Steam cleaning a cloth interior

[Theo]

I've got a nice 318is interior which has really grimey front seats. Would a steam cleaner work or is there another product/method?

[ian332isport]

I've got a nice 318is interior which has really grimey front seats. Would a steam cleaner work or is there another product/method?

I'm not sure what a steam cleaner would do to fabric (or leather) seats, but I suspect it's probably not a very good idea due to the heat involved.

Ideally you would use an extraction upholstery/carpet cleaner and some decent low foam upholstery shampoo. If you don't have access to one of these, then an upholstery scrubbing brush and some upholstery cleaner should shift a lot of the dirt. You need to avoid getting the seats really wet though, as it will take ages to dry out, and also washes the dirt further into the fabric.

Ian.

[Theo]

Thanks for the info Ian, a carpet cleaner sounds like a good idea, perhaps I can rent one locally. I tried some (fairly crap) upholstery cleaner and it made no impact, is there a good product which you can recommend?

[1an]

we once hired one of them carpet cleaners from arel ocal 'focus' to clean the carpets, it sohuld have pretty good results as our sofa's came up really good aswell.

and they are fairly cheap if i remeber aswell to hire.

[ian332isport]

Thanks for the info Ian, a carpet cleaner sounds like a good idea, perhaps I can rent one locally. I tried some (fairly crap) upholstery cleaner and it made no impact, is there a good product which you can recommend?

For machine use, it really needs to be a low foam cleaner. If you put regular stuff in an extraction machine, you will get loads of foam, and not much cleaning. The stuff they usually supply with the machine is normally pretty good.

I use Autobrite's fabric clean +, but something like 1001 shampoo from Tesco etc is pretty good.

If you do hire a machine, make sure it comes with suitable accessories for cleaning upholstery as opposed to carpet. They are very similar, but the carpet ones are usually very big, and hard to use on seats.

Ian.

[DanThe]

If it were me they would get TFR and steaming hot water!

Then get the wet-vac out and try to find some sun to stand them in

[DaveD]

the ones in focus are caller "rug doctors" and come with an upholstery attachment..and they do work a treat on the seats and also the headlining...they are about £20 for 24hrs...so you could do a lot of interiors in that time

[gareth]

give tescos car interior foam cleaner a go.

i used in on the 'rado to remove all sorts of goo from under the kiddy seats (parents will know the shite that lives there). just spart on, leave for a min then wipe off with a damp cloth. vastly better than any other interior cleaning products i've used.

don't forget the baby wipes for the dash etc!

[DanThe]

If its baby wipes your after go to Asda, theyve got pallets of the things at £5 per box of 6 packs!

[gareth]

if i drove to my nearest asda in a 6 pot bmw, it would cost me £10

[DanThe]

Bloody hell

We have a Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's, Morrisons, Somerfield, Lidl and Aldi all within a 3 mile radius.

Only Tesco and Sainsbury's have petrol but the local Shell is still cheaper

[gareth]

i wouldn't admit to sleeping in the car in a retail park

we have all asda and somerfield in about a 4 mile radius (about 10 tescos if you include the mini ones!)

hasn't this gone off topic!!!! what about you theo, do you have a shop near you or just the pub and a breakers yard?!!!

[DanThe]

Lets try and get this back on topic a bit then.

We got some good pubs too, I popped over to our local the other day, after steaming my manky seats off

Only I couldnt find the entrance due to the amount of people crowding the space between the building and pavement so they could legally smoke

I think they are planning on moving the bar outside

[gareth]