Hi not sure if this should be in car care but here goes.

Just bought a little Fiesta 1.4tdci run around for work but it stinks of diesel and gives me headaches :(

Contacted the previous owner reckons he had a little diesel generator in the back and it spilled diesel.

I bought it for the company knowing this smell was there and it was not a leak on the fuel system.It was a bit of a bargain and work needed a nice tidy run around.

I cannot pin point the actual area of the smell obviously it must be the carpet and noise deadening stuff.

So far I have 3 x air freshener in there.

Used 2x bottles of febreeze stuff but the smell seems to have got about 60% better but my eyes still stream after 10mins in the van...help???

Rip out and dispose of any absorbent materials that are contaminated, they are meant to be fire resistant not soaked in fuel. Failing that, rip it all out and jet wash it with the hottest foam wash you can find several times thoroughly, let it dry and see what it's like. I'd be more inclined to try a scrap yard to replace. If there is access to the fuel tank under the floor in back, check it's sealed properly and not letting any up also. 

Don’t waste your time trying to clean it, anything that has diesel spilt onto it is basically knackered, just replace the items.

 

(tried several ways of getting diesel out of clothes... all failed)

As Fubs and Gizmo.  I've tried before when my wife left a leaking bottle of oil on her back seat.  Nothing worked, even after a great deal of effort.  New rear seat from a scrappy was the only answer for us.

 

With diesel, once you get the affected stuff out, you're probably going to want to wash down the metalwork as it's likely to cling to that too.

 

Gaz

Injector seals? My son had the same, worse with the blower/heater on. Fubared injector seals, replacing them cured it.

Think petrol works but then it stinks of petrol.....

Petrol and diesel do not mix though...

Had it with milk in the boot once after a bit of 'enthusiastic' driving caused a bottle of milk with the shopping in the back to be crushed and leak all over the carpet. Cleaned it and cleaned it again and then ripped it and the underlay out and replaced with one from a scrapper.  Don't waste time and effort cleaning and masking the smell.

We had 1.4 tdci fiestas at work a while back , one of them developed a leak in the engine.. fuel/oil dripping onto turbo smoking into the cabin... might be worth checking for same, it was giving me headache - slowly monoxide poisoning me everyrume i drive the f'i g thing for about a month!!

Write it off at the soonest possible opportunity..

Edited 8 November, 201510 yr by fabiamk2SE

Write it off at the soonest possible opportunity..

Funily, i did thst with one our fiestas too.. parked it in a field 4 days after it came back from repair folowing a t-bone at a petrol station ...

Funily, i did thst with one our fiestas too.. parked it in a field 4 days after it came back from repair folowing a t-bone at a petrol station ...

Actually, OT but....

given it was a leased company van, does it count as "Crash a Hire Car" for me bucket list?

What dkes Brisky think?