Leather sealer treatment issue!!

[nyyankees3511]

Bought this kit today, my seats have been cleaned before and the car has low miles but I noticed while using this kit I was getting the leather color on the supplied microfiber and sponge. The leather is black and its a Lexus. Here is a picture. I'm pretty concerned.[IMG]m/user/nyyankees3511/media/Mobile%20Uploads/DSC_0048.jpg.html][/URL][/IMG]

[The Guz]

Re: Leather sealer treatment issue!!

Are you sure it's color transfer? Being that it is dark, it could be embedded dirt that the previous cleaner didn't remove.

How hard were you scrubbing?

Could the seats have been dyed in the past? Depends on if the car was purchased new or used.

Do you have photos of the seat showing the affected area?

[nyyankees3511]

Re: Leather sealer treatment issue!!

I'm not positive if it is color transfer, I'm hoping its not. There are no affected areas just as I was cleaning I saw the black and figured it could be dirt but then was surprised to see it on the sponge. I cleaned it previously last week also and I wasn't scrubbing hard at all. The seats were never dyed.

[davey g-force]

Re: Leather sealer treatment issue!!

I'm tipping it's dirt from the seats due to the cleaner doing its job..

[The Guz]

Re: Leather sealer treatment issue!!

I can't really say if it's color transfer. From the photo it looks like dirt. What cleaner were you previously using?

[nyyankees3511]

Re: Leather sealer treatment issue!!

Last week I used mothers leathertech foaming wash which has great reviews but I wanted to take it a step further today and use this kit.

[The Guz]

Re: Leather sealer treatment issue!!

I've used mothers leather wash and it's not as strong as the Meguiar's cleaner or Gold Class Leather & Vinyl cleaner (which is what's in the little cleaner bottle). Mothers is good for light dirt.

[nyyankees3511]

Re: Leather sealer treatment issue!!

Yes, I was really surprised to see this happen. Ive cleaned many interiors in the past, this is my first deep clean of a black interior so it could be dirt but I doubt it especially when I also saw it on the applicator sponge.

[Don]

Re: Leather sealer treatment issue!!

Yes, I was really surprised to see this happen. I've cleaned many interiors in the past, this is my first deep clean of a black interior so it could be dirt but I doubt it especially when I also saw it on the applicator sponge.

I've done some pretty nasty leather seats, but nothing black. However on all of them, the applicator turned black as badly as the towel I used to wipe off the cleaner (Megs Gold Class Aloe Leather Cleaner). The seats I did were tan and light brown and I could see the dirt and see it coming off, but working on black, you're at a disadvantage, you can't see the dirt until your removal cloth wipes it up. The amount of dirt on your cloth doesn't seem that heavy, so I really doubt it's leather dye.

Here's what I mean by "Seeing" the dirt:

[nyyankees3511]

Re: Leather sealer treatment issue!!

Well that's good to hear, I was hoping it wasn't the car only has 13k miles on it.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Leather sealer treatment issue!!

The vast majority of consumer leather cleaners on the market are very light duty. If the product is a cleaner/conditioner in one then it's most likely got even lighter duty cleaning ability. And, yes, this includes our own Gold Class Rich Leather Cleaner/Conditioner. The dedicated cleaner that is part of our Leather Sealer System, however, is a very serious cleaner based on our professional grade leather cleaner. It will remove all kinds of embedded dirt that other cleaners won't even touch. For example, on my personal daily driver with two tone dark/light grey leather, I thought I was keeping it very clean since day one. And then we introduced this product and my perception was altered - the applicators turned the same color as yours even working on the light grey leather. And the leather was noticeably cleaner when I was done with it. So, basically, this is what happens when you finally use a really serious leather cleaner.

Funny story: In the course of doing what's called a "line review" (basically an introduction of new products to the buyers of retail establishments) for a major retailer a few years back, I was tagged to do the demo of this product compared to a couple of other top selling competitors - major name brands in the leather care segment with stellar reputations. Our subject car was a Mercedes E Class wagon with light grey leather interior that was noticeably dirty, but not horrible by any stretch of the imagination. The test was as follows: take a brand new, clean white terry cloth towel and roll it up; spray three trigger pulls of a product onto it; do ten back and forth strokes on the seat and observe the results. Brand A showed the seat getting wet, which we dried, and a tiny bit of dirt transfered onto the towel. Brand B, done with a fresh towel but using the exact same protocols, revealed noticeable dirt transfer onto the towel and a definite but not really dramatic cleaning of the surface. It definitely was a more effective product than Brand A. Next we used our dedicated leather cleaner, the same product found in this kit. And this is when I found myself with a real dilemma; the test area with our product was so much cleaner, so dramatically cleaner, that the seat looked weird with this super clean stripe on it. I knew I couldn't give the car back to the owner like this, so that only one thing. I had to clean the entire interior of the car. An E Class wagon, remember, so lots and lots of leather surfaces. The owner was stunned. The buyer from the retailer was blown away. I was both very pleased but a bit irritated as my schedule didn't really allow time for a full cleaning, but I had no choice but to finish the job.

[nyyankees3511]

Re: Leather sealer treatment issue!!

That is pretty impressive it could very well be dirt, the seats look great today. I do notice after sitting in the seat and getting up I have weird lines and discolorations as if the sealer isn't dry yet. Any advice? Thanks all.

[The Guz]

Re: Leather sealer treatment issue!!

Here's my recommendation and process when using this kit. Use the provided cleaner with the microfiber towel and wipe off all the cleaner. Sometimes I have another dry microfiber just in case the provided towel gets to dirty and saturated with cleaner that it's not drying all the cleaner residue off. I then follow up with the sealer. A little goes a long way. I let the sealer sit for a few minutes (no more than 5-10 mins) and then come back with another dry microfiber towel and lightly buff off any excess product (aka high spots). I let it sit for a few hours or overnight before sitting in any seats it was applied to.

Try a light buff first and if it doesn't help try adding a little more of the sealer. It may have been an uneven application.