Leather care

[xcaliber81]

What should i be doing for the leather seats to maintain them?

Cleaning Leather Upholstery
MOPAR® Total Clean or equivalent is specifically recommended for leather upholstery.

Your leather upholstery can be best preserved by regular cleaning with a damp soft cloth. Small particles of dirt can act as an abrasive and damage the leather upholstery and should be removed promptly with a damp cloth. Stubborn soils can be removed easily with a soft cloth and MOPAR® Total Clean or equivalent. Care should be taken to avoid soaking your leather upholstery with any liquid. Please do not use polishes, oils, cleaning fluids, solvents, detergents, or ammonia-based cleaners to clean your leather upholstery. Application of a leather conditioner is not required to maintain the original condition.

In case someone says read the manual.

Im more looking as to what you guys are doing and how it has worked in your journey in the long run ive detailed cars before and yea we cleaned the stains off but they taught us to use magic erasers and such im not sure i want to do that in my car.

As for any conditioner do i use anything?

Edited October 4, 2015 by xcaliber81

[jkeaton]

I use a leather cleaner/conditioner that I buy at Walmart. Nothing special.

[dhh3]

I spray on ArmorAll Leather Cleaner/Conditioner, wipe it down with an ArmorAll Leather wipe. Then, I let it dry by itself.

[B4ZINGA]

Products I've used in the past are Lexol Cleaner and Lexol Conditioner, Meguiar's Leather Conditioner (Gold Class), Leatherique ($$$), and Zaino Z-9 and Z-10 (cleaner and conditioner, respectively). Run away from Armor All like a scalded cat.

For the casual vehicle owner, Lexol and Meguiar's are the way to go to get something fast (available at parts stores) and cheap. For those wanting to go a bit further, Leatherique is a good product that goes deep into the hide and pushes out dirt, industrial fallout, etc, and is advertised to make stiff leather supple again (I have not had that success, yet). Zaino is my go-to product. The cleaner works better than Lexol at getting the Light Taupe seats in my Special clean and the conditioner is stupid-easy to use, and succeeds in making the leather feel new and smell new again. On paper, Zaino is pricey, however the trick is "a little goes a long way". Minimal amounts of the product are needed, and the bottle will last a long time.

What I do is use Leatherique once per year in the Spring, and use Zaino whenever I detail my interior (monthly). Leatherique requires at least a day time investment to allow the rejuvinator oil to sink into the hide. It's also pricey and available online only. Zaino is also an online product.

Something to note: Leather is not common in cars. All cars that don't have cloth interiors are vinyl, vinyl/leather, or leather. Bentley's use leather. Chryslers use leather where your hind-side sits and vinyl elsewhere. Dodge definitely uses vinyl on its seatbacks and sides, and more than likely where you sit as well, except for maybe the high dollar optional leathers (that aren't offered on Journey). My Journey gets only the Zaino treatment, as there isn't much point to using the Leatherique on vinyl. The makers say it works on vinyl, but I found I was better able to clean my seats using Zaino. The leatherique I use in my Special to help hydrate the material and stave off cracks.

[xcaliber81]

Thanks alot.

Do you by chance have a link to make sure I'm looking at the right stuff

Edited October 5, 2015 by xcaliber81

[dhh3]

My Journey Crossroad has Leather on the seating surfaces and back rests. The sides and backs are vinyl. All of my Jeeps were this way too.

[B4ZINGA]

Leatherique:

http://www.autogeek.net/leleca.html

Zaino:

http://www.zainostore.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=Z&Category_Code=interiortires

Journey very likely uses leatherette, and not real leather anywhere in the vehicle, so Zaino Leather-In-A-Bottle should be sufficient. Actual leather is used in more expensive vehicles, such as high end Chrysler, Lincoln Black Label. Cadillac, etc.

[dhh3]

Smelled like leather when I bought it; still smells like leather when I haven't driven it for a few days. Outside seat bolster is beginning to get lines in the surface because it is leather. The mesh inserts are probably some kind of vinyl. My doors also have leather on them.

[Lobitz68]

Smelled like leather when I bought it; still smells like leather when I haven't driven it for a few days. Outside seat bolster is beginning to get lines in the surface because it is leather. The mesh inserts are probably some kind of vinyl. My doors also have leather on them.

Well, at least it didn't smell like butt when you smelled the seats...

[dhh3]

Mu butt! Familiar with it!

[HawtDogFlvrWtr]

This is the stuff I use. It brings back the new car smell and does an amazing job of cleaning without leaving a massive shine. I use libearlly on each seat. Others i've used leave a white haze on the seats. This doesnt. I'll take pictures after next cleaning this weekend.

[jkeaton]

I use that stuff too. Does an amazing job.

[Trevan22]

On 04.10.2015 at 5:45 PM, jkeaton said:

I use a leather cleaner/conditioner that I buy at Walmart. Nothing special.

Traditionally I use Zaino and Quick waxes along with microfiber towels. It is a curious question for beginning drivers "what is car detailing" from the cleaning issues to the engine work. So, there are a lot of resources through web to get the necessary info.