Citroen XM Forum

Oh, god, I just bought a set of an expensive product called Leatherique after reading many, many pages on the net. Some people seemed very pleased with it and rated it better than Gliptone.

Send it back, in the UK the Law says you have 14 days grace for unseen purchases. I suspect Japan has similar laws.

I had also read that the surface coating of leather upholstery is impervious, but it does seem to me that leather that has has been regularly conditioned does not get brittle in old age. Maybe when the surface gets microscopic cracks some conditioner gets through to moisturise the fabric?

The stitching thread on most XM leather seats is old and often a bit brittle.
I favor using a bit of conditioner in the seams to treat the thread first before main leather cleaning.
It is better to find out first if you are going to need to repair poor seams.

John

Yesterday I had another chance to run the car till the tank was empty, and I can report that the guage does now go all the way down to E, but the trip computer remaining range display stopped working (display --) after showing about 30 km still to go. Can anyone confirm that their remaining range display counts all the way to 0?

I have a theory that when the tank is nearly empty (less than 5 litres remaining?) the trip computer, looks at the rate of the fuel level dropping, and the rate of engine fuel consumption, and if they don't nearly match, then it just displays -- until more fuel is added.

Range drops to dashes for fuel remaining on all mine at about 5 ltrs.

John

Dieselman wrote:For cleaning leather just use regular houshold cleaner...or even engine cleaner, but diluted, scrubbed in with a soft scrubbing brush.

All car leather is alanine and painted with polyurethane paint, so the surface is actually plastic. The main fabric won't absorb anything, so no point wasting money on potions.

I did mine with cheap industrial cleaner, then conditioned them with hair conditioner.

I have subsequently been advised to the above effect by a leather specialist, who is the one who used engine cleaner.

I have come to the same conclusion, I use washing up liquid in warm water to clean and then plaster on aveeno skin lotion or E45 cream paying particular attention to the stitching and left it for 24 hours to soak in, then wipe with a towel to remôve the residue, this gives much better results than any leather cleaner I've tried. Didn't consider the wife's conditioner but I will try that next time.

D

Good tips those. Will have to try that out.

Dean wrote:I use washing up liquid in warm water to clean and then plaster on aveeno skin lotion or E45 cream paying particular attention to the stitching and left it for 24 hours to soak in, then wipe with a towel to remôve the residue, this gives much better results than any leather cleaner I've tried. Didn't consider the wife's conditioner but I will try that next time.

So, we assume the E45 is yours...

Not exactly......... I'd rather word didn't get out tbh, she was a little annoyed when she saw the little ones creame was low, if it was known I was rubbing it on the car I may get in trouble and look a bit weird too.

D