How to Remove Stains from Car Seats: Quick and Easy Guide

Found yourself tackling tough or unsightly stains across car seats? Need to get dirt, watermarks, coffee stains, oily patches or other nasty stains out of upholstery? This quick and easy guide from our expert team of industry professionals explains all you need to know about how to remove stains from car seats. 

An Introduction to Removing Stains from Car Seats

As locations of heavy traffic — pun not intended — cars and vehicles are highly susceptible to interior upholstery stains. People are in and out of their cars all day, doing a variety of activities that can lead to stains, like taking dogs for a walk, driving to work with a coffee in the cup holder, grabbing food, picking kids up from school, etc. 

While it’s true that stains don’t impact the performance of a vehicle, they aren't particularly nice to look at and can even reduce the value of a car. The result is that car owners and professional cleaners spend a lot of time working on removing stains from car seats. 

If you’re looking to do the same, here’s how it’s done.

What Equipment Do I Need to Remove Stains from Car Seats?

As with any car-related task, the right tools for the job are essential. When removing stains from car seats, you’ll need a small selection of items. Each is as important as the last, so make sure you have everything before you start the job of removing stains.

You’ll need:

• A vacuum
• Microfibre cloths
• Car upholstery cleaner.

You can buy car fabric cleaners and microfibre cloths on the YMF Car Parts online store.   

What Is the Technique for Removing Stains from Car Seats?

Step one to successfully removing stains from car seats is gathering the right equipment, the next (and final) step is simply following the perfect technique. 

Begin by vacuuming the upholstery. You’re doing this for two reasons:

• You’re attempting to remove any potential residue within the stain that hasn’t been absorbed into the car seat fibres.

• You’re removing any loose particles that are around the stain, such as dust, strands of hair, bits of food and so on. 

If you don’t follow this pre-treatment phase, you may end up rubbing dirt into the stain. Imagine there is a thin layer of loose dirt and residue that has settled on top of the stain. If you start spraying the area before removing this with the vacuum, you’re just spraying dirt. 

Now it’s time to spray with your upholstery cleaner. Always follow the direction of use closely:

• Apply the spray liberally to the stained area, making sure to cover all stains and marks thoroughly. 

• “Agitate” the area using your clean microfibre cloth. Agitation means to lightly massage the area to work the spray into the fibres and to start loosening up the stains.

• Leave the solution to settle in. This can vary by product. Usually, the time range is anywhere between three to 20 minutes. Check the instructions of your car fabric cleaner.

Finally, you need to scrub and blot your stain. 

Should You Scrub or Blot a Car Seat Stain?

Scrubbing and blotting have two very different motions and mechanics. Scrubbing serves to drag away stains while blotting lifts them up from the fibres. You generally want to use a technique that involves both. 

First, you blot. Blotting draws out moisture and stains gently. You blot until the area is relatively dry. If you remove the stain through blotting, there is no need to scrub. If the stain is more stubborn, you can now scrub at it to dislodge any dry particles still left from the cleaning process. 

Scrubbing a wet stain can actually help it bind to the fibres of your seat more effectively, making matters worse. 

Repeat Car Seat Cleaning If Necessary 

If you’re done with blotting and scrubbing and the stain persists, repeat the entire process. Some tough stains will require multiple rounds of cleaning to remove, so do not be disheartened if the first go doesn’t provide the desired results. 

How Do I Stop Car Seats Getting Stained?

The best defence is a good offence. Don’t make it easy for stains to get into car seat fabrics. Fabric stain repellents, like our EZ Car Care Hydro Guard Fabric Protector, form a barrier on car seats that makes it much harder for dirt, oils, liquids, foods and other stain-creating substances to absorb into the fibres of the upholstery. 

All you have to do is liberally spray the upholstery and leave the fluoropolymer-based protection system to seal in for 24 hours. If there are concerns of more severe stains, you can even add additional layers, but these can only be applied after the first layer has dried at least 24 hours later. 

Why Are There White Stains on Car Seats?

White stains are an unsightly addition to interior upholstery, becoming particularly noticeable if car seats are dark in colour. Oftentimes, these white patches can appear in circular formations at seemingly random points on car seats. 

But what is causing these mystery white stains on car seats, and how do you remove them?

The white patterns come from salt, which can be deposited through sweat. If somebody is sitting in the car on a hot day, with skin-to-seat contact, the combination of moisture from sweat and salt in the sweat can settle on the car seat. The salt is absorbed into the fibres of the upholstery, resulting in white circular stains. A trip to the gym can have a similar effect. White marks on car seats may also be experienced after a trip to the beach — towels, clothes, shoes, skin, etc that are wet from salt water can also deposit salt onto car seats. 

The good news is that salt is water-soluble, so removing it from car seats isn’t going to be too difficult.

How Do You Remove Saltwater Stains from Car Seats?

Removing saltwater stains from car seats requires:

• Some water
• A vacuum
• A bit of white vinegar
• A spray bottle
• A microfibre cloth.

The first thing to do is vacuum the stain. If it’s a long-term addition to the upholstery, this won’t do much, but if it’s new, it might just get up some of the loose salt particulates before you start. 

Next, you want to re-saturate the area with water. 

Not too wet, but damp enough to be noticeably wet to the touch. This binds the salt to the water molecules and gets it out of the fabric fibres. 

Dry off the area with a microfibre towel, repeating the previous step if you can still see any white marks. (White marks show that salt is still attached to the fibres.) Once the stain looks like a slightly damp patch without white marks, it’s time to deploy the vinegar. 

Note, don’t use the vinegar until the area is nearly dry. If the stained area is still too damp, the vinegar will be too heavily diluted to work effectively. 

Mix a solution of 1:1 water and vinegar into a spray bottle and spray the damp area. The vinegar will dissolve the salt through its acidic qualities, leaving the fibres untouched. Wait about 20 minutes before blotting up the solution with a damp cloth. 

We recommend you air out the car while the vinegar solution works its magic and a spray of upholstery cleaner to help remove the vinegar residue and get rid of the powerful odour it leaves behind. 

YMF Car Parts stocks a range of premium car seat upholstery cleaners and protection sprays. Browse our impressive, hand-picked stock collection, suitable for both at-home car care and professional car cleaning services.