Regularly maintained, car seats stay beautiful for a long time and increase the value of the vehicle when sold. How to perfectly care for, clean and repair your fabric or leather car seats, you will learn in this guidebook.
Clean your own fabric car seat covers
Car seats with fabric upholstery can be cleaned by yourself without much effort and often with simple means. The first step is to vacuum the car seats thoroughly. remove encrusted dirt with a brush. First, try to remove stains with warm water and a cloth or sponge. Do not exert too much pressure on the cover to avoid chafing. If the stains cannot be removed with water, you can try special cleaning agents or various household remedies. In specialized shops you will find upholstery cleaning products that can remove most stains without any problems.
Before you use these cleaning agents, you should first try them on a hidden spot to see if the agent causes discoloration, if any. Use a soft cloth or sponge for application. Massage the cleaner lightly into the upholstery. To avoid water stains and marks, always treat the entire upholstered surface. The cleaner must be allowed to soak in for a few minutes. After the application time, wipe the upholstery with a damp cloth or sponge to remove the loosened dirt and cleaner. For this purpose a so-called wet vacuum cleaner is ideal.
With these devices you spray the upholstery with water and immediately vacuum it with the dirt again. Wet vacuums can also be used to remove stains and clean the entire upholstery. For cleaning large areas, upholstery cleaning foam is also suitable. Spray the seat cover with the foam and let the foam work according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Then vacuum the seat thoroughly once again. Sticky chewing gum can be cooled with a cold pack from the freezer until the gum becomes firm and brittle. Then the chewing gum can usually be removed.
Car seats: vinegar essence, baking soda and other home remedies for car seat cleaning
proven home remedies for cleaning car seat covers are mild detergent and gall soap. You can remove blood or coffee stains almost effortlessly with gall soap. You can buy gall soap in any drugstore as a solid soap or as a liquid solution. Apply the soap to the stain with a damp cloth. After a few minutes, you can remove the stain and the soap residue with a cloth that has been washed out again and again.
Dissolve about a tablespoon of mild detergent in a liter of lukewarm water and spray the stain with it. After the reaction time, dab the treated areas with a damp cloth and finally with a dry cloth.
You can also remove stains with vinegar essence and vinegar. Mix two to three tablespoons of vinegar essence with one liter of lukewarm water and spray the stains with this solution. Remove the loosened dirt with a damp cloth. If you use vinegar, use only clear vinegar. Balsamic vinegar or red wine vinegar will even leave stains on the seat covers. After that the seats should be allowed to air well.
You can also use sodium bicarbonate for stain removal. Apply the sodium bicarbonate powder directly to the stain and moisten it with a cloth or spray bottle. Leave the powder to work and then remove it with a damp cloth. You can vacuum up any powder that has dried again.
Cleaning leather seats in the car properly
For the cleaning of leather seats in your car, you should use special leather cleaners. Home remedies such as vinegar or shaving cream are not suitable for this purpose. First, the seats are thoroughly vacuumed and encrusted dirt is brushed off. Then apply the leather cleaner with a sponge or soft cloth sparingly and with little pressure. The cleaning agent is then wiped off with a slightly damp cloth. The cloth should not be wet. Too much moisture damages the leather. It becomes brittle and with time huge.
At the end of the cleaning process, the seat covers are rubbed with a leather care product. These products protect the leather and keep it soft and supple. As a rule, leather seat covers should be treated with a care product once or twice a year. Shoe polish is not suitable for this purpose. It usually leads to discoloration of your clothing.
How much does a car seat cleaning cost?
If you do not want to clean the seats in your car yourself, then you can give this work to a professional. Garages and professional car valeters can do this work for relatively little money. You can expect to pay around 10 to 20 euros to clean a seat with an upholstered cover. The thorough cleaning of a leather seat costs significantly more at around 40 to 50 euros. If only a maintenance of the leather cover is desired, then you should expect costs of approx. calculate 20 to 30 euro per seat.
Car seats: can you repair a car seat cover yourself??
You can repair certain types of damage to car seat covers yourself. In specialized trade are for approx. 30 euro repair kits for car seats with fabric covers available. These sets are especially suitable for repairing burn holes. They contain, among other things, special adhesives, textiles and textile fibers that you can use to repair almost all fabric seat covers.
The repair is simple in principle, but requires some practice. First you need to clean the burn hole thoroughly and cut off the burnt edges of the fabric. For this you can use a fine and sharp nail scissors or a very sharp knife. Then the burn hole in the upholstery is underlaid with a piece of fabric.
This fabric is glued to the upholstery cover with the special glue included in the set. Once the glue has dried, the hole is filled with a mixture of fabric fibers and glue, and the repaired area is sprinkled with matching fabric fibers from the set. The fabric carpet pad prevents the hole from expanding under stress and tearing the repair filler. The exact procedure is described in detail in the instructions of the repair kit.
cracks and holes in a leather seat cover can be underlaid and glued with a piece of fabric or leather. Then close the holes with a suitably cut leather patch and treat the leather in this area with so-called liquid leather. Liquid leather is a dyed special filler that remains elastic after drying. With liquid leather, you can also smooth out brittle leather areas again within certain limits.
What does a car seat repair cost?
The cost of repairing a seat cover depends on the cover material. For smart repair of a hole or a small tear in a fabric cover you will have to pay ca. 40 to 50 euro calculated. For the repair of a leather seat cover you have to calculate with a price of approx. calculate 70 to 80 euro. Imitation leather upholstery can be used for ca. 60 euro can be repaired a little cheaper.
In comparison, a new fabric cover including labor costs about 200 to 450 euros depending on the vehicle. You will have to pay a lot more for a new leather upholstery. The reupholstery of a leather seat costs in the best case approx. 500 euro. In most cases, the cost of new leather upholstery, including labor, is about 1.000 to 1.200 euro per seat.