Clean Leather Car Seat:
Why most car leather cleaners fail

• Which car leather cleaners are safe to use?
• How often should I clean car leather seating?
• Are there professional car leather cleaning tips?

Clean Leather Car Seat Basics

Before we get into how to clean car leather interiors, we need to learn a few foundational basics that we can build upon, as well as help you to become a more informed consumer and car owner.

• Car leather is just that; car leather.
• Car leather is not your shoe leather, your purse leather, or your horse and tackle leather.
• Most modern car leather is finished with a clear protective coating for uniformity in appearance, as well as ease of care and cleaning; this is the good news!
• While most people think that finding and using the best car leather conditioner is the secret to preserving your car leather interior, the bigger and more important requirement is cleaning your car leather first and foremost!
• Keeping your car leather clean from the beginning requires very little effort, and very basic car leather cleaners.
• Most people wait until their car leather is heavily soiled before doing anything, and then traditional car leather cleaners become mostly ineffective.
• Despite wishful thinking and popular opinion, you cannot change marginal leather into fabulous leather by applying more and more applications of the best car leather conditioners; all car leathers are not created equal. Like every other area in life, you get what you pay for.
• Unless you have paid $100K+ for your car, when the fine print or car ad says leather appointed seating, this really means a combination use of both natural car leather along with leather look-alike vinyls.
• Pay $200K+ for your car and you will get leather so fine you will wet yourself with excitement; trust me on this one!
• Cars that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars really are made with materials and workmanship that can only be appreciated when experienced first hand; trust me on this one also!

The opulence and refinement of a $400K Ferrari is something everyone should experience, but very few of us get to; one of the many perks of professional auto detailing!

How to Clean Leather Car Seats

Experience has shown that most people allow their car leather to become heavily soiled and then the search begins for the best car leather cleaner, or how to clean car leather. So you end up buying some car leather cleaner that has been recommended by a misinformed person, only to be disappointed by poor results. The problem is two-fold:

• Most car leather cleaners are for very light levels of dirt.
• Most people have waited until their car leather is heavily soiled and then unknowingly use a mild car leather cleaner with unrealistic expectations.

Basic Car Leather Cleaning and Maintenance

The best solution is to never allow your cars leather to become heavily soiled in the first place. Having said that, I also realize this is not most people's reality. But if you have a new car, or a car with car leather upholstery that is in good to excellent condition, then I recommend the car leather kit below as an All-in-One cleaning and conditioning kit as a simplified approach to car leather care:

Leather Master Car Leather Interior Service Kit

• Perfect for anyone looking to keep it simple with an all inclusive kit that also contains an ink pen removal product.
• Trusted name in car leather care.
• Perfect for new car leather cleaning and maintenance.

Heavy Duty Car Leather Cleaning Results

If your car leather upholstery has become heavily soiled, you will need to employ not only a stronger cleaner, but additional tools and techniques. Don't worry, it sounds much worse than it is. Follow my professional car leather cleaning tips and you will be amazed at not only the results, but in your accomplishment in doing it!

The pictures above show the dramatic results when professional techniques are applied using professional grade products to clean leather car upholstery. This example is taken from an '06 Lexus RX where the car leather had never been cleaned before. My customer bought the car used and requested the Auto Fetish touch to bring it up to par with his level of clean. The picture on the left is when I has started the clean leather car seat process prior to taking picture.

The pictures above are from an '06 Corvette in which the original owner had never had his Vette detailed in the 6 years he had owned the car. He was floored with the results I was able to produce with not only the car as a whole, but with the car leather specifically! The picture on the left was taken after I had already begun to clean the car leather on the side bolster area which is why that particular area does not show as being heavily soiled.

How to Clean Leather Car Seat and Upholstery

Use the following tips to cleaning car leather when you find yourself faced with heavy duty car leather cleaning:

Car Leather Cleaner

The following product from Meguiar's is not only a great cleaner to clean leather car seat, but for many other cleaning and detailing jobs.

Meguiars D103 All Purpose Cleaner Plus

• All-purpose cleaner can be custom mixed based on cleaning chores.
• Start with a mix ratio of 10 parts distilled water, to 1 part APC for mild car leather cleaning.
• Use a mix ratio of 4 parts distilled water, to 1 part APC for heavily soiled car leather cleaning.
• Distilled water is preferred but not mandatory; this allows the cleaner to be more effective.

