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Any Cure/Solution for Sticky Soft Touch Interior Finish?
I guess I should expect this from a car that's 20 years old...
The soft touch finish on my dash and the center of my steering wheel are starting to get "tacky" and sticky... I have had this happen with old electronics that use soft touch paint...
Any cure or solutions for dealing with this? The car has been garaged for 90% of it's life and still looks fantastic... The tacky/sticky soft touch finish cheapens the car's look and feel...
I used this on most of the my plastic parts within the car; specifically the airbag cover, door handles, door trim, dashboard, passenger airbag cover, glovebox cover and B-pillar's interior trim. works best if you use a soft brush to work it in. wipe off with paper towels and repeat until tackiness is gone or product wipes clean.
I used this on most of the my plastic parts within the car; specifically the airbag cover, door handles, door trim, dashboard, passenger airbag cover, glovebox cover and B-pillar's interior trim. works best if you use a soft brush to work it in. wipe off with paper towels and repeat until tackiness is gone or product wipes clean.
Thanks for the recommendation... Does this end up restoring the finish to "factory-like" condition? Or does it strip away the soft-touch finish and leaves something clean...but different from what the car used to look/feel like?
Nothing short of buying a new part will be "factory-like;" and I don't consider the 2nd gen surfaces to be very "soft touch." The 3rd gen perhaps, and that's also probably why they are plagued with dashboards cracking and failing.
If you read the reviews of this product on amazon, I can assure you that when used properly; your experience will be quite similar...years of dirt, grime, grease and body oils will wipe off like butter from your cars interior surfaces; leaving a smooth, tack-free matte finish beneath.
Nothing short of buying a new part will be "factory-like;" and I don't consider the 2nd gen surfaces to be very "soft touch." The 3rd gen perhaps, and that's also probably why they are plagued with dashboards cracking and failing.
If you read the reviews of this product on amazon, I can assure you that when used properly; your experience will be quite similar...years of dirt, grime, grease and body oils will wipe off like butter from your cars interior surfaces; leaving a smooth, tack-free matte finish beneath.
Yes, I agree with you... I am definitely not expecting anything to restore the surface to "like new" condition... I was just wondering if it will still retain a similar feel and sheen as the factory (emphasis on "similar", not identical)... Or if the product actually removes the finish and ends up changing the look/feel/sheen...
That said, I am going to give this a try! Thanks for the suggestion!
The soft touch finish on my dash and the center of my steering wheel are starting to get "tacky" and sticky... Any cure or solutions for dealing with this?
Here is a thread I used when this 'tacky' issue happened to my air bag cover.
The goo-gone worked OK and it eventually cut through the factory coloring; however, using it entailed ALOT of elbow grease and rags to get the colored tacky stuff off.
I will have to do this again on my CL-S project car soon.
I wish I could find a moderate semi-solvent product that would be strong enough to 'cut' the old sticky factory coloring used without damaging / discoloring the 'vinyl' substrate composition of the air bag cover.
I recently detailed a 2008 Camry interior that had tacky soft-touch surfaces. I know, it's not a second generation Acura TL, but I'm hoping my experience can help you with your issue. I used Super Clean diluted 9:1 (nine parts water to one part Super Clean), and after cleaning off the sticky stuff, 303 Aerospace protectant. That car was a few years younger than yours, though... so I'd test the SC 9:1 on a small non-visible spot like the back side of one of the steering wheel spokes or rim, or the outer rim of the dashboard that's covered after closing the door.
I decided to use Mirror Glaze 39 (mostly keying off the product's name of being "heavy duty")...
I used a new clean white terry cloth towel and gave a corner of the towel a good "soaking" and aggressively cleaned the problem surfaces. Wow...my terry cloth went pitch black with filth!!! I basically kept turning my terry cloth to clean surfaces and kept at it until the terry cloth stopped getting pitch black and started to turn more of a dirty grey...and finally getting to an "off-white" color...
It actually worked great!!! Interestingly enough, the only problem areas were my center steering wheel cover and the passenger SRS cover... The entire dashboard did not have this issue at all... Yes, I removed a layer of filth...but it was mostly just dust and normal/expected dirtiness... I wonder why only these two surfaces exhibited this "stickiness" and pitch-black dirtiness problem...
