When I purchased my car about a year ago, it had a small stain on the rear seat. I got the dealer to clean it, and it was all but gone. Now it seems to of started to come back 🤔

 

I've tried 3-4 passes agitating and rinsing with autoglym interior cleaner but it's not really made it much better. When it foams up on the seat, it makes the stain super obvious if that makes sense and while wet it's not visible. As it dries, it just comes back

 

Any ideas of anything I can try that won't further stain or damage the seat?

If you've tried with AG interior cleaner, I would try a wet&dry vac to try and pull whatever the contaminant is out of the seat fibres.

 

You could also try a foaming upholstery cleaner, also available from AG. Sometimes these can be better then a spray liquid cleaner at getting amongst the stain. Then the area can be blotted in order to lift the stain through the fibres. Often if you just agitate it will move the stain, but not draw it up and away from the upholstery.

 

Of course, it all depends on what it was that went onto the seat in first place. If it's a chemical of some kind, it's possible that it's now fully bonded 😞 

 

Best of luck.

Thanks for the reply. I did actually rinse and vac the stain with one of these as I was hoping it'd suck out any residue:

 

 

Been invaluable with two cats, saved our carpet multiple times 🤣 Will see if i can get some ag foam cleaner to try out too. Has anyone ever tried vanish upholstery spray? Used it on other things and its been good, but worried it'll leave a mark or worse bleach the seats 🤔

Edited 14 January, 20206 yr by Confused_Cheese

I'd try some foam - I've only ever used AG interior cleaning products. Thankfully I've not needed them that often!

Leave to dwell for 5 mins, then blot with kitchen towel and see if you get any transfer onto the towel. You might also see discolouration of the foam which is a good sign that it's transferring out of the seat.

 

Leave to dry, then assess if it's any better. Repeat if required etc. But I find the best tip is the blotting, to gently lift the contaminant away rather than just risking it moving around the seat!

I remember having some of this stuff when I had my mk1 vrs fabia, those white and black seats loved getting water marks

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Autoglym-High-Interior-Shampoo-450ml/dp/B001MPUFJS/ref=sr_1_6?keywords=autoglym+foam&qid=1579014126&sr=8-6

 

Assuming its the same stuff, will get some ordered and give it a go. Really hoping its not some form of bodily fluid, haven't noticed any feet marks on the windows/dash at least 🕵️‍♂️

Its Charley Monk.

 

I regularly have to scrap bedding in my apparthôtel, the aforementioned usually comes out in a hotter more vigorous wash but with car upholstery you wont have that option, other stains that are far more dispersed (squirters perhaps?) must have some sort of lubricant involved and wont come out even with boil washing and biological detergents.

 

I thought that I had seen it all but I was very wrong.

 

Changing to more pleasant seat stains my Yeti has seat panel inserts that are a sort of grey and white check, all were clean except one showed signs of where someone had tried to get a stain out but just spread it around, a neighbour is a carpet cleaner and while he was redoing my rental property I asked him to have a go at the one rear seat.

 

He did too good a job, I started with only one dirty seat and now I have three others 😞

had a proper giggle at squirters 😁

Its one lady in particular, very nice and a regular customer who like many others makes the booking for herself + 1, - her (ahem) husband, she must divorce regularly 😀

 

Its always female sales reps working away from home, one is a girl who teaches at the prison one week a month and entertains a different husband every night 🤣

 

Its both good business and a good laugh for me but for the squirter who tries to hide things by bundling up the bedding & turning the mattress upside down, I will have to have a discreet word with her next time which being in a second language for me has potential to go wrong.

If you do have a word with her, ask if she knows of any decent cleaning products that might help 🤭 I'm sure she's had to try a few in the past...