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 silicones on it. You need to deep clean the leather.

Do you have the lexol cleaner? If so, in the sun, spray it on a little heavy, then massage it into the leather with your hands. Let it sit till it's almost dry. Some areas will soak up more product then others. Then with a slightly damp microfiber towel, remove the access. It should be dirty. You may need to repeat this a couple of times. The leather should feel smooth & clean. Then let it totally dry, wipe any remaining product, let it dry, then condition it.

I use Leathermasters products & Leatherique
http://www.autogeek.net/leleca.html
http://www.leatherworldtech.com/

 

Thanks - seems like your always there to help!

I will try this after work and post the results.

 

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!

 

If the assessment doesn't work out to your benefit, what color leather do you have... I may be parting out my interior in a few months... it's the grey color.

Shawn

 

Dang....I have black interior.

Also after talking with Strong Audi here in Salt Lake I found out that the price of just the leather alone (not installed) is around $8200....yikes. I think I'm making some headway with the car wash. Its nice having two cousins that are lawyers!!

 

You can't steam clean leather. Water and leather are like enemies. Leather needs its natural oils to stay soft and not crack. That's like washing a leatherjacket in hot water. The carwash should pay for the damages and fire whoever is that stupid.