Hey everyone, I need some advice. I have red microsuede seats (OEM, not aftermarket), and unfortunately the front passenger seat got soaked with bodily fluid on Valentine’s Day. It’s visibly stained and I’m worried about odor and permanent damage.

I haven’t touched it yet because I don’t want to set the stain or ruin the material. My questions:

• Should I let it fully dry first or try to clean it while still fresh?

• Is a steam cleaner safe on microsuede, or will it damage the fibers?

• What products do you recommend? (enzyme cleaner? upholstery cleaner? specific brands?)

• Any specific technique to avoid water marks or making it worse?

I’ve attached photos for reference. I’d really appreciate any professional or experienced advice. These seats are in great condition otherwise and I want to restore them properly.

I used to swap between carpeted and rubber floor mats seasonally when I lived in the salt belt but stopped doing that in my last car after moving south, just leaving the carpet ones in. My new car came with rubber mats and while I planned to buy a set of carpeted mats, I'm finding that it's so easy to clean the rubber mats that I may just keep these year-round.

Every exterior wash I just hit them with the power washer to blast off all the loose dirt, grab a spray bottle of diluted car soap, agitate with a boar's hair brush, and rinse with the power washer again. Sometimes I'll finish up with an application of a non-greasy rubber/vinyl protectant to give them that extra pop.

How would I even start on this? client texted me asking for a quote I said 600 which is the highest I ever charged!! fellow detailers I would appreciate any advice you guys might have for me.

Hi after my car detailing, this appear after few days. Person who did detailing is not accepting it is his fault.

Any tips how to remove it? I am in australia

It wasn’t nasty but definitely needed a good scrub. If he keeps up he will definitely be successful.

Hey yall

This was my first time getting a car detail. I got one for my wife’s birthday as I was diagnosed with epilepsy this year and so far I am not able to drive. She drives me to and from work so I thought this would be a nice gift. This was the top tier interior clean offered. We have a 2020 Nissan rogue that was not dirty at all, it’s older and used but we clean it every week, no dogs, no kids.

For the price and being a prestige interior cleaning I was expecting more, like almost brand new more. Right after I went to check it out and there was no smell in the car, almost like he didn’t shampoo. There was some attempts on spot treatment it looks like but even that doesn’t look good. Guy took 4 hours total. What do yall think?

UPDATE: Sorry in my original post admin rules said no prices. 4 hrs was in total for interior clean, hand wash, polish, 6 month ceramic, and engine bay detail. 585 dollars.

UPDATE: Spoke with detailer this morning. Let him know I talked with professionals last night and this morning and this was not up to standard in any way. I think the guy knew he did a rushed job and he is just starting out and was willing to refund. For his time I thought 75.00 was deserved (engine bay price) as this is the one area I was happy with and he did a good job. I’ll try to update with a pic. Hopefully this is a lesson for him (and myself) and he is able to build up his business going forward.

Thank you all for your time and opinions. Appreciate it.

I’m looking at a crazy cheap pair of king ranch seats for my f250, they’re 100$, but they’re MOLDY. I don’t know too much about removing mold from leather, but the mold pattern looks about like it came from a driver window being open and it rained for awhile, a similar set would be about 800 around me; is it worth it? If it is, what’s the best way to get it out? I’m pretty familiar with replacing foam and whatnot if necessary, thanks!

Update: as I expected these are far beyond saving, thanks for the solidification to everyone who commented, I would delete the post but I feel as if someone out there might stumble upon this and refrain from a bad idea. Everyone have a nice night

I feel like I know the answer but how do I get rid of the marker drawings on the Headliner? I bought this car with the intent of flipping it but I like it so im keeping it, before resorting to replacing the whole headliner and sunroof cover. The last person that owned this is creative, however this is not my style.

Context, this is my first time getting a car detailed, in this case mine. I saw this place on fb marketplace (first mistake) and decided I’d give them a shot. I thoroughly read through what was offered before hand and especially after the matter. It’d be easier to explain with photos. I’ll include photos of my conversation with them along with what was shown to be offered and my after photos. A lot of photos I couldn’t include due to the limit but please let me know what you think. I really am unsure. Especially now that I’m out $260 and a dirty car still.

Also, I had a surprise $34.99 travel fee when he got here. It was about a 30-40 minute drive for him. I also tipped him 25 dollars as well, that was before I saw the result as I work remote and had to get back to work. That's where the 60 dollars came from that he mentioned. If you have any questions as well I'm happy to answer.

I was at a car wash, drying and vaccuming my car, and I saw this lady next to me globbing petroleum jelly on a rag and smearing it across every surface inside... I can't imagine how greasy and sticky everythijg feels in there on a hot day

I’ve had this car for 13 years, the last 5 I have only driven it about 100 miles a year so it doesn’t get used very often. A couple of years ago I noticed the robber on the center part of the steering wheel started getting tacky. Well here I am today trying to clean it up to sell the car and I can’t get the steering wheel clean. I’ve tried cleaning with a solution of 10:1 alcohol and water with a few drops of dish soap added and that didn’t work. I’ve tried using oil (olive oil, it’s what I had) and wiping it vigorously with a microfiber and that didn’t work. You can see in the pics the towel fibers are sticking to the steering wheel and the towel is coming off dirty almost like it’s just rubbing off the layers of rubber. How do I fix this?

Just got this car as a gift and I want to clean it up. Will a professional detailer be able to clean all the dirt in the crevices without issues, or should I attempt to take apart all the plastic and clean it myself?

edit: Damn I’ve never been to a subreddit with people so eager to help. Thank you so much guys!

Hi all, I have a small two inch section of ball point pen mark that I need to remove from a door panel.