Here are a couple of pictures, one is of my steering wheel & center air bag cover, the other is of my dash air bag cover:
Believe it or not that steering wheel air bag cover was originally 'parchment' color not black. I bought a 2nd newer black
leather steering wheel, from a member on this forum, years ago because the parchment leather coloring had
worn away from heat & sun exposure on my factory original. I took the center airbag cover from my old steering wheel because it had
the 'updated' airbag inflator installed. As you can see, compared to the shiny black perforated leather, on the
steering wheel, the subdued black 'substrate' is not as shiny.
The passenger side dash air bag still has the 'parchment' coloring and has not yet become 'sticky'. This was the
original color of my center airbag cover on the steering wheel.
As a result, if MikeekiM claims that the Mirror Glaze 39 - Heavy Duty Vinyl Cleaner took his 'black' sticky colorant
off easier I'd like to observe the result before investing $15 on said vinyl cleaner, if possible. Only because the
GooGone was a PIA to use.
If the question was posed to me, the answer is a definite no...
My car spends most of the time garaged and away from the elements... When I park the car, I take all my belongings out... I do not "live" in my car in any stretch of the imagination... I do not smoke (or let anyone smoke in my car)... I do not eat, or let anyone eat in my car...
When the car is outdoors I use a reflective windshield shade to protect the interior from the ultra violet rays, as well as from the heat of the sun... I also have dark tint (20% Rear, 35% Fronts) that also keep the car relatively cool...
That is why I am so surprised that my steering wheel and airbag cover have gotten this sticky residue on it... Very strange... I am glad I found a way to get it cleaned...
LOL... OK... You motivated me to take the car outside and take a few photos of the exterior! The car is lowered about 3" and has an OEM body kit on it... Also changed out the headlamps with aftermarket blacked out headlight housings...
Last edited by MikeekiM; Oct 11, 2021 at 07:03 PM.
OK, looking at that steering wheel picture, you have convinced me to take a chance on the Mirror Glaze 39 - Heavy Duty Vinyl Cleaner.
Thanks for the pictures!
That's a sharp car.
Is that original paint? it looks spectacular! You must get a lot of compliments on the car by those familiar with it's age?
Yeah...original paint... Bought it brand new in February 2003. It's got 90K on the clock, and one transmission replacement at 38.5K (2011).
Most people don't comment because (as you hinted above) many people really are not "car aware" these days and really have no idea that it's nearly a 20 year old vehicle... The last comment I got about my car was when I went to a parking garage and parked it in a protected corner of the lot to keep it from getting dinged and a security guard walking the lot asked me if "that's the new Acura"... LOL... Obviously not familiar with the Acura lineup!!!
I am always lightly concerned about getting in an accident because the insurance company would never pay me what this car is worth to me... I think the latest KBB private party blue book value on my car with the mileage on it came to around $5K.
@whitetiger5 I saw your blue TL-S in the photo gallery post... It looks great as well! Is that also original paint? Looks like you lowered the car too... Usually the stock height allows 3-4 fingers in the rear wheel well, and yours looks more like a 1-2 finger gap... I am running Suspension Techniques springs...
Last edited by MikeekiM; Oct 12, 2021 at 08:57 AM.
My roof started to show signs of clearcoat failure, so I refinished it with a 2k clearcoat about 3 years back. learned a lot about wetsanding/polishing soon after
It's been through two stages of being lowered, went with eibach sportline some 10+ years ago and couldn't stand the harsh ride quality.
Eventually, I wanted to make this car into a touring/roadtrip vehicle so I could justify the amount of work/time/money invested into it...so I updated it with Tein H.tech and have been quite happy as the ride quality has improved quite a bit.
I've got 220K miles on the clock, also opt for the end spot when parking and hope that someone doesn't rear end or back into me in a parking lot as I know the car is not worth very much to anyone but myself.
To say the least, the Mirror Glaze 39 - Heavy Duty Vinyl Cleaner worked like a dream compared to the GooGone I used years ago.
Thanks MikeekiM!
