Wich product for weekly cleaning the leather steering wheel?

Simplified products already exist.

Simply:

Protect from new with a good quality leather protector

Maintain with a one step product (cleans and adds added protection)

Deep clean once or twice a year with a water based fiam cleaner



Steering wheels are prone to wear from body oils so the crucial thing is to keep them clean and the 3 steps above will do just that in a quick way, should only take about 2 mins of your time every week.

Add to these steps a quick spray with an antibacterial cleaner and the whole job is done.



Hope this helps



Sample packs (steering wheel sized) coming soon!!!!
 
Some of the products I've tried on the steering wheel leave it feeling tacky/sticky, and then the stuff seems to transfer to my hands :( I'll give the LM Protection Creme to see if that's any better...
 
Accumulator said:
Ah, that'd help make it a bit more practical but the treatment part still gives me pause.



The idea of fatliquoring it stopped me dead in my tracks (same as with my consideration of Leatherique, which is also just sitting on the shelf unused) as I simply cannot spread stuff like this out over the required timeframe. It took a whole weekend just to do the quickie job that I did, and that was on the basically showroom S8.



Guess it's sorta like my issues with polishing; finding several consecutive days to spend on a given vehicle is something I basically just can't do without blowing off something else (and most of those "something elses" are more important these days).
Click to expand...





[Fat liquor is not volatile nor migratory, so leather is not going to lose it. However, along with the fat liquor, the other critical factor is moisture. Any leather is going to lose its moisture in a hot car. Although leather seems dry, it is not. Of course too much moisture quickly leads to mould and mildew problems, so soaking it down is not reasonable. Ideally, exposure to humid atmosphere will help balance the effect of over drying on hot days.

Leather is very dynamic with respect to moisture content, meaning moisture comes and goes easily under normal circumstances....] American Leather Chemists Association (ALCA)
 
Using leather oil-based conditioners on finished leather may cause delamination from the leather substrate. As the oils will permeate the leather via the stitching or any micro-cracks in the surface, once oil gets between the urethane and the substrate it causes loss of adhesion (See also Oil and Oil based Products)



Most manufacturer’s advice against using oil-based conditioners on steering wheels as it makes the surface slippery and could be dangerous if you lose control of the vehicles steering
 
TOGWT said:
[Fat liquor is not volatile nor migratory, so leather is not going to lose it. However, along with the fat liquor, the other critical factor is moisture. Any leather is going to lose its moisture in a hot car. Although leather seems dry, it is not. Of course too much moisture quickly leads to mould and mildew problems, so soaking it down is not reasonable. Ideally, exposure to humid atmosphere will help balance the effect of over drying on hot days.

Leather is very dynamic with respect to moisture content, meaning moisture comes and goes easily under normal circumstances....] American Leather Chemists Association (ALCA)
Click to expand...





Well....you might oughta take that up with Roger Koh :chuckle: It could be the leathercare version of the Dawn debate!



I brought it up because I recently bought the Leather Doctor kit, which includes the Fatliquor and a product that supposedly facilitates absorption. I don't know whether I wasted my money (don't even know if I'll ever get around to using the stuff), but after reading all the pro/con :argue about the topic I thought I'd give it a try.



FWIW, I *have* had leather dry out. Obviously so, unmistakably and to a degree that *something* was needed to rejuvenate it (even just sitting on it would've caused damage). Different products fixed things just fine for me so I was satisfied with them even though "experts" said they couldn't possibly have done what they did (gee, like I should discount my first-hand experience :grinno: ).



I've also had leather get *way* too soft for the intended application due to the (over?)use of certain products, to the point of the item having to be retired from service.
 
TOGWT said:
Most manufacturer’s advice against using oil-based conditioners on steering wheels as it makes the surface slippery and could be dangerous if you lose control of the vehicles steering
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I remember how a member here used the Leatherique twins on her Jaguar's leather. Worked fine on everything except the steering wheel, which it damaged rather severely.
 
Accumulator said:
I remember how a member here used the Leatherique twins on her Jaguar's leather. Worked fine on everything except the steering wheel, which it damaged rather severely.
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Interesting; I have used Leatherique on more than one steering wheel and never had any problems with damage....
 
Ben@Autopia said:
Hrm.....



:Fermani:
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Fermani, hahahaha, that is great.







OP, if you check the manual of most vehicles with leather, they will specify that a damp cloth with just warm water is sufficient as a wipe down step. We all know sometime manuals are wrong, but in this case, I think water works very well on a MF towel and no scrubbing or anything, and then once every few months some leather cleaner and leather protectant would be good.
 
[Well....you might oughta take that up with Roger Koh It could be the leathercare version of the Dawn debate!] Accumulator



Any material presented is actually my interpretation of objective research and information gathered; so any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk. I would strongly suggest that you verify any information that I or anyone else shares with you.



