De-gunking seat rails
 

I’m having my seats re-done and while they’re out, I thought I’d de-gunk the rails.
Years of grease absorbing dust and crud have left them hard to slide.
They don’t come apart, so it’s hard (impossible) to scrub the surfaces on the insides.

What’s the best thing to clean them?

Once cleaned, should I re-grease them?

Engine degreaser?

Paint thinners...

And yes a light grease is a good idea.

Soak with a degreaser and hit 'em with a pressure washer.

I’m going to get beaten up for this I’m sure but this is what I did (YRMV) :

Take them out to a safe place with all your PPE on and spray them down with brake cleaner. After all the crud is out and they are dry, I hit them with spray lithium grease while rolling the rails forward and backward.

You could use wheel bearing grease but I feel like that would just trap more particles in and then it would become a cumbersome routine maintenance item.

I haven’t had an issue yet, and it’s been years.

-Steve

The spray grease works great.
You'd be surprised at what kind of crap we'd find in seat sliders. French fries, coins, cat hair, jewelry, etc. The worst was the residue from a spilled soft drink that would gum it up in no time.

If you keep that stuff out of your car and grease the sliders after you clean them, they'd probably work great forever.