Dannysonjr

Does anyone know the best solution to clean leather seats beside warm water?

jimbosr1

lexon leather cleaner works good.

KING

iTrader: (1)

I'd say try Meguiar's "Gold Class" Cleaner and conditioner.

Not only that, the trick is to use a "Magic Eraser", special type of sponge.
You can find them at any grocery store. Kmart, Safeway, Kroger.

It is such a great tool to get rid of annoying debris that won't come out.

Luck to you.

doodoo

iTrader: (8)

Optimum power clean. I suggest to look at autogeek forum. They live and breath auto detailing

Jabberwock

Because modern leather seats are dyed and heavily coated/sealed, cleaning modern leather seats you are really cleaning a dyed paint-like surface rather than something like oil tanned natural leather.

For really dirty seats, use a barely damp cloth moistened with luke warm water and a drop of liquid dish soap. I use a series of old white towels and keep gently washing and wiping until the towels stays white and dirt is no longer being released. Then treat the seats to a good quality leather seat conditioner, let dry and buff softly with microfiber cloth. The key to to watch the surface coating on the seat very carefully - you want to wash and rub just firm enough to wet and lift dirt but gently and carefully avoid abrading or wearing the surface pigment. It is critical to vacuum seats super well beforehand to get all loose dirt and grit off the surface to avoid abrading surface during cleaning. Clean seats every six mopnths or so and they will stay looking as new. If you wait till they are visibly dirty or grimy the job is much harder. If all else fails take the car to a good upholstery or leather repair shop they can usually clean and re-dye soiled seats to get them looking good again.

DavidinCT

Yea, I also say to try the "Magic Eraser", I had this black spot on my head rest (must of been old hair gel or something), I tried soaps and other cleaning products, never could get it off, 3 seconds with a Magic Eraser and it came right off and looks new....

I was shocked on how well it works.....They also make a line of Erasers for your rims, crap that I could not ever get off and scrubbing like hell, the Eraser pulled it off in like 5 seconds....again blown away...

ma61

Was always curious if there was much of a difference between the standard leather seats and the upgraded aniline leather in the CL and UL cars in terms of wear and also how you would care for them. Can anyone chime in on this?

Dannysonjr

Appreciated all the inputs and hope all these informations will be useful for other mermbers.

jfelbab

For those who promote using a Magic Eraser... be aware that this is equivalent to using fine sandpaper on your thin coated leather. It cleans by removing the coating (paint). This is not good for the long term health of the leather. Roughing up the coated surface will make it more prone to faster soiling and wear and ultimately failure. There are much better and safer ways to clean your leather that won't diminish the already very thin coating.

LAVALENSI

Do leather treatment creams penetrate the leather coating? I've been using one and it seems to be helping the 13 year old leather

jfelbab

In a word, No. The leather topcoat, (urethane paint) on your leather is there to protect the leather from spills. That coating is specifically made to repel anything you spill on it.

Think about this for a minute. Your car's leather handles some very harsh conditions. Depending on your climate, temperatures range from lows of -20 degrees F to highs of 140-160 degrees F, temperatures easily reached in a closed car in the summer sun. Humidity from an arid 10% to the upper 90%. All the while it needs to remain supple, durable and good looking for the owner. Leather does an outstanding job in this harsh environment.

The ideal climate for preserving leather would be between 65-75 degrees F with humidity of around 45%. Obviously, unless you have a show car, you cannot maintain those conditions for your car. So what can we do to help leather remain soft and supple and looking good year after year? Assuming you do what you can to minimize the environmental extremes, you first, keep it clean with regular vacuum and wipe downs with a wrung-out towel. Second, recognize the environmental conditions and supply hydration during periods of hot and dry weather. This is when to consider tossing that wrung out towel you just wiped down the leather with onto a plastic bag. Close the car and let the evaporation take care of distributing moisture to the leather overnight and remove the towel in the morning. This will do more to keep your leather soft and supple and reduce the development of creases than a lotion or conditioner.

As I've mentioned elsewhere, protected leather absorbs moisture via transpiration, that is, it absorbs H2O via elevated humidity. Since leather is coated with a urethane paint, it can't absorb much of anything directly through that topcoat but moisture is taken up through the leather backside via transpiration. Clearly, this wet towel method can be overdone. If done too often, mold could develop. You should get a feel for the optimum hand of the leather and try to keep it feeling dry, soft and silky. Do what you can to reduce the extreme cycles of both heat and humidity where possible.

If you are using a conditioner and think the leather feels softer, I would say, this may be due to the water content of the conditioner. It also could be that the conditioner is leaving a film on the leather which changes the hand or feel of the leather. It is not a particularly good thing to leave a film on the leather as it will act to attract and hold on to dust and grime which then gets ground into the topcoat every time you slide in and out of the vehicle. This leads to shortening it's useful life. Water is the only thing that will condition coated leather, No oils, silicones, aloe, neatsfoot or creams will be absorbed by protected leather. Leather is made soft in the manufacturing process and cannot be made softer than originally made no matter what you do. Leather can dry out and when this happens the leather fibers shrink and then you will notice that the leather feels hard and creases will become more apparent. If you are diligent about re-hydrating your leather, these shrinking cycles will be minimized and this leads to less creasing and possible cracking.

Clean and hydrate is the best approach to long term protected leather care.

14RX350

Thank you for the helpful info on leather care!
What about perforated leather... Would water and conditioner be able to migrate laterally through the holes?
Also, what do you think about Leatherique and how it works?

Freds430

I use Zaino leather cleaner with a Kiwi soft shoe polish brush to agitate the cleaner. Does a great job and the leather smells like new again.

chinee

This sounds really good. In sunny South Florida, although my car is garaged, it sits in the baking sun 9-10 hours daily, so a little hydration one night a month might help. Thanks for the tip!

jfelbab

Yes, water could extend laterally, albeit unevenly, trough the perforations. But if there is anything I'd not want getting through the perforations into the foam padding underneath it would be oily conditioners. Over time these oils will degrade the foam. I try not to overly wet perforated leather during the cleaning process as well. I use a leather cleaner that generates a lot of thick foam. This allows me to apply the cleaning solution and let it dwell for a couple minutes to clean the leather without overly wetting the leather. I would emphasize, it is not a great idea to try to push liquids of any type through the perforations in leather

In the tanning process, leather is impregnated with all the oils the collegian needs. This is not lost through evaporation, only H2O migrates in and out of the leather fibers. So trying to put oils back in is useless. This is somewhat akin to how a car battery works. Over time, some H2O evaporates from the battery cells and needs to be replenished. You never need to add acid to a car battery as the acid does not evaporate, only the water does. When you speak to a leather professional about conditioning leather they will talk to you about the proper hydration of the leather, not trying to add oils or creams.