My 2001 Cobra's grey suede seats are getting pretty grimey. I was told not to shampoo them because the suede becomes 'brittle' and starts falling apart. Is this true? Can anyone recommend a cleaning product for the suede? I have been thinking about finding a local leather cleaner. Any input would be nice.
If you are referring to the suede-like material found in the "middle" sections of the 2001 seats, the material is actually alcantara. Manufacturer URL linked below: http://www.alcantara.com/ FYI - They recently revamped their website, so the only way to read the cleaning instructions is if you can read Italian. It seems they still have to translate their text into "English," since the site is not fully functional if you choose English as the language. However, if you select "Italian," everything is functional...go figure. I Googled for alcantara cleaning instructions and came across the following, which should be useful. As taken from: http://www.materialthings.co.uk/care.htm IIRC, the cleaning instructions on the Alcantara website were very similar, if not identical, to the ones I copied/pasted above...
If you use woolite, mix it about 6 parts water 1 part woolite. Don't spray it all over the seats, just lightly mist them or spray it on a towel and wipe the seats off. You don't want to soak the seats down. Brush it lightly until it's mostly dry and let it air dry the rest of the way. This is the easiest way that I've seen to clean them and it works like a charm. I've cleaned coke and all kinds of crap off my seats and they still look good as new.
