Leather De Greaser

[Stormbitch]

     Featured on BIMMERPOST.com

I am trying to de grease and matt up my steering wheel again, do you guys know of a workable product?

H

[AlteBMW]

Lexol is pretty good. Or look at ChemicalGuys or Autogeek.

[Markr]

Also look at baby wipes - need to be careful with some leather cleaners, as salt etc out of sweat can react with the cleaner and take the surface off.

Also, be careful with leather conditioners as can make the wheel a bit slippy in your hands.

[chris.t]

Dr Leather wipes are great, i've been using them and their other stuff for years

[Markr]

They are good, but quite aggressive. I have them too as a use of last resort, as whilst they remove grease and marks, they remove any applied protection too - so that then needs to be reapplied.

I treat leather like skin, and would go with the minimum effort and aggressiveness required first and move up the scale of product aggressiveness until I achieved what I wanted.

[Stormbitch]

Hmmm I tried the Dr Leather - the smell was a bit much I didnt not any cleaning properties really much at all. Not on the car.

I did my wallet and it worked nice - I could see half the wallet colour on the pad... didnt work on the steering wheel. Just stayed shiny..Obviously I have nappa so fine for the seats... again dissapointing to see no residue on the cloth though on those either.

[Markr]

Modern leathers in cars have a sealant layer over the top to give a level of protection, whereas your wallet will not have.

This is why on modern cars leather creams etc are a total waste of time, as they cannot get into the leather. If you get colour on your cloth either you have gone too aggressive and taken the sealant layer off, or there has been a repair that has not been sealed properly - I had that on a Jag once.

On older cars with leather, prior to sealant, it was natural grain, so would get engrained with dirt etc, hence older cars having a natural patina, and why using something like Liquid Leather cleaner and conditioner gives such marvellous results.

There is however some benefit in applying a protection layer, especially over stitching etc, which is not protected in the same way.

I would however still be careful with the steering wheel, as the salt in sweaty palms etc may have a different effect when used with anything more aggressive than baby wipes. Essentially, you just want to clean the sealant layer of your grease marks.

[roho3323]

Try zaino bros leather cleaner. Smells great and leaves matte finish. I've been using it for over 10 years on al my cars.

[Stormbitch]

Now that is very interesting indeed.

Baby wipes I also read... but not sure they will take off the shiny ness - its a bug bear of mine.

Last car I used magic eraser with no issues at all. And then in the end as it kept being shiny I had new leather put on the wheel - Its so cheap its worth doing again as you can choose what you want - ideally I would go for the newest G11 7 leather which is really matt.

On the 7 series

It went 2015 G11 - horrible shiny plastic bus wheel
Later 2016 - less shiny from factory ( mine )
2017 - smaller wheel and more matt again.

Actually had one BMW wheel replaced by BMW which was nice of them. But this time I have used up my favours I think

[Wills2]

Steering wheels are difficult to keep matt, hands have so much sweat, grease salt and also hand/face creams on them.

I've always used a good quality leather cleaner and a soft shoe brush (as you would on your seats) to clean them and return to matt but eventually they do go regardless of what you do, I drive 30k a year so the wheel gets used. I lost the battle on my last car an f80 M3 after 80,000 miles.

A replacement rim isn't that expensive from the dealer and there are plenty of re-trimers that do a great job as well.

I agree on the leather creams they don't do anything for our sealed leather other than sit on top and attract even more dirt.

Swisswax do a matting agent for application after cleaning that might work but I haven't tried it.

[cracker123]

Leatherique Pristine Clean in the hot sun sit for 20 min and wipe with warm wet cloth. The steering wheel goes back to factory finish.

[cracker123]

https://www.7post.com/forums/showpos...09&postcount=4

[sjak92]

Originally Posted by Markr

Also look at baby wipes

Those specifically moisturise skin, hence will not matt down leather, to the contrary in fact

[xmanpro]

Originally Posted by cracker123

https://www.7post.com/forums/showpos...38;postcount=4

Thank you! Going to try this on my M4!

[momos750]

Try Woolite in a spray bottle mixed with water. Look it up on YouTube.

[Germanauto]

I don't understand this baby wipes nonsense. I clean my wheel once per month with Lexol and it looks brand new. No ill effects. I do the same when I detail my parents' cars.

OP, I am a big fan of Lexol cleaner + leather brush + water (to build a lather). Only downside is the lather flying on your windshield if you scrub too fast.

Finish off with some conditioner. Apply a light amount and buff. Anybody saying their wheel gets slippery clearly applied too much and didn't buff off the excess!

[derekwg88]

Use glass cleaner with microfiber towel, guarantee will look Matt again and all dirt will be gone. I have try ton of product and this is the best way to clean up the leather back to new