Help with interior plastic/leather discoloration?

[Scooter McGoo]

My wife is a nurse and is obsessed with hand sanitizer.  She has a small tube in her car that she uses often, and I believe the residue on her hands is beginning to discolor the plastic/leather in her Ford Edge.  I don't know the specific properties of hand sanitizer and it's affect on car interiors, but i know it has alcohol and is meant to kill germs, so is a likely suspect in what may be happening.  My question is how do I get rid of this discoloration?

 

I've used interior detailer and leather cleaner with zero success.  It doesn't even help a little.  My biggest concern is that the damage may be permanent, but if there is any hope I'd love everyones opinion on what products/techniques might stand a fighting chance at fixing this.

 

Pictures attached for reference.

[Junior]

Scott, sorry you are having this issue. The good news is I think you can minimize it if not reverse it altogether. When you say you used interior Detailer and leather cleaner, are you referring specifically to the Adams Interior Detailer? The reason I say that is that product only has light cleaning capabilities. The best product to deep clean the interior plastics, leather, and vinyl would be Adams Leather and Interior cleaner. And in your case, the scrubbing mitt might be a good choice or one of the Adams Deep clean eraser. Follow that up with a healthy application of the leather conditioner and you should get great results that can be maintained with the interior Detailer. Utility towels are also great for steering wheels where you really need to get a good amount of grime off them in tight spots where brushes and scrubbing media don’t reach well. Don’t use too much product or pressure though. Try to go with the least aggressive method to start out. I said all that to say there are a ton of tools and methods for tackling this job. Some are more aggressive than others.

Edited July 11, 2018 by Junior

[Rich]

You don't want to apply any more cleaning agents.  STOP.  One thing you need to do NOW is to apply the Leather Conditioner.  What  you did basically is remove the residue and dirt from the damage that was done by the alcohol.  Your fabrics are dried out now.  You need to put the moisture back into everything.  If you have streaking when you apply it, that simply means that some areas are dryer than others and absorbing product faster than others. So keep applying (maybe even 4 or 5 times) until you get uniformity. 

Let us know how it goes.

[Junior]

Ah I keep forgetting the Leather Conditioner has some cleaning properties. So I guess that would be the best thing to try first! Good point Rich. Least aggressive ?

[Rich]

You don't need any more cleaning products on your stuff.  You've cleaned it to death. Now you have to repair the damage that's been done.  And you'll want to keep it well treated from now on. 

[tlbullet]

I had same issue. Wife uses hand sanitizer and hand lotion constantly.  Steering wheel looked exactly the same.  I was about to give

up..assumed it was stained....and tried LIC and the cockpit brush.  It worked great. Then followed it up with LC. Worked great.  Good luck. Hope its that easy for you. 

[cwp2016nd]

My mother’s car had the same exact issue from her using hand cream and touching everything. I used a boars hair interior brush (stiffer than the cockpit brush but nowhere near as stiff as a carpet brush) with another brands APC diluted 5:1 and scrubbed it. The stains were gone. I applied LC afterwards and it was as good as New. 

Edited July 12, 2018 by cwp2016nd

[Junior]

7 hours ago, Rich said:

You don't want to apply any more cleaning agents.  STOP.  One thing you need to do NOW is to apply the Leather Conditioner.  What  you did basically is remove the residue and dirt from the damage that was done by the alcohol.  Your fabrics are dried out now.  You need to put the moisture back into everything.  If you have streaking when you apply it, that simply means that some areas are dryer than others and absorbing product faster than others. So keep applying (maybe even 4 or 5 times) until you get uniformity. 

Let us know how it goes.

 

Actalky the more I look at the pics the more I think residue is still there. So if it was me, I would likely do a test spot with the leather and interior cleaner. That is assuming he used the Interior Detailer. But he hasn’t answered my question. If his answer was that he did use the leather and interior cleaner already then I would say STOP cleaning and move on to the L con. However we don’t know that. We need more info from him to really determine the correct answer here.

Edited July 12, 2018 by Junior

[Scooter McGoo]

Wow, great responses, thanks everyone.

 

All the products I mentioned above are Adams products, and I do have Leather & Interior cleaner (as well as Interior detailer/leather conditioner/APC).  I'll give a few of these suggestions a whirl on the steering wheel.

 

Does everyone think this same process will work on plastic, primarily the dash (top two pics)?

[Junior]

It should work on plastic just fine. If you already used the leather and interior cleaner on these spots I would do as Rich suggested and move to the conditioner. However if you only used the Interior Detailer, it may be worth testing a small spot with the cleaner. Those pics look like residue to me but never hurts to be cautious.

[cwp2016nd]

The conditioner will more than likely get rid of the spots but they WILL resurface again if you don’t clean it properly. 

[ocdrifter]

This is not leather or vinyl discoloration this is cause by cheap hand 

 lotion that you use, it’s a easy fix!  Most use a dedicated interior cleaner and then a protectant.

[falcaineer]

On 7/12/2018 at 7:29 PM, ocdrifter said:

This is not leather or vinyl discoloration this is cause by cheap hand 

 lotion that you use, it’s a easy fix!  Most use a dedicated interior cleaner and then a protectant.

 

Side note...he's baaaaack! Welcome back, Joe. Good to "see" you again. 

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