left the window open...rain on leather

[dmaxben]

So I left the driver side window open last night. Of course it rained, the one time I leave the window open.

The leather on the front bolster part of the driver side seat is ruined...its rock hard now and looks like shit. Whats odd is its mostly only the front part of the seat, where your thighs hit...the part that slides forward on the driver side. It looks like it shrunk/deformed too. Awesome.

From what Ive read, its not so much the water, but its when the sun bakes the leather after its been soaked.

Is it ruined or is there any way to fix it??? Luckily the carpet didnt really get that wet for some reason, probably because I have the weathertech "floor liners". Just the seat got ruined.

The reason I posted this here was because I didnt know if the Recaros in the B6/B7 S4's were made out of a different leather than the A4 seats....?

Ive left the windows open on my truck and other vehicles with leather seats in the rain and never had this happen before. Is the leather on the B6/B7 Recaros something odd/special???

thanks
Ben

[Gmoney]

I would contact phil on the detailers forum aka phil@detailersdomain. If anybody can help it's that guy imo.

[crabpot]

Wow, so sorry to hear that. :(

[dmaxben]

Ill try to get some pictures up of it...it really looks nasty.

Im really surprised it got so ruined...like I said, ive left the windows down on quite a few other leather seated vehicles and never had it shrivel up/harden/deform like the leather on the Recaros...

Ill try a couple things and then if not, ill look into seeing if insurance will help me out at all...

[beemercer]

happened to me, ruined the seat area in both of the fronts (sunroof was one click open because I pulled the key before it slid fully closed). Ended up getting the covers reupholstered, but it was never right.

[steveo_01vwgolf]

Bee, if you don't mind me asking how much did it run you to get them reupholstered?

[B6JoeS4]

New covers from Audi are $500 a piece. By "a piece" I mean the bottom section is 500, top section is 500. There is no way to get the leather perfect again.

[beemercer]

Bee, if you don't mind me asking how much did it run you to get them reupholstered?

$500 total, labor and material, but I called in a favor

[dmaxben]

great!!!

Im just lucky I dont like sunroofs in general. Ive had the car close to a year and put 10,000 miles on it and I think ive opened the sunroof once (just to see if it worked). If I was a sunroof person, the sunroof would have been opened too and the seat probably would have been a TON worse than it is now.

Let me know if you still know of any $500 seat repairs around new england.

When you say it was "never right", was it one of those things where it was off 'just enough' that only you noticed and it was annoying....or was it off so much that any person looking at the car (without knowing the back story) would say "wtf is wrong with your seats"??

[dmaxben]

alright good. Thats about what I figured for parts $. Its actually just a small portion of the bottom/butt part thats wrecked. So Id be out $500 in parts.

Ive replaced the leather seat covers on the GM truck/SUV bucket seats before but Id have to imagine the Recaros are about 50x harder just due to the shape/design of them alone.

Probably not a chance in hell of this, but I wonder if I could find a used cover...Id rather have it match the "less than perfect" 107k mile leather than look odd/out of place and brand new...especially since its only the butt part thats ruined...so Id have a 107k mile back rest part and a brandy-new butt part. :rolleyes:

Im trying to figure out if its worth filing an insurance claim, and if it would make my rates go up at all. My deductable is $500...hmm

[ECS Tuning-Audi]

I would think adding some sort of oil or leather conditioner might help revive the seats a little. But as most have said I highly doubt you'll be able to get it to look like it did before.

Jason

[spokismB5S4]

I would think adding some sort of oil or leather conditioner might help revive the seats a little. But as most have said I highly doubt you'll be able to get it to look like it did before.

Jason

nah.. once its baked it ruined 100%. Happened to me and i had to buy new front seats.

[dmaxben]

nah.. once its baked it ruined 100%. Happened to me and i had to buy new front seats.

Buy new seats?? why?? You couldnt just get new covers for them?

Its not like B6/B7 S4 Recaros turn up on every corner for a couple hundred bucks, so im not just going to buy new seats.

[W1CK3D]

He has a B5, those seats aren't as expensive.

And yeah, I'd take them to a professional and have him look at them, chances are you'll need to buy new covers. I'm considering getting my drivers seat recovered because it's starting to show its age a bit-

[newaudiguy]

Any pictures of the damage?

[dmaxben]

He has a B5, those seats aren't as expensive.

And yeah, I'd take them to a professional and have him look at them, chances are you'll need to buy new covers. I'm considering getting my drivers seat recovered because it's starting to show its age a bit-

If you recover your drivers seat Id be happy to buy your used seat bottom cover!

Reason is, I dont want to recover the whole seat, because the seat back isnt wrecked (and I dont have 1000 bucks kicking around, 500 for the butt part/500 for the seat back)...but if I replace just the butt part, its going to look stupid because ill have a shiny brand new butt part but a 107k mile seat back part, as I said above..

Before I left the window down, my seats were just about perfect IMO. No cracks, clean, and they were that perfect amount of "worn-in-ness"...the leather had that nice broken-in look, but not cracked and ratty. Now it looks like shit. The butt part does on the driver side.

Ill get a picture of it tomorrow.

Ive been spraying it down/wiping it with leather conditioner a bunch, and it actually is softening up a little bit. Its obviously not ever going to go back to normal, but if it gets ~50% back to normal ill be happy enough where it wont be on my mind pissing me off every minute im driving in the car. Ill keep up with the leather conditioner and crap and see what happens. I mean, its not like its gonna make it any worse. :rolleyes:

Ben

[spokismB5S4]

Buy new seats?? why?? You couldnt just get new covers for them?

Its not like B6/B7 S4 Recaros turn up on every corner for a couple hundred bucks, so im not just going to buy new seats.

well i have a b5 s4 and i was able to get a full interior (door cards and all) for 450. im sure you can have them re covered.. Im just saying that to let you know that cleaning or conditioning product's wont do shit.

This is what i had to deal with..

[beemercer]

Let me know if you still know of any $500 seat repairs around new england.

When you say it was "never right", was it one of those things where it was off 'just enough' that only you noticed and it was annoying....or was it off so much that any person looking at the car (without knowing the back story) would say "wtf is wrong with your seats"??

The never right was mostly that the leather wasn't super tight like the factory covers. I think it was softer leather and stretched a bit more. I'm a nut about interiors and it bothered me but I think only other S4 drivers would notice, regular people wouldn't think anything of it.

The shop that did it is New England Trim in Shrewsbury MA right down the road from my house, my old high school shop teacher's son runs it.