Interiors · 3 minute read
Car interior cleaning in Kerala’s heat and humidity
A car cabin is a small closed room that bakes in the afternoon and stays damp for half the year. Keeping it clean is mostly a matter of doing the right surfaces in the right order, with products that do no harm.
· Exquis Motor Co.
Where the dirt is
Start with what hands touch: the steering wheel, the gear selector, the indicator and wiper stalks, door handles inside and out, seat-belt buckles, window switches and the touchscreen. These collect far more grime than the top of the dashboard, and they deserve a wipe every week or so.
The headliner is best left alone unless it is marked. Too much liquid softens the glue behind it, and a sagging headliner is an expensive repair for a small stain.
Clean first, then sanitise
A sanitiser works poorly on a surface coated in skin oil and dust, so clean first and treat second. Done the other way round, the product is wasted and leaves a sticky film.
Use products made for car interiors. Household disinfectants and alcohol-heavy wipes dry leather until it cracks, and they can strip the anti-glare coating from a touchscreen. For screens, use a barely damp microfibre and almost no pressure.
Sun on the dashboard
On a March afternoon a dashboard behind the windscreen gets too hot to rest a hand on. Years of that fade the plastic and eventually crack it. The outer edge of the driver’s seat, which you slide across every time you get in, dries out and splits in the same way.
A folding sunshade does more than any product. As for dressings, avoid the glossy ones: they reflect in the windscreen at the worst moments and collect dust. A water-based protectant with UV filters, buffed to a satin finish, protects the surface without the glare.
Damp and mould
In the monsoon, leather and fabric can develop a white bloom along the seams. That is mould, and wiping it with a damp cloth spreads it. Brush it out with a proper interior cleaner, dry the area thoroughly, and condition leather afterwards so it is less likely to come back.
A musty smell when the air conditioning starts usually comes from moisture on the evaporator behind the dashboard. Change the cabin filter on time, or sooner if you park under trees. In the last few minutes of a drive, switch the AC off and leave the fan running, so the system dries out before the car is parked.
Crumbs and ants
A few crumbs of banana chips under a seat will be found by ants well before they are found by you. Vacuum the seat runners and the gap between the seats and the centre console, which is where most of it ends up. Lift out child seats now and then as well. A surprising amount of a family’s week collects underneath them.
When a certificate helps
For a chauffeured car, or a family car that carries small children or older relatives, a written record of the work can be reassuring. Our Interior Sanitisation add-on cleans every touch surface before sanitising it, treats the vents and the cabin filter area, and ends with a hygiene certificate carrying its own number, which anyone can check on this website.