interior care: car owner manuals are confusing

[Mike Phillips]

Re: interior care: car owner manuals are confusing

I received an unexpected reply. I asked about a part of the owner's manual containing cleaning instruction for owners, but the replier told me to take the vehicle to the dealership for cleaning. I will try to ask again. Below is the copy of the reply from MB USA.

We recommend detailing be completed by the Service Department of an
authorized Mercedes-Benz dealership. They are in the best position to
assist you with your seat belt cleaning needs.

This is GREAT news!

Now all you have to do print the reply you received out and take it with your car to the dealer and ask them what they're going to use to clean your seat belts. Show them a copy of your reply from MB.

Whatever chemical cleaner the MB dealership is using to clean seat belts must should/must be approved by MB and you get the name of the product and order some for your own use.

Thanks for the follow-up, we're happy to see you're on your way towards a solution to your dirty seat belt problem.

[ktlimq]

Re: interior care: car owner manuals are confusing

I received an unexpected reply. I asked about a part of the owner's manual containing cleaning instruction for owners, but the replier told me to take the vehicle to the dealership for cleaning. I will try to ask again. Below is the copy of the reply from MB USA.

We recommend detailing be completed by the Service Department of an
authorized Mercedes-Benz dealership. They are in the best position to
assist you with your seat belt cleaning needs.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: interior care: car owner manuals are confusing

This thread has been moved out of the Break Room. Not sure why it was posted there.


We've moved it to Detailing 101


Mods have been notified to watch this thread and if any member even hints at breaking a rule to close the thread and ban the offending member.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: interior care: car owner manuals are confusing

Here are the forum rules, they will be enforced.

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[Mike Phillips]

Re: interior care: car owner manuals are confusing

There is contradiction between the email I received from Meguiar's and Mike Phillips' post on the forum. Could you clarify which is correct?

There is no contradiction.

Now back to what we asked you previously, you have not answered the questions.

Have you contacted the manufacture of your car and asked them what they recommend?

Have you went to the discussion forum for your car and asked them what they recommend for your seat belts?

[ktlimq]

Re: interior care: car owner manuals are confusing

I received an email reply from Meguiars yesterday, and I want to share it with forum members.

According to the reply, Mike Phillips' recommendation about using Meguiars products for seat belt is not based on extensive test done by Meguiars.

Below is the whole content of the reply. I did not modify it except I changed peoples names (except Mike Phillips because it is already published in the forum) to ***. In the copy of the 2007 reply, "The back labels ...they do not recommend it for seat belt cleaning." is my question and "Unfortunately at this time . .. Have a wonderful day!" is Meguiars answer.

Dear K****,

Thank you for your inquiry. I apologize for the confusing information you have received. I think a little clarification would explain both responses. Meguiar's does not manufacture a product specifically for use on seat belts. The response you received by email last year was trying to make this point, but obviously was lacking some key information. Email can be a challenging form of communication because you are often left guessing what someone is really asking for. Without clarification you may end up with incomplete or even incorrect information. This is why Mike Phillips response is more thorough and probably closer to what you seem to be asking. Although Meguiar's does not make a "Seat Belt Cleaner" you can try our Quik Out or the All Purpose Cleaner from our Professional Detailer Line of products. Again, we do not do extensive testing on every imaginable surface the product is not designed for, but we are confident these two products are safe to try. Whether they will meet your expectations as a seat belt cleaner is really something you won't know until you try it. I hope this will help you make a decision as to what product may be best to clean your seat belts. If you are looking for a %100 guarantee and a Meguiar's endorsed "Seat Belt Cleaner" we cannot offer that. Thank you for your patience. Believe it or not even though every car has seat belts this is not a very common question. If you need anything else at all please do not hesitate to contact me directly.




B**** H****
Manager
Customer Care Center
Meguiar's, Inc.
17991 Mitchell S.
Irvine, CA 92614
(800) 854-8073 *170

Visit us on the Web!
www.meguiars.com - Corporate Website & E-Store
www.meguiarsonline.com - Discussion Forum
www.carcrazycentral.com - Where the Hobby Clicks








(Forum Member's Name Removed after the forum member e-mailed us and asked us to remove it.)


Customer has requested a reply to this feedback.


Date of Feedback: 4/22/2008 07:47 P


Customer Comments:




There is contradiction between the email I received from Meguiars and Mike Phillips' post on the forum. Could you clarify which is correct?

Mike Philips: "We offer a number of cleaners in our Professional Detailer line that can be used to clean seat belts." http://meguiarsonline.com/forums/sho...t=23468&page=3

email reply: "Unfortunately at this time Meguiar's does not have any recommendations of any products to use for this application."

