Every day we get calls from customers that have dirty leather in their cars.  Leather can be finicky to clean.  One must take precaution no to be too aggressive.   We came across some seats today that were, well, disgusting.  That pretty much sums it up.  The car was about ten years old, and obviously the owner worked in a coal mine.   This was a situation where, this time, we were trying to save the seats from dying, much less look good.  The method we used is our most aggressive, and is not the way we typically clean leather.  Typically we use Leatherique to clean and condition the leather.  This was an extreme situation, and we want to show you how we achieved the results of steam cleaning leather car seats.

After vacuuming the seat to remove any loose dirt debris, we sprayed Meguiars All Purpose Cleaner to the surface and let it dwell for a minute or so.  The next step was to steam the surface.  Usually, we will use a microfiber towel over the steamer brush head, but in this case, with the leather being so dirty with grime, we used the brush head.  In the photo below, one can see the dirt and grime rolling off the surface.  The soft bristle brush head agitates and makes the dirt much easier to remove.  One must be very careful not to be too aggressive with the steaming process.  Leather can be damaged if common sense is not used.  We only agitated the surface with the steam brush for only a couple of seconds.

 

The photo below shows my hand moving the dirt around on the seat after it was steamed. Notice how easily the dirt and grime is moved.  Again, this is not the way we typically clean leather, but we wanted to show you the extreme of extremes.

 

Below, one can see the leather on the right side was just steam agitated, and one can see the difference as the right side is ready to be wiped with a microfiber towel.

 

The photo below shows the major difference after we cleaned the left side of the leather seat.  Notice how dirty and disgusting the right side is.  This is a great before and after photo that really shows the power of steam cleaning.  I definitely recommend using a good leather conditioner, such as Leatherique Rejuvenator Oil to replenish the leather with the oils it needs to preserve its life.