Georges Rebeiz

Every time my wife rides in the car with me , she feels bad due to the very strong smell of the leather.

Having owned a 91 964 C4 ,I can remember a special smell of leather but I can say that my present 993's smell is really strong, I myself feel unconfortable sometimes...

Anyone has or is experiencing this problem??

It is worthwhille mentioning that I have never used anything to clean the leather or to soften it...

Blue S2

Is it really THAT strong? Have you tried an air freshener? My S2 has a strong leather smell, but once i bought my neoprane seat covers, it kind of diluted it a bit. Possibly any kind of seat covers might help, since those are probably the largest leather section in the car.

JonasInLA

My wife has the same complaint about my 993, though I think it's more of an oil smell than a leathery smell. I told her it's supposed to smell that way, but I've always wondered whether my cabin's odor is stronger than it should be.

I suppose I should stick my head in someone else's car and take a whiff...

j

Georges Rebeiz

It kind is a smell of inner cabin whose source is the leather....I tried an Airwick air freshner but it was not so efficient.

Then again to use seat covers on beautiful leather seats will destroy the whole inside of the car..

Greg D.

Well, if the industrial strength febreezes of this world (there are stonger ones, I forgot the names) do not work for you, a possibility would be to swap out your seats for cloth aftermarket ones, say sparco milanos for instance, install RS door panels, and presto, most of the leather is gone ;-) Unless you have it on the dash too...

Now, the Bozo solution ! when I got my car it REEKED of aftershave and that was worse than the leather. I even smelled like the car after a short drive too, not good... All those products did very little for me, but you know what did ? PIZZA! I left a warm pizza in the car 30 minutes by accident and after airing the car out, the other smell was gone as well! That and an aftertreatment of the pet odor absorbing powders... Hey, this is typical Bozo science OK ? But worth a shot ! ;-)

PS: just in case I leave it garaged with the windows cracked open, if not now ans then I get a whiff of the old smell.. Leather is skin, I guess it stores crap forever !!!

Randy M

I think i'd rather smell like aftershave than pizza....

Greg D.

that aftershave was designed for a 65 year old !

And in case you were not being facetious, the pizza smell went away overnight, but somehow it also took the aftershave with it. Right now it smells of nothing, the way I like it !

Ron

Just a suggestion, but maybe if you treated the leather with Leatherique it might help. It cleans the leather, is not oily and doesn't have any odor.

Georges Rebeiz

Greg

Do you think anyone would swop his leather seats for cloth ones!!
I like to keep my car stock and would rather keep it the way it is than change the interior...I'll figure it out someday.

By the way what was the pizza topping?..might me anchovies.>> He He!

Greg D.

I dunno Georges, i doubt anybody want s bone stock leather seats - unless they are sports seats. As for keeping cars bone stock, this has never netted me ANY extra money. The 993 is not a museum piece and a nice sport seats might actually enhance the driving experience and resale value !

If you were to put nice aftermarket seats, say Recaros (reuter-carrozzerie, owned by porsche, eh) or Sparcos, you'd have less butt temperature variation than leather (esp. in Lebanon where you might fry your *** on a leatehr seat on a sunny day), better lateral grip when cornering, less back pain after long drives, and you get to evacuate the smelly seats ! Nothing prevents you from reinstalling them when you sell the car (still looking new), it takes 30 minutes tops - 4 bolts per seat! That and having the seats out of the enclosed car will let them "air out" more. Now your garage will smell but your car won't ;-)

I suggest that if you have a garage you just leave your windows down for a month ! That might be enough !

jago

when i got my car , i did feel the interior smell was a bit stronger than to my liking. several good quality vacuumings, make sure you get the nooks and crannies, a dose or two of febreze on all carpeted areas, a good leather cleaning and conditioning (i used lexol) , on seats and leather -and vinyl- console items all helped quite a bit. i also suspected that all that glue under the rugs might contribute also.
keep car out of the sun and ventilated if you can.
good luck , j.

Franklin229

I say one good dinner at a Mexican restaurant and a long drive home does the trick.

Pete Lech

Can't say I have noticed this in my car, but perhaps the PO treated the leather with something that is casuing the smell. I understand that if you apply something like Hide Food, it will stick in the perforations and turn rancid. I bought some Griot's Garage Leather Treatment that smelled somewhat bad right in the bottle, so I didn't use it.

Try this: Liberally apply some leather cleaner to the seat, then use an industrial strength vacuum to try and suck out any material that may be stuck in the perforations in the seat back and bottom. Then recoat with a non-offensive smelling product, leave it on overnight, and wipe the next day. Personally I like Eagle One's Leather Conditioner (and their Leather Cleaner as well), as it goes on like suntan lotion. That may seal up the leather from any residual of the old problem.

User 4621

I've been pleased with Zaino leather cleaner and conditioner. It smells like a new leather shoe.

pzull

PeterS, strange Zaino leather cleaner on mine smells like old english leather, sort of like an old leather sofa you find at old school british clubs - at least the one I went to.

Anyway, a long time ago I bought a used car that belonged to a heavy smoker and the car reeked of it.....it was a good price. Tried all sorts of air fresheners which just added a layer of scent over the smoke smell. What worked was activated charcoal in a tray covered with gauze to prevent it feom spilling each time you pull some G's. Smell was gone in a few days.