. Chemical burn, not flame.

[Finest Kind]

I always have a bag of 'Oil-Zorb' in the garage. I think it's the same as cat litter. I have an asphalt driveway and you want to get any petroleum product off ASAP. It will melt the asphalt. Ronsonol is my solvent of last resort for removing gunk that WD-40 won't get rid of. Perhaps most famously, Jimi Hendrix used a can of Ronsonol to light his guitar on fire at the Monterey Pop Festival. That is enough for me!