I was a bit concerned that the new old stock Mirror Glaze 39, I purchased off of ebay, was not the current formulation I observed on amazon. If you look closely, you can see what appears to be some kind of solvent 'alcohol' in the form of alcohol ethoxysulfate 68585-34-2 and a few other ingredients; however, it did not matter. The mirror glaze I received did its job very well.
I pulled the airbag because it was easy and 90f+ with high humidity today and did not want to 'cook' out in the driveway.
The airbag cover was a lot easier to handle / clean while out of the car, as well; however, it is not necessary to remove.
Here is a picture of the airbag cover with a 'test' spot next to the Acura logo. As one can see there are two different
shades of black. The sticky deteriorated OEM black colorant shows a lot of debris.
If you accidentally 'rub' up against this deteriorated sticky stuff, it will ruin and nice expensive dress shirt in no time at all!
The use of a terry cloth rag and the M39 removed all the OEM black colorant with ease. I found using a circular
movement with frequent application of the M39 worked fastest and the best. Just make sure not to flood the rear
components of the airbag cover or get it in the electrical connectors.
The finished airbag cover below.
Picture of rear airbag for those interested.
Up close picture of the 'grain' of the airbag substrate. If you don't get the deteriorated colorant out of these fine
areas, it will still feel sticky. The terry cloth rag 'loops' made for a sufficient friction material to remove.
This NOS water based M39 vinyl cleaner was just what the doctor ordered and easy to use.
You can see it does not contain the Alcohol Ethoxysulfate 68585-34-2 & other current ingredients shown on
the Amazon link above.
Installed back in the car. It appears dull now; however, I still have to do the passenger side dash airbag and will
apply some armorall after completion.
@zeta Thanks for the update (with pics and all)! Your final results look fantastic!
I am glad to hear it worked out so well... I am also very happy with my results... Prior to fixing this issue, I would always get into my car and mentally lament over the crappy and "cheap" look of those sticky surfaces...but now, I am back to having that "pride of ownership"!
I feel the same way! A few things that I’ve found a long the way:
the plastic covering the gauges is relatively cheap: I think I bought a new one for $18 at oemacuraparts.com Clean non-scratched gauge cover looks great.
there’s a post in here about using a drill brush to clean the leather. It really brings the seat leather back to the original matte color.
just be cautioned: if there are cracks those will obvi still be there.
I feel the same way! A few things that I’ve found a long the way:
the plastic covering the gauges is relatively cheap: I think I bought a new one for $18 at oemacuraparts.com Clean non-scratched gauge cover looks great.
there’s a post in here about using a drill brush to clean the leather. It really brings the seat leather back to the original matte color.
just be cautioned: if there are cracks those will obvi still be there.
Wait... Did you replace your plastic gauge cover with the exact same gauge cover, only a brand new one? Or did you replace it with something that looks more premium? If the latter, I'd love to actually get a photo and a part number from you!
Also, speaking of the gauge cluster, I noticed the other day that my gauge cluster back lighting isn't as bright as it once was...and in particular, the bottom section, just left of center seems to be particularly dim... It's still serviceable... And I bet no one but me notices... But I was just wondering if replacing the back lighting was a simple bulb change, or is it a massive PITA factor?
Ugh... I hate cracked leather seats... My S2000 and my 2008 TL both have some cracks in the seats, and once that starts, it's hard to recover (or better said...impossible to recover)... I am so careful with my cars, but both of these cars I bought used, so I am not sure what the root cause of the cracks were... Heavy set person putting stress on the material? Car sitting in the sun leading to the leather getting dried out and brittle? My 2003 TL-S seats still look great...
And one other tip for those that are not "in the know"... If you haven't greased your door and trunk seals, you should get a tube of
and lightly go over all the door seals... It's a great product, and makes a big difference over the long haul... I try to do it once every year or two on all my cars...
Last edited by MikeekiM; Oct 28, 2021 at 11:42 AM.
replaced it with a brand new one that had no scratches from years of wiping clean. figured the $20 was worth the time/effort of trying to get scratches out of what seems to be thin polycarbonate.
Amazon.com: Meguiar’s M3916 Mirror Glaze Heavy Duty Vinyl Cleaner, 16 Fluid Ounces : Everything Else
