Hi all,

Getting ready to go inside and do a major cleaning of the car's interior. I also noticed areas where it looks like the headliner is losing its adhesiveness as well as the covering over the back deck..it actually gets a wave action going when I ride with everything open!

I want to clean the leather seats and shampoo the carpet (found chocolate spill down under the seat (yuck!!!). Noticed some what looks like grease smudges on one of the windshield pillars (no idea where they came from)(.

Any suggestions as to the safest products to use? I don't want to ruin the color of the leather or carpets. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

LEXOL on the leather ( there are other products - but you can buy this just about everywhere). Do NOT attempt to use cleaner on the headliner or rear deck. The condition they are in will only worsen. The glue has become ineffective and you will need to have it recovered. Any good auto upholstery shop can do this, as long as they use the "thin" headliner material. Should cost about $250 for headliner and pillars.

I was looking at LExol today too! Thanks I really appreciate it:)!!

I've been using a product called leatherique for a few years now, it really works wonders. After applying the cleaner and letting it sit in a hot interior, the dirt is literally pulled through the pores of the leather and can be cleaned off again. Really the best product I've seen as yet.

I also heard recently from a leather refinisher that the volvo dealers sell a very good product. He mentioned that it's outdone most off the shelf products he's ever seen, not sure of the name as I'm more than happy with leatherique, just passing the info

Not meaning to jack your thread chillax, but has anyone ever done a really thorough carpet clean.... I mean where you remove the seats, etc., to really get at it? Or even replaced the carpet with new?

Not meaning to jack your thread chillax, but has anyone ever done a really thorough carpet clean.... I mean where you remove the seats, etc., to really get at it? Or even replaced the carpet with new?

I did the carpet clean with seats and center console removed (during heater core replacement). Alot of folks seem to think that if you steam clean the carpet, the electronics will be damaged. The carpet has a pretty good backing to it and unless you dump 5 gallons of water in there and leave it, you should be alright. It was amazing to see how much dirt actually came out of the carpet. At some point in the future I will be replacing the carpet, but that is a big job - everything must be removed.

I've been using a product called leatherique for a few years now, it really works wonders. After applying the cleaner and letting it sit in a hot interior, the dirt is literally pulled through the pores of the leather and can be cleaned off again. Really the best product I've seen as yet.

I also heard recently from a leather refinisher that the volvo dealers sell a very good product. He mentioned that it's outdone most off the shelf products he's ever seen, not sure of the name as I'm more than happy with leatherique, just passing the info

I will check that out too! Thanks!

I did the carpet clean with seats and center console removed (during heater core replacement). Alot of folks seem to think that if you steam clean the carpet, the electronics will be damaged. The carpet has a pretty good backing to it and unless you dump 5 gallons of water in there and leave it, you should be alright. It was amazing to see how much dirt actually came out of the carpet. At some point in the future I will be replacing the carpet, but that is a big job - everything must be removed.

I was thinking of doing it in phases as I have to remove the seats and figure out why they do not raise evenly on each side (inboard side of seats stay down while the side closest to the doors raise up). So I figure that I would do some cleaning while I have them out.