Hey guys -

Hopefully someone has had experience in this and can point me in the right direction.

A couple days ago I took 2001 S4 to get washed and the guy talked me into conditioning the leather. I thought it seemed like a good idea since I hadn't done it for about a year. So I dropped the car off and grabbed some lunch when I got back the leather looked pretty good, so I drove home.

After the ride home, about 15 minutes, the leather looked like hell (it was still a little wet when I picked it up so it looked fairly good). It kinda hard to explain but it looked parched and dry. Any spot that had a little wear on it originally had been totally magnified. Not only that but imagine the way your livingroom carpet looks after beeing vacuumed, I have marks like that on a couple areas of my seats.

Over the past two days I've Lexol'd everything like crazy and its brought some of the color back, but instead of having its original black smooth glossy look, it looks more like it as a matte finish and the texture it slightly different.

Has anyone every heard of steaming leather to clean it? Any advice? is my leather toast?

I'll try and post some pics tommorow hopefully that will help...Sorry that was such a long post...hard to explain I guess. Thanks in advance!

Sounds like they used some really harsh product on your leather that has "eaten" it.

I would look up the detail company that helps us out in the detail section. Be sure to supply them with some pictures though.

Here ya go. http://www.audiforums.com/m_496419/tm.htm

Have you gone back to the place that messed it up?? It might help to know exactly what they did and what they used... That and bringing a baseball bat may make you feel better!

Well....the saga continues! I took my car to see thier leather guy, he said that he could try redying it but didn't know if it would help where the leather had "blistered". Then he took a heat gun and tried to even out some of the damaged leather, just then my cell rang so I stepped around the corner to answer it. The leather guy yells hey do you care if I try some spray I yelled back go for it, thinking that he meant some type of cleaner or conditioner. After I got off the call I went back to the car and he had redyed the bottom of the passenger seat!! I was speechless, and he says I just wanted you to see what it looked like so you can decide if you want me to do it to all the seats. Now half of one of my seats is quite a bit darker than the rest of the car. (I don't even know what to say about his logic)

So I take the car back to the car wash and even the Manager there was in awe that the guy dyed half of one of the seats. Long story short they are convinced that they can get the leather to look better by conditioning it and using silicon spray on it.

Side note: one of the employees said that lexol sucked and what they used is much better.

So I let them work on the back seat for half hour considering the leather was toast anyway. Two leather shops in town said that they could fix the coloration problem by redying it but the texture issue can only be fixed by fully recovering the seats to the tune of $4 to $5 grand for original Audi leather.

I think I'm going to have my cousin who is an attorney draw up some papers....This sucks

YES! Get some legal action going because that is complete bull!

Ok so here is whats happening, I do a full lexol'ing including the cleaner and the leather looks pretty good for about six hours then it starts looking like its 25 years old. It looks like they've aged my leather 20 years during that half hour under the steamer! Its like they parched it so bad it can't hold any moisture....is that possible?

I got bids from 2 places today both around $4700 to re-leather the entire car, we'll see what happens tomorrow when I hit them with this.

- Wish me luck!

I really dont think leather is supposed to be steamed.

Hope they dont try to fek with you about it. Maybe get a lawyer to draw up a letter regarding this situation before going to them.

I think I am making some headway with the car wash. Told them that I would get three bids by the end of the week and hopefully we can take car of the problem that easily, if not I told him I would persue legal options (kinda nice to have two cousins as attorneys...free law help) He gave me some bull about not having insurance for something like this and that the money would have to come out of his check. I told him that, although that would, it was his problem to deal with...not mine! He tried to talk me into other options like dying the leather, etc. I told him I wanted new skins PERIOD! - We'll see what happens!

Anyone know if the leather in my s4 has the topcoat that some cars due, or if it has unfinished or naked leather. From the damage that the steamer did it would make sense that my leather is unprotected (they said that they had used the steamer on leather before without a problem, must have all been topcoated leather)

Also they say if water beads up and isn't absorbed then the leather is protected, mine appears to soak in and not really bead up. Although I can't tell if its simply evaporating, but it appears to be unprotected leather??? Any help??

Thanks guys!

Well its not even leather its pleather/vinyl and I cant see it not being protected in some way over the last 6yrs its been on the road.

I dont want to sound like im attacking you but, what kind of crap shack did you bring your car too? Leather/vinyl interior is so common that I cant see this NOT happening to someone else. Maybe they got the BS from him and figured it was a lost cause.

Hey,

Umm... not sure I totally agree with you about the leather not being real leather. From what I've heard/read some VW's and some a4's have leatherette (fake leather) but my s4 should have 100% real leather, maybe I'm wrong - anyone????

Also here in Utah, Supersonic car wash is kind of the "gold standard" for car washes. They have like eight locations in the area all of which are very very nice and maintained, so I don't think "crap shack" really describes them.....just dumb asses, lol.

Thanks - jason

what product did he use. i usually use lexol and it works great for me. it is possible to steam clean leather jsut be careful if its worn out. ive cleaned some nasty leather with a steamer and while the jist of it looked great the ares that were cracked and worn seems to start to peel and were amliphied.

dam, that sucks i would take some action ASAP

I use bees wax same as the horsy people over here on the saddles ( a lot harder ) but worth the effort

buy used seats that are in good condition.... theres always people selling them on the forums even check ebay. thats way less expensive than 4-5k

damn!

i wish you luck man although im kind of excited to hear the next episode in the saga of the toasted leather

[sm=wtf.gif]get a gun[sm=shootshoot.gif]

in the future just go and get some leather care products from target and do it yourself.......i have used leather conditioner on every i own and never had ne problem....i don't trust ne one with my baby so i do all the detailing myself