AlphaDogg

Like many of you, I use OMS as my go-to chain cleaning solvent. To clean my chain, I put my chain in a disposable waterbottle filled with OMS, shake it up, and pour the OMS into a bottle to allow the contaminants to settle. Then after a couple days I transfer the clear OMS into a bottle-my bottle of choice being a Simply Orange orange juice jug.

Well... I was driving to a friend's house to teach him some bike maintenance. I had my tools and my gallon jug of OMS in the backseat. I took a turn too fast and the centrifugal force threw the jug into the rear passenger door, knocking the cap off. The entire jug of OMS then proceeded to pour into the speaker in the door and saturated the carpet (I have rubber floor mats but they didn't catch all of the OMS-they caught maybe 16oz of the solvent). As OMS is a non polar, non conductive solvent, my sound system is fine (though I'm sure it didn't do good things for the adhesive seal on the speaker cone). The OMS soaked into not only the carpet, but the padding underneath. Now my car reeks of OMS. I took it to a detailer and they assured me they could get the smell out. Well... They weren't able to. Now my car smells like a mixture of air freshener and OMS and the carpet is soaked with water and OMS.

I figured you guys use OMS a lot, can anyone offer help? Have you done anything this bad before?

Tl;dr: odorless mineral spirits isn't odorless

FBinNY 

Park the car in a sunny place with the windows closed except for one cracked open as a vent. The solar oven should bake out the OMS and the smell.

This can take hours to work effectively, so take the bike along and go for a ride while your car bakes.

AlphaDogg

That was my first thought but I can't do that. It's been raining here almost every day. When I can pay attention to the car, I have been leaving the windows open and just run out to it to close the windows if it rains.

Edit: I just noticed you suggested leaving just one window slightly open. I'll try that!

FBinNY 

Yes, you're trying to duplicate what folks do with dogs and sometimes children at the mall so they can make the evening news. It takes bright sunlight (not rain), and time. Closes windows hear faster, but you have to let the OMS vapor escape.

AlphaDogg

Hahaha well I took anything valuable out of the car, it's a transponder-chipped ignition (hotwiring not possible afaik), and the car alarm goes off if the door is unlocked from the inside (ie if someone sticks their hand inside the window and unlocks the door lock)

1 Miyata Biker

One old time remedy you may wish to try to speed the odor removal up is to get some baking soda and just sprinkle it on the carpet as much as you think necessary to help "soak" up the odor, remembering that you'll need to vacuum the baking soda out of the carpet after the odor starts to disappear each time. You may have to refresh with new baking soda a few times, but this good old household remedy for getting rid of odors may just work in your vehicle too. One thing for sure, you won't find any cleaning or deodorizer cheaper than baking soda is. The only bit of a hassle will be vacuuming it out of the carpet, but even that is not too bad if it does the job.

FBinNY 

OMS is routinely used as paint thinner, and has a long history of evaporating dry and "odorless" over a few days. Inside a house, it's only a matter of leaving windows open for a few days. If it evaporates and dries out of paint without leaving an odor, it'll do the same from the car if given the chance.

AlphaDogg

The odor doesn't bother me. It's the fact that I can feel the OMS in my lungs when I drive that bothers me. It's starting to smell more now, which means that it's more prevalent in the air inside the car, which in turn points to it evaporating at a faster rate... I hope

gregjones

Cheryl makes the same claim about my farts. The cloud does dissipate, otherwise we'd have to move every other day.

"It's not the smell, it's the burning of my lungs."

Looigi

Sympathies. Baking out in the sun is a good idea, but I'd do it with the windows open as the vapors need somewhere to go. Lacking sunny hot days, I'd try parking the car with the windows and perhaps the doors open, and arrange a fan to blow forcefully through the affected area. In my experience, it will eventually dissipate, but it may take a days or weeks depending on the conditions. The fan would probably be a good idea even in hot sunny conditions.

Note. Ambient humidity itself wont' effect the evaporation rate of the OMS.

In the meantime, while driving, you could wear a paint respirator with carbon filters that will remove hydrocarbon vapors. They are very effective, but you might get some weird looks.

Booger1

It's going to leave whatever is in the solution behind,decanting just takes the chunks out.The smell of OMS might go away....Maybe some other stuff left behind also.

speedy25

I am a carpet cleaner, AND I also use OMS for stain removal.

A good carpet cleaner (human variety, not chemical variety!) should be able to flush out ALL the OMS from your carpet. Unfortunately since it is also airborne that will leave some residue in places you cant get at. You may have to get the whole interior cleaned to get it mostly gone. Hang in there and see if you can stand it after a few sunny days. In the meantime you can speed up the evaporation with a small space heater CAREFULLY placed inside.

-SP

AlphaDogg

Thanks, I really appreciate your advice! I left the car baking in the sun today and the smell is WAY better. Still there though. I'll give it a couple more days of warm sunshine and see how it goes...

BCRider

Patience, it WILL dry away. But your carpets are going to remain stained with whatever chain lube grease/oil was in the OMS. Or if it was FRESH then eventually with time heat and copious airflow it will all evaporate away and leave your car just fine.

Heat really does help. But you also need lots of airflow. If you don't then the air in the car will simply contain only so much solvent in the same way that air can only hold so much water in any given volume. So you need to have a steady air exchange to allow it to evaporate.

AlphaDogg

Well of course heat helps; it's a petroleum distillate with a very low evaporating temperature... And the whole interior of the car is black, so no stains... And it's not fresh, I had chain-l dissolved in there from thousands of miles worth of cleaned chains.

And just as the smell hit its worst, it's starting to get better. It sat all day in the hot sun and 85º weather with a window open just a little bit. No steady air exchange but the temp got high because it essentially turned into a solar oven as FB mentioned