I copied the whole content of the email at the bottom of this message. I did not request limitation to "consumer line" products. So the email reply clearly meant that Meguiars did not recommend any product, incl. professional line products, for seat belt cleaning.

Another strange thing is that Mike Phillips is recommending Quick Out spray bottle and aerosol can products for seat belt cleaning, although Meguiars did not test the products for seat belt according to him. I think part of the Meguiars reputation among consumers and car manufacturers comes from intensive testing that goes beyond a mere visual inspection. Please also tell me whether Meguiars really recommends those two "Quick Out" products for seat belts. The spray Quick Out (I think it is for carpet, not even for upholstery) contains bleach.

Below is the copy of the email reply which contradicts Mike Phillips post.

Subject: re: Your Customer Feedback Date: Thu, 3 May 2007 12:41:13 -0700 From: "A**** E****" Add to Address BookAdd to Address Book Add Mobile Alert To: ktlimq@yahoo.com

---On 2007-05-02 08:05:00.0 You Wrote Us---

Customer Comments:

The back labels of Mercedes-Benz Carpet & Fabric Care and Meguiars Heavy Duty Carpet and Interior Cleaner read that they could be used for seat belt cleaning.

However, Meguiars discontinued both.

Are there any other Meguiars products to safely clean seat belts?

The car manufacturer recommends only lukewarm water and soap because chemical cleaning agents may weaken the webbing (e.g. bleach). But I want to know whether there is something more powerful but still safe.

I asked the manufacturer of a popular aerosol upholstery cleaner (Containing biodegradable foaming agent, surfactants containing oxygen, according to them. Available in many local auto parts stores and grocery shops in MA, USA.), but they replied that they do not recommend it for seat belt cleaning.

Unfortunately at this time Meguiar's does not have any recommendations of any products to use for this application. Meguiar's could only recommend sticking with the manufactures recommendations. If you have any other questions please feel free to contact me anytime. Have a wonderful day!

Thank you very much,
Customer Information

First Name:


K****

Last Name:


***

Street Address:









City:




State:


MA

Zip/Postal Code:


02145

Phone:

[Mike Phillips]

Re: interior care: car owner manuals are confusing

Instead of continuing in taking your frustrations out in this thread over the recommendations in the manufactures official owner's manual why don't you contact the manufacture directly and see what kind of help they can offer you.

Be sure to let them know that you're not happy with the information they have supplied you with in the manual that they supplied with your choice of car.

Look to see if they have a forum you can post to? Or a Customer Care e-mail address you can send an e-mail.


We'll be waiting to read your post shariung with us what you find out.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: interior care: car owner manuals are confusing

I asked at

http://www.meguiars.com/customercare/

and received reply.

Why do you ask that? Does the answer contradict what you know?

We offer a number of cleaners in our Professional Detailer line that can be used to clean seat belts.

We replaced our Consumer Carpet & Interior Cleaner



with Quik Out in a spray and in an aerosol, neither were were specifically tested on seat belt material but both are for cleaning fiber type materials, so while these two products were not specifically made for seat belt materials you could test them in an inconspicuous area and if you get the results you're looking for you could use them over the entire seat belt.

Just to know, in all my years in detailing cars I have never seen a product called,

Seat Belt Cleaner

***

[Nappers]

Re: interior care: car owner manuals are confusing

Well, I never used it on the seatbelts. If thats the reason to discontinue it, then they did a good thing. I've read that All Purpose Cleaner is a good cleaner for seatbelts. Not sure on dilution rate though.

I would think common sense would be used for "harsh" cleaners. You would not want to use a degreaser on fabric nor a fabric cleaner on a greasy engine, just wouldn't work.

I would do what Mike suggested, call or contact the dealer and see what they say to clean. Some auto dealers have their own line of cleaners. This came up before on the old forum (I think) and the member just did not want to goof up his interior which if memory serves had a sealant of some type on the cloth seats and did not want to "wash" that off and lose the stain resistance part.

We don't want to steer you wrong. Basically most auto manuals don't want you to use the wrong product on your interior and have bad results. I always test, what works on one interior may not work on another. When we bought our Yukon, I used the products mentioned, when we got our Neon, I did test spots.

Aaron

[Mike Phillips]

Re: interior care: car owner manuals are confusing

Is it a cultural difference? Are people in the US educated that soap (e.g. hand wash liquid soap) is not a chemical product in elementary school? I was in Korea and (West) Germany in my elementary school days. I do not remember learning that soap is not a chemical product then.

Have you contacted the manufacture of your car or sought out their discussion forum to vent your frustration with them and ask them your questions?


