Mysterious grease popping up inside my car

[Back-N-Black]

This is wierd. I recently purchased my 03 Terminator with less than 15,000 miles on it. Looks to be very well taken care of.

I'm not 100 percent sure of what materials the seats are made of so will try to describe. Looks like black leather with silver or grey brushed leather inserts. I suppose the inserts could be suede or velour, if thats one of the options this year. Of course they are factory Cobra seats.

Anyway, this is like the third or fourth instance in 2 months that I see small pieces of what looks like axle grease on the perfectly maintained grey leather. Trust me, this is NOT coming from the outside of the car. It looks like they are being blown in from the A/C vents.

They kind of look like very small pieces of the foam that insulates the air ducts where the plastic pieces come together. I have been picking the pieces up that I notice and although it looks like foam, it crumbles in my finger like it was just a glob of grease.

Yesterday I ground some into the grey leather insert and now I need to know the best way to get it off. I guess it would be nice to know what material the grey inserts are first.

So, if anyone knows what possible materials the grey inserts are and how to get axle grease like substance out of it I would be greatly indebted to you.

Also, if you have seen this grease popping up inside your Terminator would be useful.

 

[03cobra#694]

Link to seat cleaning.

Terminator FAQs

 

[mooch91]

Trying to help brainstorm the source...

If you think it's really coming in from the vents, there's a number of things to consider:

• Carbon from the brushes on the heater blower motor - as the motor runs, the brushes wear, and the carbon breaks down. Maybe this is happening and blowing in.
• Foam around the edges of the vents. The vent registers themselves are sealed to the dashboard with a foam material that may be breaking down.
• Gunk built up on the A/C evaporator. Since the evaporator draws mositure out of the air, it tends to get moldy and this could be blowing off and in to the car.
• Heater core problem. Leaking heater core could be releasing something in to the air.
• Cabin air filter. The system could be drawing something in from outside. I don't know if our cars have an air filter for the cabin air, but worth a check.

 

[mu22stang]

I have noticed the same dark grey, slighty yellow in tint, foam coming from my a/c vents as well. It turns into a sticky grease substance once compressed. I'm not sure what can be done about it...

 

[wvmystichrome]

Not a whole lot you can do but be very careful to get it off when it comes out. My 95 Lincoln does this and so does my 00 F-150. It sucks but that stuff happen with age. I used Tough Stuff cleaner to get it off the Lincoln's carpet and off the truck's seats.

 

[Back-N-Black]

Great, never thought to check the faq for seat cleaning hints.

Turns out that Alcantara is used in other cars, etc. The problem is that the recommended non-waterbased stain removal method uses ethyl alcohol. Try and get that locally!

Some recommended alternatives
everclear 190 in some states
everclear 151 in Fl
Autosmart bio-brisk sold in the uk