Nasty Stain on Leather Seats

[bad company]

Can anybody help.

I have 2 horrible stains on the Oyster Leather on my 3 month old 3 series. They are 2 horizontal lines as if they came from the bottom of a box or something but really don't know where they came from. I tried general car leather cleaner and again with 'Squeezy' but the stains are not lifting.

Any ideas?

[bad company]

gizlaroc said:

Engine cleaner mixed 5:1 and a decent nail brush.
Or some all purpose cleaner from the supermarket, something like Daisy, mix it down 3:1 and again scrub with a brush.

Blimey, that sounds aggressive !

[bad company]

Update. I took the car to an upholstry trimmer yesterday. He tried everything short of a solvent (which would damage the leather) but nothing worked.

Looks like I need to get the leather dyed back to the original colour. The trimmer reckons half a days work @ c£140 though he reckons some specialists have technology to match the colour quicker and cheaper.

So I need to find one. Has anybody used these guys - http://www.cylex-uk.co.uk/reviews/viewcompanywebsi...

[bad company]

Thanks for the help/advice. I will try furniture clinic and will send for an online quote later today.

Not going to attempt it myself tho.

[bad company]

gizlaroc said:

Take a pic of the stain mate, and I will give an honest opinion of you need.

Here is the stain which is 2 lines running across the seat. As I said my local car trimmer tried the usual solutions which did not lift it at all. He said he could repair by dying the stain but that would be at least a days work and the seat would not be useable for few days after.

[bad company]

Thanks Guy. I will speak with them.

[bad company]

Well it turns out that Furnitureclinic don't have a local operation and I don't fancy doing the job myself so I have booked Mark at Trim Tech as recommended here:-

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=107...

I will report back when the job is done.

[bad company]

shep1001 said:

Have you tried one of those flash/JML 'magic' sponges? They clean anything off leather. I take my 5 series on st works & quarries everyday, never failed to clean whatever crap I get on those beige leather seats that looked great in the showroom but were hugely inappropriate for the job I do and the general disregard I show for the car.

I thought about it but the sponges look a bit of an aggressive solution to me.

I do not disregard my car.

[bad company]

Mark has quoted £100 for the job, I am comfortable with that.

[bad company]

berlintaxi said:

Mark will now go and buy a magic sponge and spend 5 minutes doing the job.

No he will dye the leather back to the original colour. Otherwise I may as well have used a solvent.

[bad company]

Job done using DYE. Looks as good as new.

[bad company]

RC1 said:

Did he dye over the stain or remove stain first?

Don't know but there is no sign of the stain now or any damage/wear.

[bad company]

markda said:

It's likely to be your belt marking the seat, I used to have the same problem with my old E90 330d with Lemon Dakota Leather. I'd go careful cleaning it, I had a go with a few high end leather cleaners and made it worse. My dealer replaced under warranty, but the wear returned in a relatively short period of time.

Thought I would bump this thread as a year later I now have the same problem again but this time on the other front seat.

As you say the cause is almost certainly my belt but surely there must be some fault or weakness with the seats for this to happen again?

[bad company]

REALIST123 said:

As you say it's likely your belt. Must you wear it? Maybe get black upholstery next time?

Err, if I don't wear a belt my trousers may fall down when I get out.

I just don't like black interiors. I have had beige / coral red and even white leather seats in the past with no problems. I can go back 25 years to my last company car when I last had black seats. The 20 + cars I have had since have all had lighter coloured leather with no problems.

The repair is only £100 but bloody annoying.