We recently bought a '93 Lexus 400 with 46,000 miles on it. It has leather seats (first time for me) & on the first day my son put ArmourAll on the seats & the steering wheel to “keep them nice.” I now slide all over, even changing lanes! I even slide down when I break! I’m 5’2" & weigh 120 pounds. Now I dread driving it & that’s sad. What can I do?
First. NEVER use ArmourAll on leather. The petroleum distillates in ArmourAll will dry out the leather. As a matter of fact, I wouldn’t use ArmourAll on any automotive surface.
You need to aquire a product that is formulated to clean and condition leather. Most auto parts stores sell products such as these.
Tester
In addition to the good advice that Tester gave, I would add that if your use your seat belts, and if they are properly adjusted (TIGHT against your hip bones) you could not slide very far–either when you change lanes or when you BRAKE. Since you are of short stature, I have to point out that failure to use the seatbelts properly could cause the air bag to seriously injure you in the event of a collision.
Wear your seat belts.
I’m a nurse, needless to say I ALWAYS wear a seat belt! I’m still moving. Is there anything that I can put on them now to get rid of the slick surface?
Thank you son for wanting to please you. He tried. He unfortunately fell for the ArmourAll adds. Your best bet is to never every use that stuff on anything. Leather takes special care to keep it nice and that does not include ArmourAll. I suggest you check with a local detailing (high class car wash) shop and see if they can help you out. They know about caring for automotive leather. If not them try some local leather or up scale furniture stores.I clean my leather seats with a good saddle soap. It includes conditioners to keep the leather soft, but doesn’t leave a slippery residue. It may help remove the residue from Armour-All. It also takes a bit more elbow grease to properly treat the seats than Armour-All.
I agree with BustedKnuckles.
For all of the bad commments Armour-all is getting, it does have some benefits. One of them is that the most recent mixture is water-soluble. Using some water, possibly with a tad bit of soap, just easily remove it from the surface of your leather.
At this point you’re going to have an extremely dry (not slick!) leather surface. If you’re fine with it, leave it that way. If you want it a little richer, smoother, and a little bit less dry, get some leather conditioner from wal-mart or an auto parts store.
What kind of condition is the leather in right now? Is it cracked and torn at all, or in good shape? If its in great shape, keep it that way with some conditioner.
Here are some products that should help. Ironically, Armorall does sell leather cleaning wipes and sprays.
http://www.partsamerica.com/ProductList.aspx?CategoryCode=3309
Don’t feel too bad, many moons ago my Dad took a notion and armoralled the outside of his 78 Cutlass.
Ed B.
Simple Green will but you gotta have real guts to use it on the leather. There is leather cleaner for cars at X-Mart Anywhere U.S.A.
No no no, never use that on leather. Best you can do now is clean them with saddle soap to try and get it off.
I use the lexol products. Use the cleaner first then the conditioner. One thing about Armourall is it doesn’t last long.