How to Clean a Leather Steering Wheel? | Top 4 Tips
Do you know how to clean a leather steering wheel? Also, are you doubtful about which process or method to follow for this purpose? We are here to help you out with useful information about it.
Your vehicle’s leather steering wheel worth regular and deep cleaning. Without practicing it, you are exposing your hands to one of the dirtiest objects every single day. Like most of the other things, if you do not take care of it, it becomes gross in a very short time. Studies show that an average person travels 12 complete days of a year behind the car steering. This means that they are touching it for the whole time, thus, it is very important to keep it clean. Cleaning also helps them avoid drying out or cracking the surface of the leather steering wheel.
How to Clean a Leather Steering Wheel?
Whenever you use your car, the leather steering wheel gets dirty due to continuous exposure to hand touch. It also receives dust, germs, and oil from the surrounding. With time, these residues stick to the steering wheel and make it shiny. Due to this, the surface becomes slippery and makes it very hard to get a proper grip over it. Fortunately, it is very easy to learn how to clean a leather steering wheel. Either it is deep cleaning or a regular upkeep process, you need very few things to do the job.
In this article, we are going to share the best steering wheel cover cleaning methods. There are few main steps in the process that you can follow to make the steering brand new once again.
Everyday Cleaning Session
If you want to learn how to clean a leather steering wheel, do not worry. It requires you to follow simple steps to ensure no grease, dirt, dust, and bacteria build up on the surface.
● Use a dry cloth to brush off the dirt from the surface of the leather wheel.
● Spray cleaning solution on a microfiber towel, and completely saturate the cloth with it.
● Wipe off the surface with the cloth in a very gentle way.
● Apply leather conditioner to smoothen out the surface after cleaning with a solution.
These are the main steps that take only 5 minutes for cleaning the steering wheel. Follow every step every day to ensure the dirt does not build upon the leather surface. If you follow it properly. Deep cleaning would be extremely easy and effortless for you.
Deep Cleaning Session
1. Scrub and Brush the Surface
If you are doing deep cleaning, do not rely on a microfiber towel. It’s time to use a brush instead. Spray the steering wheel cleaner onto the brush and start rubbing it on the surface of the leather steering. Wait for it to make enough lather, and keep rubbing for at least 15 minutes. After this, clean it with a microfiber towel, and damp it with a dry cloth.
If there is stitching on the wheel, try to brush it a little harder than in other areas. It will take out the dirt and dust stuck in the thread of stitches. If you do not find the specific leather steering cleaning brush, you can use the toothbrush instead. Its bristles are soft enough to do the job.
2. Remove Serious Grim
You need to use a scrubbing pad for cleaning dry steering that has serious groom because you didn’t clean them frequently. Put a small amount of cleaning solution on the inner side of the scrubbing pad and rub it on the surface. After few short strokes, immediately clean with a microfiber towel so that the solution does not dry out.
You should also dry it with a damp cloth to take out excess residues of the cleaning solution. After this, clean the whole surface with a soft and dry towel.
3. Disinfect the Steering
It's time to remove the bacteria from the completely clean leather steering wheel. If you can afford to buy or you have access to it, a steam machine can disinfect the steering very well. This machine should contain a single-hole nozzle and set it at medium spray speed.
You may fill it with distilled water that the nozzle will spray on the steering wheel. After this, tap dries the surface with a microfiber towel. Try to change the side of the while cleaning so that the dirt and germs may not accumulate back on the wheel.
4. Leather Degreaser to Remove Oil
A degreaser is a solution that converts the oil and grease into powder form. It comes in the form of an aerosol spray that you can spray on the microfiber towel. Saturate the towel surface with it and start rubbing on its surface. Wait until the oil and grease come off the dirty steering wheel and start converting into dry powder. Once all of it was done, you may use a clean cloth to remove it.
This is how to get grease off the leather in a proper way. After the degreasing process is done properly, do not forget to clean it with a microfiber towel. Use a clean wet cloth after this, and dry out with the clean dry cloth.
Note:
Keep in mind that the dry powder coming off of the leather steering surface should be white. If it is yellow, this means that you need to repeat the degreasing process to remove all the oil and grease.
Conclusion
You touch different surfaces, meet people, move around different places, and pick-up bacteria. Also, when you travel, dust and dirt from the surroundings deposit on the leather steering cover surface.
With time, it becomes dirty, slippery, and crack. Also, it costs more to change this cover rather than cleaning it regularly. It is, therefore, wise to clean it right from the time you purchase the car.
From the method given above, we are sure you know how to clean a leather steering wheel. We are sure that you will be able to maintain it from now.
