This study proposes a novel degradable soft abrasive for abrasive water jet cleaning technology and analyzes and compares the cleaning performance and surface damage patterns of remanufactured components treated with the abrasive water jet of varying hardness. Furthermore， the study conducts comparative experiments on the cleaning of component dirt using three different jet methods： garnet hard abrasive water jet， walnut shell soft abrasive water jet， and pure water jet. The study analyzes the differences in cleaning rate， specific energy consumption， surface roughness after cleaning， and maximum pit depth among different cleaning methods， and investigates the matrix damage under different cleaning modes from both macro and micro perspectives. The results show that the walnut shell soft abrasive demonstrates superior cleaning efficacy， reduced specific energy consumption， improved cleaning speed， and negligible substrate surface damage. Consequently， the walnut shell soft abrasive is regarded as an ideal cleaning choice in remanufacturing industries or for applications that demand high surface roughness standards.