What NATURAL conditioner can I use on my car interior?

Maintenance/Repairs
41

I will check out all the products and the owner’s manual. I so appreciate your feedback- well, most of it.

As far as the irony goes, I don’t see it. I don’t use products with harsh chemicals on my body or in my home. Can I control everything around me? Like if a car’s interior is made of plastic? No, but that doesn’t mean I won’t try to control what I can. Maybe it keeps me from getting cancer again, maybe it keeps my 5yo from getting asthma, maybe it doesn’t or maybe I’ll never know. As I said from the beginning it is a personal choice- yours may be to soak yourself in harmful chemicals.

Although I know I’m not allowed to have an opinion on the forum, my point was just that if you don’t have anything helpful to say, if your comments are negative/judgey/meant to belittle, why not just move on? Who needs it?

Not me! Best of luck!

42

Wow. Some people just refuse to give the arrogantly opinionated a fair chance…

43

Checker Motor Company had the right idea. The cabs were designed so the interior could be hosed out. Some cities had ordinances requiring the taxicabs to be hosed out inside every day. Imagine telling your kid to wash the car and be sure to leave the windows down.

44

Our town cop cars are that way. All plastic seats.

45

Reminds me of my former neighbor. He was so crippled he couldn’t hardly walk any more. Went to alergy clinics with no results until one in Wisconsin finally got a diagnosis. He had become sensitized to all plastics and petroleum products. Had to eliminate everything plastic, even his glasses. Changed natural gas heat to wood from his wood shop. He was like a new man. Couldn’t believe the results, so you never know the true sources of all the food alergies, asthma, etc. that seem to be epidemics now. Me, I’ve never had a problem, but once you hit that point of sensitization, your tolerance is zero.

46

@Bing I don’t understand how changing from natural gas to wood would improve your former neighbor’s condition. The biproduct from burning natural gas is carbon dioxide and water. The combustion of wood induces more chemicals into the air. I wonder if your neighbor was heating with the old style unvented gas heater. The other possibility would be that something was being picked up by the air handling system in the case of a forced air furnace. Our gas furnace even gets the combustion air from the outside.

I can understand how certain plastics may outgas and cause provblems with some people who are sensitive to these fumes. I wonder what chemicals may be absorbed and then ingested from bottled water. This bottled water comes in plastic bottles. I think I would rather take my chances from drinking municipal supplied water from public drinking fountains. Yet, the same people who are concerned about harsh chemicals and want only natural products are most apt to buy and drink bottled water.

47

I dunno, that’s just what he had to do but it was 1978 so there were no 90% furnaces or even separate intakes for the combustion air back then.

48

@JennG: Since you had the nerve to call me out PERSONALLY, here goes:

I frankly do not care what you believe, or why you believe it. While your demonstrated logic and thinking behind what you believe is (shall we say) lacking, this is the USA, and the freedom to believe in any number of silly concepts is sacrosanct!


However, in order for anyone to actually HELP you, you have to be ABLE to express what you want well enough for another person to understand! This is where you crashed and burned, IMO. At first, you say you don’t want “chemicals,” which is a logical fallacy, as everything is some combination of chemicals, even mother’s milk. THEN you say that you want something “natural”…but clearly that ain’t it, because petroleum is nothing if not a product of nature. As of this writing, I STILL have no flippin’ clue what exact chemical, or class of chemicals, you’re trying to avoid! (This should alert you to a gross deficiency in your ability to communicate effectively on subjects of a technical nature…and please, don’t shoot the messenger!)


At any event, I STILL gave you useful advice–despite the uncalled-for abuse, I might add. I pointed out that the MSDS (material safety data sheet) is required, by law, to list all active ingredients with ANY sort of dark side, and that you can use the MSDS, as a tool, to see what’s REALLY IN any product…rather than making ill-formed hunches based on how “dangerous” a product looks, which seems to be your current M.O., assuming you actually have any. Thus, from this day hence, you can look up any product, see if it passes muster, and if its competitors any any better, or worse. (“Teach to fish” vs “give a fish,” as they say.)


This is a forum chock-full of people who excel in rational, technical thinking; solid, left-brained sorts of folks. We need at least a whisper of logic from you as a jumping-off point. Not only did you fail greatly, you took personal umbrage at attempts to compel rationality on your part!


It’s a petty sort of person who uses feigned indignation as a front to hide ignorance. I do not know if that describes you, but honestly, that’s how you come across–scientifically illiterate with vitriol to obscure it. (Again, just an observation; could be wrong; don’t shoot the messenger.)

49

Spray bottle with plain water, put a clothes dryer softener sheet in it, let it sit for an hour. The spray mixture on surface and scrub with another sheet, dry with a towel. Interior or exterior, it works pretty well. Rocketman

50

@triedaq Yes, the back seats of our police cruisers have “barf-proof” upholstery (leatherette) and rubber floor mats. Taxis in Singapore are washed twice a day and the interior cleaned as well. They are special model Toyotas with vinyl interiors.

51

@JennG, what type of interior do you have? I don’t recall seeing this information in your posts. Knowing that can help provide better solutions for you.

52

Leatherette but I think meanjoe scared her off now.

53

Wow missing too many posts, did not go too far back, but have experienced cracked vinyl under the wind sheild, and also a vinyl top that did well enough except curling up from the edge. My conclusion is it is the nature of the substance itself, uv protection is important, but not an end of the day guarantee

I have not found a perfect solution, saddle soap and mink oil as mentioned previously seem fine as it gets green treatment for leather, but plastic is plastic, and if it is going to go there is nothing to stop it. Some cars it lasts forever, and others not.

54

JennG did not really want ideas other than hers so anymore discussion is most likely a waste of time.

55

JennG,

WW3 has used a plethora of conditioning/cleaning products and nothing has killed me, yet. The operative word being, “yet”. She isn’t finished. She has made me desperately ill on numerous occasions, requiring frequent trips to the emergency rooms locally. But, she’s not discouraged at all. How can I tell? She is constantly buying additional life insurance riders (death due to breathing in or exposure to toxic fumes) that quadruple the death benefit. Also, she is always refining her home-made formulas for me to try.

My car’s still a disaster area. Me too.

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