I'm thinking of ripping them out and throwing them into the washing machine but how do I do that?

 

When we owned our Forester, the driver seat heater went out do I tired fixing it two times in order to do that, the seat had to be pulled from the car, which is important to do properly because of the airbag wire harness. I'm not sure what the proper removal is, so if you pull the seat out, look that up.

The Forester seats used hog rings to hold the upholstery on, so I had to order runs and the tool to install them. Removal of the cover was pretty easy with regular needle nose pliers, it just took a little time. It was tricky to put new hog rings on and have everything look right.

 

How about using one of those spot upholstery cleaners? Should be easier than tearing the seats apart.