A couple of weeks ago I bought a can of Turtle Wax OXY Interior1 fabric/vinyl cleaner and stain remover as I was picking up some other automotive supplies. I figured after 140,000 miles of my head brushing up against the liner and the general dirty condition of the liner, I had nothing to lose by trying it. It comes in a pressurized can and sprays out like shaving cream. It has a very stiff bristle brush head around the sprayer. I tried following the directions by spraying and using the brush, but the bristles were far too stiff for the velour liner and could not be used. I spread the foam in sections with my hands, and then took a microfibre towel and rubbed it in really well. While I'm not going to claim 100% of the stains came out, I will say it looks 90% cleaner and no obvious black dirt spots are visible. It suggests vacuuming after it dries, but it already looks clean as well as it seems to restore a bit of the color by taking so much dirt out. The towel picked up a lot of dirt and was quite dark as I cleaned the dirtiest parts of the headliner and A pillars.

It's definitely worth a try and a couple of bucks before you start thinking of replacing or spraying the headliner with a fabric dye.

 

Good one.
How did it get dirty? I thought Californians never put the top up.

Graham

 

Graham,
You're absolutely right! I have my top down at least 355 days per year. A lot of dust collects on the folds while it's riding around packed away behind the seats even though I always put the tonneau on. This cleaner is not magical, but does a very decent job of removing considerable stains.

 

Thew headliner in my A6 was almost spotless except for a couple of tiny greasy type marks ( god =knows how they got there, wasn't me )

Anyhow after doing a little research I found as follows....

Using a general All Purpose Cleaner I sprayed onto the towel NOT the headliner and dabbed away at the mark repeatedly, also using a little twisting action.

The reason for spraying the towel and NOT the headliner, is so as to not soak & ulitmately stain / loosen the fabric.

The technique worked well and the stain was removed

 

Having worked with textiles my whole life, here's a little upholstery room secret that is good for specific localized, individual spots:
Take a piece of masking tape, press it down and smooth it over the spot onto the fabric, and then peel it off. You may have to do this dozens (or more) of times, but often, spots will be removed. The combination of the physical removal of little bits of the stain by the stickiness of the tape plus the chemical solvent in the stickiness helps take away or improve the look of the spots.