Car Leather Cleaning Tools

The following tools will need to be used to clean leather car seat that can also be employed regardless of the level of dirt you are dealing with, or the car leather cleaner you have actually selected as your choice as the best car leather cleaner. My recommendations are just that and merely represent what I have learned and used at a professional level.

Safe Scrub Bug & Tar Pad

• Allow to soak in water a few minutes prior to using.
• Use in conjunction with All-purpose Cleaner from above, or any other favorite car leather cleaner of your choice.

Vinyl & Leather Scrub Brush

• I have found that for a very thorough car leather cleaning job, I usually have to use both the scrub brush along with the scrub sponge; each serves its own unique purpose depending on the area of the car leather upholstery you are cleaning.
• The brush serves to clean car leather where deep crevices and accent piping are the concern, while the sponge is useful for the larger and flatter areas of cleaning.

Additional Clean Leather Car Seat Tips of Success

• For heavily soiled car leather cleaning, it is better to break leather seating into bite sized pieces and clean repeated times until you have achieved desired results. There are many times I will have to go over heavily soiled car leather 3 and 4 times for complete cleaning of the area.
• For light colored car leather, most any rag will do to mop up cleaning solution and dirt. Simply spray cleaner, scrub, mop up with rag, repeat until clean. No rinsing necessary.
• For dark or black car leather cleaning, I use a micro-fiber rag so as to not leave lint that is very visible on dark car leather.
• Once you have done a thorough cleaning job, maintenance can be as easy and simple as wiping your cars leather down regularly, at first signs of dirt with a rag dampened with car leather cleaner in an aggressive manner; you know, with real purpose and enthusiasm!
• If you have allowed your car leather to become excessively dirty, the accumulated dirt may have caused natural leather color to break down which you could be removing during the cleaning process. It is always advise to do a test area in an inconspicuous area first before you clean leather car seat.
• You may also expose worn areas of your leather when you clean leather car seat; this is not only normal as the dirt may have concealed these worn out areas, but may be somewhat shocking to you as you go through the clean leather car seat process. If this is the case, take note so the next car you purchase new, you can prevent this excessive wear by not sliding your butt into the leather seating each time you get in and out of your car. The proper way is to place your butt into position, not sliding into position!

Best Car Leather Conditioner

After any discussion as to how to clean leather car upholstery is always going to be how to condition car leather and what is the best car leather conditioner to use. Once agin I will lay a simple foundation that you can either accept or reject:

• Most modern car leathers are finished with a clear protective coating. This makes car leather user friendly in that it is very resistant to normal use, and resistant to dirt in its many forms.
• This includes leather from all car manufactures and includes all trim levels from the very lowest to the very highest. Like any rule, exceptions do exists, but these are few and far in between.
• I have used these methods to clean leather car seats from Honda mini-vans, to Ferrari's, to Bentley's. Generally the concern exist mainly with car leather made prior to 1995.

The reason I lay out this understanding is that most people become fixated on finding the best car leather conditioner and proceed to apply layer after layer of conditioner to their cars leather, at the expense of the more critical step of cleaning the car leather first and foremost. Often people end up with completely the opposite desired result and that is a grungy build-up of dirt and leather conditioner that has become damaging to the car leather. Experience has shown that keeping car leather clean from the beginning will allow your car leather to remain healthy and beautiful for the duration of your interest in that car. I have car leather I have taken care of for over twenty years and have never applied any form of leather conditioner to, and the leather remains looking brand new.

Actual picture form 1991 Mercedes Benz 420 SEL with original leather, and no conditioners ever used; just consistent leather car seat cleaning.

Car Leather Conditioner Recommendations

With all that said, there are still times I need to employ the use of car leather conditioners and/or leather dressings; I will offer my professional leather conditioner recommendations.

Lexol Spray Leather Conditioner

• Well known and recognized car leather conditioner.
• Use as needed as per label instructions.

Stoner More Shine Less Time Spray

• One of my favorite products I have been using over 20 years.
• Use when looking to simply create a superficial, non-greasy sheen to any of your cars upholstery including car leather.
• Ideal for creating a uniformed appearance after you clean leather car seat that is dark or black in color.
• You can dictate level of gloss by simply spraying and let alone for ultra gloss, or wipe down to break down shine for desired results.

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