Just relax, you don't have to try it if you don't want to.

I can tell you first hand it does work and many people have tried it on older or tough to clean leather (see dwights post above) and have great results. A quick search will literally yield thousands of people telling how they had problem seats they could not get clean until the Magic Eraser. I found boating forums, automotive forums, housewife’s using it on their furniture.............

Now to the comment that other products can dupicate the results. I have yet to find one that can do this, it cleans but also dulls the leather which in my case made it more closely resemble the factory finish. My steering wheel and bolsters were shinny when I bought the car from the original owner which was from years of wear, dirt and oil. With one quick pass using only water and the eraser they looked like new.

I would have to disagree about your comment on the analogy though as you are removing a layer of material (Though very minuscule) to get to a clean base, there was no mention of leather oxidizing.

As for long term, the seats are clean and I don't drive the car much so I imagine the next time I have to clean the seats in this manner is the day I sell the car. I would fully anticipate the seats to wear out long before the effect of using a Magic Eraser were ever present. The reality is that the bolsters will wear, the padding degenerates...... at a much quicker rate than even periodic use of the product.

 

I wouldn't touch my leather with the magic eraser. Once or twice over the life of the car might not do too much damage, but I'd rather just use a good nonabrasive leather product that gets similar results. Leatherique has worked great for me in the past

 

I appreciate your opinion but I still have yet to hear any real evidence to support the reasoning behind it? I am cautious also but with 11 year olds seats I figured what the hey, if it did not work I was just going to buy new covers anyway so might as well test it. The test worked with no ill effects so I moved on.

I am not trying to be argumentative; there is a lot of bad information out there to say the least. I If it really hurts the seats I would like to know as I would not recommend it.

 

Yeah I hear you. Like i said, doing it once or twice over the life of the car probably won't do too much damage. But the fact is that magic eraser is an abrasive, you will be removing some of the top layer of coating. How much? I don't think either of us know for sure.

My personal preference is to preserve the leather as long as possible and not force any premature wear. I sold my s2k a few years ago, currently have a lexus GS with light gray leather which is a b*tch to keep clean. I have 60k miles on it and the leather looks new, nice matte finish, leatherique has worked great in keeping it looking new.

 

Looks much better. Wow. I might use it on the drivers seat since its beat anyways and shiny.

 

I definitely agree, this is more for a more major restore like mine, 11 year old car with 40K worth of seat time. The original owner did an okay job but there was a lot left to be desired. Unless the seat needs some help there would be no reason to mess with it, which is where the leather cleaner and conditioners come in to play.

 

just throwing this out there, I know we are concerned about the eraser removing the protective layer and being abrasive and all but when you think about it, when you use a brush to scrub the seats with a leather cleaner, isn't that in a way, being "abrasive" cleaning the seats also?

 

Not necessarily.

The foam nature makes Magic Eraser feel soft because compliant (low modulus of elasticity) and it's texture is very fine but it's still very abrasive (high material hardness) and can remove materials. A stiff brush might feel harsh, but actually be softer.

One example is that a metal wire brush feels harsh and abrasive, but it doesn't scratch glass easily. 600 grit sandpaper feels softer, but will readily scratch glass.

 

I see, well i guess we need to see how it is in a long run

 

What else gets similar results? My seats are the red and black ones, they are dirty looking and shiney. Could do with freshening them up!

Also my bolster is worn, can you get restore kits that dye it back to black?