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How to Clean Your Car's Interior (marthastewart.com)

13.5

How to Deep Clean Your Car's Interior Like a Professional Detailer

Experts offer their advice for keeping the inside of your vehicle spotless.

By Blythe Copeland

 For many people, your car is an extension of your home: It sees you through long commutes, family road trips, daily errands, tween carpools, and all the other activities that fill your days. By keeping your car's interior clean, your drives will be more comfortable and enjoyable, whether you're stuck in traffic or cruising to the beach. Experts share their advice for cleaning carpets and upholstery, getting spilled coffee and dropped gum out of seats and floors, and even pulling those hard-to-reach crumbs from cupholders.

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How to Give Your Car Interior a Routine Clean

If your family uses your car frequently—for commuting, weekend adventures, or sports-team carpooling—then you should give it a “quick once-over” about once a week, says Rob Harper, director of product development and technical support for Ziebart International. These steps take about 30 minutes (depending on the size of your car).

Tidy the Mess

Look on the floor, under the seats, and in seat pockets and cupholders to find and remove the items that seem to accumulate endlessly in cars: kids’ library books, granola bar wrappers, spare pens, drive-through receipts. “For consistency, I start in the front driver’s side and proceed counter-clockwise around the vehicle,” says Harper.

Dust and Protect

After emptying the car, Harper uses a microfiber cloth to dust the dashboard and trim. “I then apply a vinyl and plastic protectant to all of these surfaces to keep them looking fresh and to protect them from damaging UV rays,” he says.

Vacuum

Using a wet/dry vacuum, the vacuum at your local car wash, or a handheld cordless vacuum, remove dust, dirt, and crumbs from floors and seats. Use a crevice tool to get small spaces, seams, and edges.

Clean Glass Surfaces

Your go-to glass cleaner and a microfiber cloth will work as well on your car windows as they do on your home’s glass. If you have tinted windows, though, choose a product without ammonia, says Jeramy Sibley, president of Glass Doctor.

How to Deep Clean Your Car Interior

A full deep clean of your car’s interior is “a much more involved and time-consuming process,” says Harper. Most of his clients opt to do this twice annually: “Once in the spring to get rid of all of the salt and other stuff left over from a long winter, and once in the fall to clean up everything that is left over from summer vacations and road trips.”

If you aren’t in the market for a professional detailing, you can tackle this job yourself using the same basic process as a routine clean—but with a more careful focus on getting every nook and cranny.

Remove Loose Dirt

“After the trash and personal stuff is removed, I recommend using a compressed air blower to blow all of the ground-in dirt, sand, pet hair and road salt out of the carpets, mats, seats, cracks, and crevices,” says Harper. You’ll be loosening all the stuck-in debris that your weekly vacuuming has missed; use the compressed air to also clean air vents and map pockets. “I strongly recommend the use of safety glasses during this process and anytime you are spraying or working with cleaning chemicals,” says Harper.

Treat Stains

Next, pre-treat any stains that have landed on your seats and carpets—spilled coffee, ground-in crackers, leaked pen ink—with an automotive surface stain treatment product. “Different stains—protein-based, ink-based or dye-based—take different cleaners to remove them,” says Harper. “Some require as much as a three-minute dwell or set time to be effective, so pre-treating these stains sooner in the process is better than waiting. Get as much of the mess out as you can by blotting or scooping; then, use a stain-specific cleaner depending on what the issue is.”

In many cases, says Harper, you'll need to shampoo before the cleaner dries or else risk the stain setting permanently (so jump ahead in the cleaning process as needed to follow the instructions on your stain treater). If you see a spill when it happens, clean it immediately; don't wait for your next deep clean. "The longer it sits, the harder it will be to remove," says Harper. "And if it’s an organic substance like food, milk or bodily fluid (yes, including as a result of pet or child car-sickness), the smell will get worse as time goes on. For things like melted wax and chewing gum in carpets, I’ve had fairly good luck with freezing them until they are brittle, and then scraping them off of the fibers."

Be prepared: Some stains will require a professional. "If you are unsure about your ability to determine what the stain is, or you don’t have the proper chemicals or tools, I’d always suggest bringing your car to a professional detailer," says Harper. "We have all of the tools, products and know-how to take care of it and help you keep your car looking like new for as long as you own it."

Clean Hard Surfaces

Your dashboard, doors, console, and other hard surfaces should be next on your deep-cleaning list. Dust with a soft microfiber cloth, and then clean with a product designed for your specific material, whether that’s vinyl or leather (test any new product in an inconspicuous spot first, says Harper). “Once the cleaner is applied, you can use a soft-bristled brush or a clean towel to scrub the surfaces clean and wipe off the excess,” he says.

Focus on Small Spaces

This is also the time to remove every last crumb from the small spaces in your car’s interior. “Pay attention to the instrument cluster and the air vents at this point,” says Harper. “Lots of dust tends to collect in those areas and leaving it there can make an otherwise clean car look dirty. Use a small paintbrush-style brush to help you with this. Most of the time, the insides of cupholders and other little compartments are removable, making it easy to take them out and soak them to get them really clean."

Add a Protectant

Keep your car’s surfaces looking glossy and new with a surface conditioner. “UV is very damaging to vinyl and leather, so it is very important to pick a long-lasting protectant to prevent this damage,” says Harper. “We’ve all seen old cars with faded and cracked dashboards and door panels. You will typically spray or wipe it onto the surface and then buff it off, leaving all of your interior trim clean, glowing and protected.”

Shampoo and Rinse

Harper recommends using a medium-bristle scrub brush and a low-foam, disinfecting shampoo to give your carpets and washable upholstery the deepest possible clean. " Once you are satisfied that the carpet is clean, you will need to suck out all of that dirt and soap residue," he says. A professional detailer typically uses a hot water extractor for this step, but you can mimic their approach by spritzing soapy areas with clean water from a spray bottle and using a wet/dry vacuum to remove it. "Just make sure to get as much of that liquid out as possible," says Harper. "As we all know, carpet that is left too wet could result in mold or mildew—and an awful smell."

One area to take it easy is on the hardware. "You need to be careful with seatbelt webbing," stresses Jennifer Newman, editor-in-chief of Cars.com. "You don't want to get those soapy and wet because it can damage the seatbelt." Try your best to remove spills from seatbelts when they're still wet, and don't use too much force when attempting to lift older stains.

Clean the Glass

If you don't have an ammonia-free glass cleaner in your cleaning supply bucket, Sibley recommends mixing 1 cup distilled water, 2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar, and 1 cup isopropyl alcohol in a spray bottle.

"When cleaning your car windows, it can be easy for streaks or spots to appear if you’re not using proper fabric," says Sibley, who recommends a microfiber cloth or lint-free paper towel. "The best way to prevent streaks is to dry the glass thoroughly, no matter the cloth you use."

Sibley also recommends tackling the gap where your window meets your doorframe. "Roll your windows down and remove all the grime and oil that collects at the top," he says. "The part of the window that lives inside the rubber door seal collects a lot of grime from opening and closing your windows, and is often forgotten about when cleaning."

Change Air Filters

Dirty air filters distribute an unpleasant smell through your car's air vents. While outer surfaces of your air vents can be cleaned to keep dust at bay, changing the filters can be more of a challenge.

"It can be difficult to change your air filter yourself since every manufacturer does them a bit differently,"  says Newman. "Ideally, you should take your car in and have your air filters changed every 12,000 to 15,000 miles."