Piston Slap: Faurecia's Liquid Gold?
(photo courtesy: chrysler.worldcarmodels.net)
My apologies if this comes off as a pimpatorial for Faurecia, but this question deserved to go unedited. – SM
Bryan writes:
My 300 Luxury Series has wood interior accents that shine like cabinetry with a little Liquid Gold. Worried that I might be harming them, I tried to determine the correct product for that wood. Little did I know that the wood is paper-thin and bonded to a substrate in a molding process that uses resin and compression. Faurecia SA is Chrysler’s interior supplier, and they make interiors for many other companies too ( see their Pinterest page).
They did the Citroen DS as well as the Chrysler 200 and 300. The wood forming process is called Ligneos, which applies thin wood veneers to a fiber-based substrate called Lignoflex. made by a company called Ligotock (now a subsidiary of Faurecia).
This link is pure interior eye candy. The variety of woods are stunning in this Google images result. A nice article on automotive interiors is here. I still haven’t found the safest way to make my Ligneos wood veneers shine.
But I’m fascinated how Faurecia makes some of the world’s most amazing interiors!
Sajeev answers:
Now that I know this company exists, I’m fascinated too!
That said, use whatever wood care product you wish. It’s still a veneer covered in urethane or another protective coating. If you mess it up (not likely) decent replacement parts are cheap and easy to procure on eBay, LKQ, model-specific forums and even Craigslist. Faurecia’s craftsmanship may be fantastic, but it’s still a mass-produced product for a mass-market vehicle.
I’d also recommend tinting the windows, using a reflective windshield shade and anything else you can do to protect the interior from the harmful rays of the sun.
Send your queries to sajeev@thetruthaboutcars.com. Spare no details and ask for a speedy resolution if you’re in a hurry…but be realistic, and use your make/model specific forums instead of TTAC for more timely advice.
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My 2015 Genesis has real solid wood trim, crafted in Italy. It has an open-pore non-glossy finish that I occasionally wipe with a damp cloth. My shiny interior trim is real aluminum, rather than plastic. To me, these things make a difference in perceived quality.
I don't like interior cleaning products, in general. I find they leave greasy films and sheens I don't want, and I'm very skeptical those films and sheens are actually protecting anything. I use very soft and damp (but not soaking wet, to avoid leaving moisture behind) cloths to clean most of the interior. For the leather, which wants to stay clean above all else, I'll use leather soap to clean, but then "rinse" with a couple applications of damp cloth to make sure the soap isn't left behind. Almost all car leather is urethane-coated, so trying to "condition" it doesn't accomplish much. This process has both my baby-mobile Forester and my seven-year-old Lexus looking on the inside like they just rolled off the showroom floor. Except, of course, for all the scratches on the Forester's ridiculously cheap glossy plastic trim bits. The only way to avoid scratching up Subaru plastic trim is to never get in the car.