I used full strength Murphys oil soap and it got all of the sticky stuff off, but it takes a little work. Its the only thing I found that worked.

 

I used full strength Murphys oil soap and it got all of the sticky stuff off, but it takes a little work. Its the only thing I found that worked.

 

I live in south Florida also and had this problem, only for the center console tray as its the black color and the rest of the center console is the plastic wood trim. It was really sticky and anything in the tray would stick and the black would rub off. I washed the tray and my hands were covered in the back goo stuff.

I tried rubbing alcohol like some have recommended and it worked great. Its nice and smooth and not sticky now.

 

I know this post is old but I wanted to include that I also have this phenomenon occurring in my car as well. I live in Pennsylvania, but near the Delaware/Lehigh rivers so it can get humid during the summer months. It seems like every plastic surface inside this thing is coated in a sticky substance though, not just the center console (though that's where it's the worst)...like a Post-It Note's sticking power, not very strong but strong enough. It captures hair/dust/crumbs, anything. It's even on the top of the dash board, on the steering column, everywhere.

I plan on doing a huge cleanup of the inside tomorrow along with some routine maintenance. I am going to try Simple Green to start with, because we get it by the gallon and have plenty of it, but if that doesn't "cure" the problem and it's more than just old soda and junk, I will have rubbing alcohol on hand.

I will post my results and what worked when I do it.

 

Good luck. Just to add, since I used rubbing alcohol round 7 months ago on the center console, its still just like new - no stickiness even after the humid Florida summer here.

 

Enne,
I had the same results as Sled14 - After looking up the cost of some of the expensive cleaners, I tried rubbing alcohol. It worked GREAT. That has been over a year ago and my console and steering wheel are still smooth as silk.
Good luck!

-thatowl

 

I cleaned all the hard interior surfaces with Simple Green, with no trouble at all...but that center console just does not want to get clean. I think it's actually the plastic and not anything sticky coating it...and when the Simple Green didn't work, the rubbing alcohol made it worse.

I put two wide strips of packing tape (gently) over the little hinged pop-up door that covers the cup holders as that's where it was the worst. I don't know what to do besides try to paint over it and see if that stops the stickiness, or rip one out of a junker. I'm going to a U-Pull-It this week to get a hood and some other stuff so I'll look. But chances are they have the same thing going on...lol

 

I posted this 3.5 years ago and the stickiness has still not returned. Those of you having no luck getting rid of that stickiness, pick you up some Sol-U-Mel. Tried and true.

 

What I was scrubbing off did have a tar-like consistency. I could try the Sol-U-Mel if I can find it...but everything else in the car came clean but that. I'm thinking it's not residue but the actual plastic and I don't want to continue ruining the plastic if that's what it really is. I think I'm just gonna tear out the console this weekend and try painting over it. If anything it's already got something for the paint to stick to! Dupli-Color has an interior spray paint that's made for vinyl and plastic so I assume that's what I should use to make sure it stays on.