This is how fat liquoring was explained to me on a visit to the Connolly Leather Tannery in Ashford, UK-



Starting with the wet-end softening process, known in the industry as fat liquoring, specific oils are added during the tanning or re-tanning process to make the leather soft, supple and flexible. Years ago, during the old style of processing, the leather was simply 'stuffed' with oils and fats and they were simply left to just sit in the fibre structure. But over time the oils migrated out of the leather, whether through use or heat (such as automotive leathers exposed to the sun which resulted in the fogging haze on the windows).



Consequently, these oils needed to be replaced at regular intervals and so the term of 'feeding leather' grew. And rightly so, because back then the leather really did need to be replenished, otherwise it would become hard, shrink and crack. However, leather manufacturing and the development of chemicals used has come a long way. Nowadays, modern fat liquors are technically advanced using high quality, specially processed natural and synthetic oils that meet very high specifications. These are typically fully reacted to the fibre structure, and as a consequence only minimal amounts can migrate out of the leather. Because of this low migration continually adding creams and lotions to replace lost oils is therefore no longer necessary.



This step, the replacement of oils, is called fat liquoring. Many leather products market themselves on how they feed or condition leather. In fact most vehicles leather seats are first coated with a very fine emulsion (pigmentation) to give them the desired colour and then a clear urethane coating. So for best longevity you should be keeping that coating clean, hydrated (water will permeate urethane due to its small molecules (as in a water vapour) and as well protected as possible.

















 
I especially like LM Protectant on steering wheels. It is not slippery or grabby. It feels dry and like new leather. It seems to shield the leather from soiling better than any product I've used.



Where you guys are finding LTT products here in the states?
 
A few years ago I used Leatherique on a pristine Mercedes 560SEL steering wheel and it looked like it was invaded by a swarm of leather eating insects. It removed a layer of leather in blotches all over the wheel; so the comments about some products de-laminating the leather are true.
 
TOGWT said:
..Any material presented is actually my interpretation of objective research and information gathered; so any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk. I would strongly suggest that you verify any information that I or anyone else shares with you...
Click to expand...



Oh believe me, I give, uhm....appropriate consideration to information not garnered from first-hand experience ;)



As I posted previously, I've had some experiences with automotive leathers that absolutely fly in the face of what many "experts" say and those experiences have prompted me to remain open minded about this topic. From Audis to GMs, to my e36 BMW, I've "restored" dried out leather that was in simply terrible condition, made it soft and supple again just like in some "as seen on TV!" ad-copy. I had a few people here seem to question that..."what did say you used?" and "On *what* years GM and BMW?" and even IIRC "But that's coated leather, it can't work like that!" and so on...as if I were making it up or something :grinno: Hey, it worked for me and the leather *stayed* nice too.



If the Leather Doctor fatliquoring proves pointless on the Audis and Tahoe, I can always use it on the Jag's leather, which absolutely *DOES* respond well to such treatment (decades of first-hand experience to back that up).



I'd invested enough time in Roger Koh's posts here that I figured I might as well give his stuff a try. Seems like the fatliquoring part of it is the point of contention, so we'll see how that works out.



This is how fat liquoring was explained to me on a visit to the Connolly Leather Tannery...
Click to expand...



I have "Connolly leather" in two of my vehicles. Interesting what they say about treating it, especially considering the stuff sold under the "Connolly Hyde Food" label :think: Stuff which is, IME, of decidedly mediocre benefit to some leather interiors they license their name to, interiors that really *DO* seem to need the treatments that they apparently consider to be of limited value. Maybe mine are just older that what they're referring to ('85 Jag, '93 Audi).



I *DO* agree 100% about the "just keep it clean" though, especially on newer, coated leathers. At least until that coating becomes significantly compromised.
 
Shiny Lil Detlr said:
Interesting; I have used Leatherique on more than one steering wheel and never had any problems with damage....
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Yeah, it seems to be a real "YMMV" situation.



jfelbab said:
especially like LM Protectant on steering wheels. It is not slippery or grabby. It feels dry and like new leather. It seems to shield the leather from soiling better than any product I've used.
Click to expand...



Yeah, the LM stuff does leave a very nice feel :xyxthumbs I'd been a little nervous about the Leather Doctor "grabby feel" stuff being weird...you know, too "grabby" or something, but it was nice in this regard too. It's sorta like the LM stuff is in-between the two LD protectants when it comes to feel. We'll see if I notice any diff in how they clean up.
 
Quote: Originally Posted by TOGWT

[Fat liquor is not volatile nor migratory, so leather is not going to lose it. However, along with the fat liquor, the other critical factor is moisture. Any leather is going to lose its moisture in a hot car. Although leather seems dry, it is not. Of course too much moisture quickly leads to mould and mildew problems, so soaking it down is not reasonable. Ideally, exposure to humid atmosphere will help balance the effect of over drying on hot days.

Leather is very dynamic with respect to moisture content, meaning moisture comes and goes easily under normal circumstances....] American Leather Chemists Association (ALCA)





Well....you might oughta take that up with Roger Koh It could be the leathercare version of the Dawn debate! ( by Accumulator)







If leathers can be hydrated, it can be fatliquored to as soft as you wish!





Roger Koh

info@leatherdoctor.com
 
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