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Leather damage with steamer - any ideas how to fix?
Hi all,
Maybe someone has had this experience. I was steam cleaning the seat of my 997 and in the areas around the perforations, somehow little symmetrical circles formed. I don't think this is heat damage, because the leather is not burnt, but this looks super strange and annoying. When I was steaming the seat, suddenly the leather hardened quite a bit. I am unsure why all of this happened, because I was moving the steamer around, I had a microfiber towel on the nozzle and etc. When I noticed it, I immediately stopped and then after wiping off the seat I applied the leatherique rejuvenator and left it overnight. The leather is soft, however, the little circles ramained.
Today I showed it to Porsche and they said that it's likely water damage. As a means to repair it, they suggested using a damp hot towel to make it wet again, but that did not convince me.
Any ideas what the cause is and whether something could be done?
what drove you to steam clean the leather at the first place?
Just the casual idea of trying to make problems for myself so that life is more interesting
In reality, the leather was sagging and before applying Leatherique, I wanted to steam clean it. I have used the steamer on other cars in the past with no issues.
I am not sure what happened, but I do have some similar experience. What I think happened is water... your leather expanded more in some places than others due to the steam. I am not sure how to fix this other than time.
Years ago on my 2000 Boxster S, I used the rage at the time Lexol conditioner. It stunk. I lathered it on, let soak, and wiped off. Well the next day, the leather had relaxed to the point there were kind of sags in the seats. The headrest leather should be smoooth and taught but it now has what looked like it was just too big for the seat. I was pissed off. It sort of corrected itself somewhat over the years but never looked as good as it did before I applied that stuff. Lexol worked too well.
What I learned from all of that, is to go very easy on our seats and leather interiors. For cleaning, I take a bit of soap such as car shampoo (no wax in it), dip the end of a hard sponge into a bowl of water with a tiny bit of soap, and then rub hard on my seat leather... then just dry with a towel. That cleans without using alot of water. Then I apply a basic leather conditioner like Mothers (there are many good ones out there) and wipe off very quickly... I don't want this stuff to soak in. I use conditioner to prevent cracking. Now is this the best procedure? I dunno... it works for me.... Lexol was evil.
Sorry about your issue... I think it was steam cleaning that did the .... yes I am choosing my words carefully... damage and maybe too liberal use of conditioner in the past. I suspect time will make it less as it drys out.
Peace
Bruce in Philly (now Atlanta)
Last edited by Bruce In Philly; 05-10-2024 at 11:41 AM.
Those circular impressions in the leather are there for good - We all fvck up at times so this was your turn.
In the future I suggest you use URAD leather cleaner/conditioner & color product for leather seats/dash/etc. - Stuff is amazing and I've been using it for years
Others I have recommended to also great results as well.
Comes in all different shades of colors.
In reality, the leather was sagging and before applying Leatherique, I wanted to steam clean it. I have used the steamer on other cars in the past with no issues.
The problem is that there are so many types of processed leather that what works well for one kind won't work for another. In my experience almost all car leather seats are highly corrected and polyurethane coated. So while they're "leather" the surface is actually technically more like vinyl, and now I just clean them like vinyl (damp microfiber cloth or maybe some APC). Leatherique is great stuff but it won't really soak in or do anything for a PU coated leather.
I'm no expert but it looks like maybe the heat caused the leather to detach from its backing? You can see how it still looks kind of glued down around the holes but the areas between them are puckered up. If that's just from the leather swelling from the heat, maybe just letting it sit a while and dry out fully / shrink would help. Beyond that, not much you can do I think, but again I'm no expert.
Unless the car has one of Porsches natural leather interiors, like natural brown, natural grey, and maybe cocoa, the leather is sealed so any topical leather treatment like Mothers, Meguiars, Lexol 3 in 1, etc will clean it, condition it a bit, and leave it looking nice. Only the natural leather versions will actually absorb whatever you put on the leather. I've never used steam or water in leather as it makes it hard, especially Porsche leather for some reason. I know Porsche 997 and Cayenne owners that have left.their sunroofs.opwn and it rained and had to replace the leather covers on their seats to remedy the situation from the hard leather that occured afterwards that nothing would resoften.
So on the sealed leathers, no, those products won't really soak in due to the polyurethane coating. I made this mistake myself or quite a while before I learned more about how the leather is made. You're better off just cleaning them like vinyl, because the oils and whatnot in the leather treatments won't don't anything, they just sit on the surface. So just wipe them down with APC, because you're basically cleaning plastic.
(honestly I've come to the conclusion that these sort of leather seats are unfortunately kind of a scam. Modern synthetic leathers are incredibly good, and if I'm going to sit on a synthetic surface I might as well get the durability of full synthetic without the cost of "leather". These aren't the crappy old vinyls of the 1980s)
If you've got a true natural leather (I don't, I've got the standard black leather, but sounds like Porsche has some natural options?) then something like Lexol or Leatherique would be useful to protect and condition them, and you do want those to soak in and restore the oils. I rather like Leatherique and have found it to be safe and effective on a wide variety of smooth leathers. I'd only pull my steamer out f I had a specific issue I was trying to fix (like staining) but steam should generally be safe on natural leather as long as you're careful. The issue here is that that ain't natural leather, so the heat from the steam likely damaged some of the materials involved: ether the polymer coating, or how the leather is attached to its backing. If OP is lucky it may shrink and pucker less over time but not much else to be done at this point, I think.
I have exact same issue on same seats. My upholstery shop, in attempting to remove indentation from a golf bag, decided to run steam over it but left with similar mess. Subscribing to see if there are others that have found a solution.
Well I'm at least glad for the warning from you guys, as otherwise using steam on the Porsche seats is something I might have tried in the future if I stained them or something
Well I'm at least glad for the warning from you guys, as otherwise using steam on the Porsche seats is something I might have tried in the future if I stained them or something
Right! I have a few small dents and I was thinking of using gentle heat. Think I'll let it be.
05-10-2024, 08:48 AM
Leather damage with steamer - any ideas how to fix?
