SONAX AutoInnenReiniger interior cleaner 500ml

SONAX AutoInnenReiniger cleans plastic and upholstery with one product

What is the SONAX AutoInnenReiniger? An all-purpose cleaner for the whole car interior that lifts both plastic and fabric surfaces at once: dashboard, door cards, headliner and upholstery. It's not a leather conditioner and it won't magic out old, deeply dried-in stains without some mechanical work.

SONAX AutoInnenReiniger is an all-purpose interior cleaner from SONAX that works with a foaming surfactant formula. The foam works into the fibres of upholstery and carpet, lifts the dirt, and comes back out with a brush or microfibre cloth. On smooth plastic like the dashboard and door cards it wipes away dust film, fingerprints and grip marks without leaving a greasy or glossy layer behind.

The real win is one product for lots of materials. Inside a car you've got hard plastic, piano black, fabric, carpet and sometimes Alcantara all packed into a tiny space — that's quickly 4 to 5 different surfaces per door. Buying a separate spray for each gets messy fast. The AutoInnenReiniger covers most of them, so you work your way through the whole car with one 500 ml bottle instead of constantly swapping products.

• One product for the whole interior. Dashboard, door cards, centre console, headliner, seats and carpet — that's 4 to 5 different materials, one cleaner. You're not switching between a plastic and a fabric product, you just work your way through the whole cabin with one spray bottle.
• 500 ml spray bottle, dose it where you want. The trigger lays the cleaner down with 2 to 3 pulls exactly on the area you're working, instead of misting everything. So you burn through little product per seat and keep overspray off glass, screens and electronics.
• Foam that lifts the dirt out. On fabric the cleaner builds a foam that carries loosened dirt upward instead of pushing it deeper into the fibre. After 1 to 2 minutes you work it in with the brush and pull it back out, dirt and all, in one pass.

Detailing1's tip from the shop: The most common mistake is treating only the spot you can see. Clean fabric spot by spot and you're left with a lighter, cleaner island with a hard edge around it, because the rest of the surface still wears the old grey haze. Always do the whole connected part — the entire seat or the full panel — in one pass. And with the headliner: just mist it, don't soak it, or the glue underneath can let go and the fabric ends up wrinkled.

Spray on, work it in, do the whole surface, don't soak it

Spray the cleaner onto the surface, work it in with a brush or microfibre cloth, and always do the whole part so you don't get light edges.

On smooth plastic, spray on and wipe off with a slightly damp microfibre cloth — that's it. On fabric and carpet you spray the cleaner on, work it in with a soft brush and pull the foam back off with a clean cloth. The key is to keep the surface damp, not soaked, especially on upholstery, because excess moisture takes ages to dry and can go musty. You'll find matching brushes and microfibre cloths in Accessories.

For an even result, a fixed routine helps. Lay 2 to 3 pulls onto one section of upholstery, let the foam work for 1 to 2 minutes, then pull it off before it dries on. On badly soiled seats, go over it a second time rather than flooding it on the first pass. For a full interior with 5 seats, door cards and carpet, set aside about 20 to 30 minutes.

The headliner is the trickiest surface in the car. It's only lightly glued, and too much liquid softens the adhesive so the fabric ripples. Here you don't spray straight onto the headliner — spray the cloth instead and work gently in one direction, no scrubbing. Afterwards, leave the cabin to air out properly with the doors open.

A few spots need extra attention. The air vents, the gaps between seat and centre console and the seatbelt webbing collect dust and grime that a cloth alone won't reach. A small detailing brush helps here, working the sprayed-on cleaner into the cracks. Rubber and floor mats are best taken right out of the car: spray them, let the foam work for 2 to 3 minutes, scrub them with the brush, then rinse and air-dry. The seatbelts in particular are best pulled all the way out and cleaned along their full length, because months of hand grime settle in there.

For plastic and fabric, not as leather care

The AutoInnenReiniger is a cleaner for plastic and fabric, not a care product for leather and no substitute for a proper leather clean followed by re-conditioning.

You can use it on leather for a rough clean, but it lacks the re-fatting care that keeps leather supple. If you want to keep leather seats clean and looked after, you're better off with a dedicated leather cleaner and a leather conditioner afterwards. Sensitive surfaces like Alcantara, real-wood trim or coated touchscreens — test them on a hidden spot first instead of going straight in over a large area.

Sorting it by the job helps here too. If you want to clean plastic and fabric across the whole interior, the AutoInnenReiniger is the right call. If it's leather care you're after, a dedicated leather line belongs in the car. And if the dashboard just needs freshening up and matting down with no real dirt, a conditioning cockpit dressing is the better fit. Three jobs, three products — and the AutoInnenReiniger is the cleaning all-rounder of the bunch.

A few limits remain. Deeply dried-in old stains, ballpoint pen or soaked-in grease won't always come out 100 percent — that takes patience and often 2 to 3 passes. And the bottle wants to be stored frost-free so the surfactants stay stable.

Unlike a lot of shine sprays, this cleaner deliberately leaves no care film behind. Inside the car that's an advantage, because a glossy layer on the dash reflects in the windscreen in the sun and pulls in extra dust on top. If you want the satin-matt plastic look with a bit of protection, follow the clean with a separate cockpit dressing that doesn't clean but conditions and mattes. That keeps cleaning and care as two separate steps — and that's exactly what keeps the interior cleaner over time.

For the regular full interior clean

The AutoInnenReiniger pays off for anyone who cleans their whole interior regularly and doesn't want to cart 3 different products around in the boot to do it.

With kids, a dog or a lot of miles, crumbs, dust film and grip marks build up faster than you'd like, and an all-purpose cleaner takes the hassle out of interior care. It's less suited to anyone whose main thing is conditioning leather seats or looking for a protective seal on the plastic — those are different product categories. You'll find more cleaners for the interior in Interior cleaners.

Day to day, a thorough full clean every 4 to 6 weeks is plenty; in between, a quick wipe of the dashboard and touch points does the job. With the 500 ml spray bottle, 2 to 3 microfibre cloths and an upholstery brush you've got both routines covered, and you only use a few millilitres of product per clean. At normal soiling, one bottle stretches across several full interiors.

A proven routine for the whole interior: start at the top and work down. Headliner and pillars first, then dashboard, door cards and centre console, then the seats, and the carpet and floor mats dead last. That way loosened dirt falls down onto surfaces you're going to clean anyway, and you don't do any spot twice. For a normally dirty interior this order takes about 30 to 40 minutes; on a car that's been neglected for ages, reckon on double.

The trick the bottle won't tell you: always work fabric with the brush both across and along the grain, not just one way. That lifts the flattened pile back up, and afterwards the upholstery doesn't just look cleaner but more even and fuller than any spot-by-spot spraying will ever manage.

Using SONAX Car Interior Cleaner

Clean area by area without soaking

Spray the cleaner onto the surface to be cleaned. For smooth plastics such as the cockpit and door panels, wipe them down afterwards with a slightly damp microfiber cloth. For textiles and carpets, work the product in with a soft brush and wipe away the resulting foam and dirt with a clean cloth.

Always treat the entire interconnected component in one pass—the complete seat or the entire panel—to ensure no lighter-colored edges remain. For stubborn spots, it is better to apply two thin coats rather than soaking the fibers once.

Do not spray the headliner directly; instead, apply the cleaner to the cloth and work carefully in one direction to prevent the adhesive from loosening.

Notes: Test sensitive surfaces such as Alcantara, real wood, or touch displays in an inconspicuous area first. Ventilate the interior well after cleaning, ideally with the doors open, so that no residual moisture causes odors. Protect from frost.