Stains & water spots on seats

[Karen88]

I bought a used Jeep Grand Cherokee 2 months ago. Test driving, there were coffee and other stains on the seats, not too bad, but needed cleaning.

The dealer delivered the car with fairly clean seats but still not to my satisfaction. I have continuously, over the past 2 months, seen water spots appear on the seats. They look TERRIBLE!! It seems like maybe they saturated the seats and didn`t get all the water out and now it`s surfacing??

Any suggestions on how to get these water spots out? I`ve read steaming them would work, but I don`t know how to go about it. I have a portable steamer. Should I spray a cleaning solution on the seat first? I need exact "how to" advice.

Last question....should the seats be Scotchguarded again? I wonder if the dealer compromised it by not cleaning them well enough?

Thanks a bunch!!
Karen

[Beemerboy]

I bought a used Jeep Grand Cherokee 2 months ago. Test driving, there were coffee and other stains on the seats, not too bad, but needed cleaning.

The dealer delivered the car with fairly clean seats but still not to my satisfaction. I have continuously, over the past 2 months, seen water spots appear on the seats. They look TERRIBLE!! It seems like maybe they saturated the seats and didn`t get all the water out and now it`s surfacing??

Any suggestions on how to get these water spots out? I`ve read steaming them would work, but I don`t know how to go about it. I have a portable steamer. Should I spray a cleaning solution on the seat first? I need exact "how to" advice.

Last question....should the seats be Scotchguarded again? I wonder if the dealer compromised it by not cleaning them well enough?

Thanks a bunch!!
Karen

Karen

First thing is welcome to the site…what I think happened is like any material that gets deep stains, you can remove them for a period of time but they will reappear …its like your household carpets they look great once the cleaner people leave but the well worn areas start to look dirty again or the real bad stains come back in a short order. What I think the dealership did was coverup the stains so that they could sell the car but not address removing them...its quite common in the used car industry

Having said that I think that you are going to require a good hot water extractor to remove the oils in the coffee and the water stains…Heat is the trick here and that’s accomplished with a good material cleaner and hot water, produced by an extractor. The extractor forces the solution into the material and then at the same time it lifts that with a vacuum to loosen up the dirt and stains and remove.

Having said that if you want to try a home remedy I like to use a APC (all purpose cleaner) like a citrus based cleaner, or Folex is another (you can buy that at any Wal Mart or stores like that, mix that with water about 4 -1. I would start with using the solution to pre-treat the bad areas, so that they can soak a bit and loosen up the stains…use a brush to help this along…then with a shop vac and a good stiff plastic brush…vacuum up the seats, spray your mixture on and use the brush to work into the seats. Then I like to use straight water to dilute, a spray bottle will do the trick here, re-brush and shop-vac to left everything on the seats. Remember that you are not trying to soak the material but if so not to worry they will dry just use the vacuum to lift as much of the water as possible In some areas you might have to use the solution full strength…do this by applying to a rag and wiping the area…you want to be careful as some APC’s can lift or discolor the material. I have used this method with decent results but the one that I suggested to start the extractor really is the best method.
Lastly pull the Jeep into a warm area if possible crack the windows and let dry fully it that’s not a option then start the motor and turn on the floor heater on high and let the inside of the car get hot so that will dry things up..I let it run for about 15 minutes in most cases.


I would look for a good deatailer in your area for this, the dealership in most cases are not as careful as a detailer is going to be

Lastly on protection once the material is real dry I would apply liberal amounts of Scotchguard and let dry then do it again, it certainly can`t hurt the material

[BLACKWRX]

iam assuming the seats are cloth? if the inserts on the seat are textured, then yes it will be hard to clean, i personally like "resolve stain remover" it really works well, they make two kinds a fabric cleaner and a carpet cleaner, you want
the fabric cleaner, if the cleaner and brush technique dont work, you need a steam cleaner, if that doesnt work your stuck( if the fabric is textured) if not textured you could also look into having your seats dyed ..... hopefully those stains will come out

[audiboy]

It looks like Beemerboy gave some pretty sound advice. Welcome to DC! Make sure you stop by the new members forum to give yourself a bit of an introduction.