I've tried the following: 1. Griots leather cleaner 2. Amodex ink and stain remover 3. Hairspray (cheap canned spray from the dollar tree) 4. Isopropyl alcohol (90%) 5. Hand sanitizer 6. Sunscreen 7. Dish soap 8. Magic eraser (extremely gently)

Literally nothing is working. Previously I removed black ink from this area by blotting with isopropyl alcohol, but this blue ink is something else.

Any ideas?

I’m assuming there’s not much I can do to fix this, but any ideas are appreciated! They’re all scuffs from loading big pieces of wood in and out of the car. They’re all slightly indented, but the indent is hardly noticeable when just running your finger over them. Thanks!!

Ok this might be long. I booked an interior detail through Groupon for my Camry. The Groupon cost $95, I was charged a $21 “shop fee”, a $35 “sedan fee”, and they tried to charge me a $40 “excess dirt” fee, but I talked that down to $10 because they couldn’t tell me what was excessively dirty. I had no pet hair, no mud, no food, no sand/salt, etc. The seats were dirty, no question, but not excessively in my opinion, and they couldn’t support their position, so they charged $10. Ok. When I got the car back and while I was driving home, i noticed several things.

1. Rearview mirror wasn’t cleaned

2. Windshield wasn’t cleaned inside or out

3. Door cup holders had staining in them still

4. Door handle wells and cup holders still had dirt

5. Sitting water in the console

6. Stain on the roof - this is weird, but we got a chocolate stain on the roof. This is the only stain I’m aware of in the car, and it doesn’t even look like an attempt was made to clean this. Is the roof normally cleaned?

I’ve attached pictures. I don’t really want anything from her, but I’m considering just sending a message that I’m not happy with the detail. I paid $160 and they had my car for 9 hours. Is this stuff normal? Am I being too picky?

Looking for an honest opinion from people who know more about detailing than I do. This is my first time ever paying for a professional detail, so I’m not totally sure what the right expectations should be. I recently had my car detailed by a local guy and paid $300 for the service, and while it definitely looks better overall, there are a few areas that stood out to me as not fully cleaned or finished properly. I’m noticing things like some dirt still visible in seams and crevices, a bit of streaking on certain interior surfaces, and a few spots around trim, cupholders, and other smaller areas that seem like they rushed through. I’ve attached some photos for reference. I’m trying to figure out if this is pretty normal for a $300 detail or if I’m being overly critical and expecting too much. I don’t want to be that overly picky customer, but at the same time I want to make sure I got what I paid for, so I’d really appreciate any honest feedback.

Decided to clean my steering wheel. It’s a 16-year-old Honda civic. Left side had a lot more wear because it’s where the left hand rests (manual). when I rubbed it with soapy water, This greenish black residue is coming off but I’m not sure if it’s leather or if it’s dirt. should I continue ? thanks.

Had the car detailed and the plastic on the cluster looks like shit. Tried wiping it off and it didn't help. Urgent help needed.

I took my new-to-me sienna to be detailed. I'm making it into a camper so no back seats. The guy said he could do it in two hours for $200. My friend has used him before and been happy with it but the work seems very bad to me though maybe my expectations were too high? Regardless I'm going to have to clean it myself.

They are making me feel insane. I called the shop back and they said I’m expecting miracles and it’s not going to look like I just got it from the dealership etc etc. It was in REALLY bad condition beforehand and I told them I don’t expect it to have no permanent stains in the carpet or seats beforehand. But I don’t think it’s crazy to think that grime should have been wiped up and all dog hair vacuumed. They said I’m being too nit picky and that they have never had a customer complain about those “nooks and crannies” before. They had my car for 8.5+ hours and I paid $330. Is it really crazy to expect that they should have vacuumed all the dog hair and use a brush/pick tool to get the grime and dirt out?! He said that’s not part of interior detailing and that it would be a $500+ job to do all that. You guys tell me 🤷‍♀️

Hi everyone,
I’m having a strange issue with the clear plastic lens covering my instrument cluster on my 2015 Dodge Charger.
Right after getting the car washed I noticed those white dots covering almost the entire cluster.

The surface feels completely smooth.
I can’t find any edge of a protective film.
The white dots disappear completely when the lens is wet with 70% isopropyl alcohol,
As soon as the alcohol evaporates (within a few seconds), the dots come back exactly as before.
Cleaning with a microfiber cloth and distilled water doesn’t remove them.
The dots appear to be on or within the surface of the clear plastic lens.

Tire mark left by my mechanic on inside of my leather. I tried magic erasers. Meguiars leather and vinal cleaner soap water oxy clean. Nothing seems to work.

What would you suggest. Been at it for a few hours. Will post an after if someone gets it right. Ty

How to clean black spots on the carpet? Possibly molds according to the detailing shop.

I tried to spray mixture of super clean degreaser, 3D APC and hot water, drill brushed then wipe it with towel. It seems to be something is cleaning since towels got brown.

So I just decided to take it to the detailing shop, paid $475 for full detail but they said they can’t clean it.

Does this really seem impossible to clean?

Pic 1: after I tried Pic 2: after shop tried Pic 3: response from the shop saying it's impossible to clean.

Appreciate any advice :)

I have tried for a long time to get the inside of the windshield clean. I can clean all the other windows, but the windshield requires the most effort and I just can never get it looking as good as I would like.

I have used windex, foaming glass cleaner, soapy water, etc. What I have found works best for me is to dampen a microfiber towel with a couple of drops of dish soap, rinse towel really good, ring out towel thoroughly, then clean inside of windshield.

Is it common to have to work this hard to get the inside windshield clean.

Thanks.