Hi all,
The seats in my 5 are a a bit manky and could do with a good clean, especially around the headrest.
I’m planning on cleaning them soon and before I attack them with some random cleaner and a scrubbingbrush, I thought I’d ask if anyone has any helpful tips on cleaning black cloth seats?
What product is best to use? Is there anything I should avoid doing? I’d rather not take the covers off if I can help it,
but if that’s the only way, then so be it.
Thanks!
Steve
For a deep clean, I’ve just used a decent upholstery cleaner (Autoglym etc), a scrubbing brush and plenty of water. If you can get a vax, even better. Best to remove the seats from the car, and picking a nice warm day, to do this. Don’t take the covers off.
Here Here, And now the very good warm weather looks like it`s sliding away, Lean the seats upside down on a radiator for a day and then give them a good hover before bolting them back in.
You can then clean out all the old ■■■■ that builds up under the seats over the years, It feels good to know youv "got ride" and its very easy to do. Small amount of effort, very big gain.
However. Do make sure you have a good quality 14mm socket to undo the floor nuts on the seat runners, they are a tapered head for some reason, and can round off easily if not careful.
We use G101 on our cars before sale (along with a good wet and dry vac). Soak the seat in it, leave for 5-10 mins and then scrub and finally hoover out. This stuff works on pretty much the entire inside of the car including plastics etc.
G101 as mentioned above is great but don’t use a too strong dilution or you’ll get white marks.
My steps for cleaning seats.
Very good vacume
Brush
Vac again
Any deep looking stains I use something like g101 and brush it in. (I do is more for odd spots rather than a full clean)
Then if I don’t have the required finish I use upholstery cleaner all over the seat.
Aggitate with an upholstery brush all over.
Use vax wet extractor with upholstery cleaner in.
Use the vac part of the wet vac to suck the crap out with out water to get it as dry as possible.
Its important to check the seats when they are drier as stubborn marks may have blended into the damp finish and will reappear if not fully removed once the seat has dried. If your seats are still bad repeat he last few steps.
Thanks for all the advice!
Elbow grease + G101 + upholstery cleaner looks like a winning combination I reckon.