Here's one of the forum rules and we're going to add the first 4 to this thread and after hitting the submit button we're going to enforce it if need be.

Forum Rules

1. No personal attacks toward members or non-members will be tolerated.

2. No arguing with Moderators or Administrators.

3. You are welcome to disagree but you must be polite.

4. No bashing any company or their products. No bashing other people. If you can't say anything nice about someone, then don't say anything at all.

[ktlimq]

Re: interior care: car owner manuals are confusing

Where did you get that answer?

I asked at

http://www.meguiars.com/customercare/

and received reply.

Why do you ask that? Does the answer contradict what you know?

[roushstage2]

Re: interior care: car owner manuals are confusing

Complaining about how vague owner's manuals are here on this forum will get you nowhere as far as them being more specific (seems to be what your goal is?). If you are that concerned for the welfare of those like yourself who read them and cannot understand them, you should be writing letters to the automobile manufacturers who write and publish, not asking everyone here over and over why we are defending it.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: interior care: car owner manuals are confusing

I asked Meguiars after Meguirs Heavy Duty Carpet Cleaner was discontinued. The answer was that Meguiars currently had no product that could be used safely on seat belt.

Where did you get that answer?

[ktlimq]

Re: interior care: car owner manuals are confusing

Below is what we can easily find in a car owner’s manual.
===============
seat belt cleaning

.... clean with soap water . . .

. . . Do not use chemical cleaners . . .
(or) . . . must not be treated with chemical cleaning agents.

They don't want harsh chemicals that could break down the fabric and cause seatbelt failure. Any of Meguiars cleaners would be fine (maybe I wouldn't super degreaser as it's for grease)
==============================

Aaron

I asked Meguiars after Meguirs Heavy Duty Carpet Cleaner was discontinued. The answer was that Meguiars currently had no product that could be used safely on seat belt. So you want to use some Meguiars products for seat belt that Meguiars recommended against?

I think I can call such attitude as "defending vague and self contradictory car owner manual." You made up another vague statement using vague phrases such as "harsh" "break down", etc. and made a claim that contradicts Meguiars recommendation.




The owner manuals are indeed vague for general public.
Suppose my neighbour asks me about the vagueness. Suppose I respond "you are going too technical, the manual is for general public", and say "the car manufacturer just don't want harsh chemicals, so you can use XXX company's YYY cleaner."
Then the neighbour will ask me what I mean by "harsh" and what I have to support my claim. That will be very natural normal general response, not a personal attack against me, not a super technophile attitude at all.
The neighbour may also ask me whether the XXX company's YYY cleaner I recommended is what the car manufacturer calls "soap".

[Nappers]

Re: interior care: car owner manuals are confusing

Below is what we can easily find in a car owner’s manual.
===============
seat belt cleaning

.... clean with soap water . . .

. . . Do not use chemical cleaners . . .
(or) . . . must not be treated with chemical cleaning agents.

They don't want harsh chemicals that could break down the fabric and cause seatbelt failure. Any of Meguiars cleaners would be fine (maybe I wouldn't super degreaser as it's for grease)
==============================
plastic cleaning

. . . do not use solvent . . .

Any of the cleaners/conditioners in Meguiars do not contain "solvent" meaning, mineral spirits, paint solvent that type (gasoline is a solvent too!), those type of solvents can melt plastic.
==============================
rubber seals (on the same page of VW Rabbit manual)

. . use silicone . . .
I use Meguiars #40 to treat the seals on my doors and annually I treat them with silicone grease (for spark plug wires) and with 125,000 miles+ on the clock, they look and function fine. I also use Meguiars Natural shine depending on the mood I'm in
(a couple of paragraphs later)

. . . do not use cleaners (I do not remember exactly whether it was cleaner or protectant) containing silicones . . .
==============================
Silicones are slippery just use common sense when applying them to your vehicle.

I use all Meguiars products on the interior of both of our cars with no ill effects, our Neon manual has the same jibberish. I used Meg's Quik Out (made more for carpets than fabric) on the seats of our car. I use an older Heavy Duty Carpet Upholstery Cleaner all over the interior. I use Meg's #40/Natural Shine for seals, dash, door panels. All of the above I've used with no ill effects. One of the cleaners is "Body Solvent" which may have a solvent of some type, but it's used for removing tar from the side of your car so I would not use it for the interior

Just use the product for what it's designed for and you'll be fine. Always do a test if your not sure in an inconspicous area. I did. Now I sling Meguiars stuff all over the car. My car always smells like #40 inside, everyone asks what year the car is as it always kinda has the "new car" smell to it. I tell them what I use. I love treating the cargo cover as it uses a lot of 40

Have fun

Aaron