Leather Deterioration

Well you all may recall the trouble I was having with my leather sports adaptive seats last fall. As suggested by you folks I did take pictures then before I parked the car for the winter, and then dusted it off last weekend to have it taken in for servicing. I broached the subject with the service department and their answer was simply NO, looks like something scraped the seat and it would not be covered. 2 problems with this analyis 1. A breakdown on the drivers seat has now started in the same location 2. The breakdown on the passengers seat is even more pronounced now than it was when I parked the car in the winter. I talked to my sales rep and expressed how disappointed I was. This was a $3500 option and you would expect the leather to stand up much better after 4 months and 10,000 miles. He told me to take some more pictures and he would see what he could do. so the saga continues any suggestions, has anyone out there with the leather sports adaptive seats had a similar wear pattern. It appears to be along the side bolster where the seatbelt comes across it that may be causing the problem. My suggestion was that the air bags inside those portions of the seat may be stressing the leather too much when they are fully inflated thereby causing them to breakdown sooner than would be expected.

Can you share some pictures with us please?

I did last fall on a string on the site but I cant seem to find it, i will take some more photos this evening and get them to you

please post them on the forum!

I remember that problem. I have those same seats and that same wear on the driver's back side bolster. My salesman said that it is covered. That I should wait until much later in the warranty process. And then they would liklely try to dye it. If that didn't work, they would probably just replace the seat.

here are the pics the first is the one I posted last october, the second is the condition of that seat now, despite the fact the car was sitting in my garage since last october and only came out of storage last week, the condition is obviously getting significantly worse, the final is a picture of my drivers seat, although the condition is much better it is starting to show a similar wear pattern and although not visible from the picture a small segment is in fact breaking down like the other side, I hope this posting works.

Did you condition the seats before storage? I've found every three months is needed on my full leather to keep it in like new condition. The wear on the passenger side looks a lot like entry by someone wearing jeans with rivits so I can see why the service department might have a question. I'd press the issue with them and insist no damage from you are your passenger is causing this.

Yes I only had the car 5 months and had cleaned and conditioned the seats with leatherique. not sure how rivets from jeans would scrape the side bolster?

This happened on my buddy's VW and they replaced all the leather under warranty; sucks if Porsche service is worse than VW (imo VW is one of the worst companies right now for customer service)

How can I put this PC, if your passenger slides in butt first and is not careful or has an ample rear then it is easy to scrape the side bolster. The lack of being careful is the usual cause. Not that this is what you have. Continued documentation with photos and trips to the dealer will help build your case.

I have a similar wear pattern, except worse, on my A.S.S.'s. I figured it was because I am a rather, uh, large person, and I scrape the seat bolster everytime I get in and out. Now I am thinking that it's a design flaw.

If you scrape you lose...leather that is. The narrow sports seats don't help. I do find keeping the seats conditioned and being very careful helps but even my saddles for my horses get marks if you aren't very careful (so I have dress saddles and work saddles). That is one of the things about leather.

Use glycerin soap for horse saddle leather to condition it. That might help.

those scratches look exactly like the ones on my m3 seats... the softer the leather, the worse it is. that's why i got the standard seats on this car.

I had the wear issue on an earlier 911 and the good news was that it was not to hard for a good leather shop to repair. If you have access to one you might ask for advice before going back to Porsche. That gives you some more ammo with the dealer. Good luck and don't forget to lest us know the out come.

I also have the same issue on my 2006 with only two months of usage on the upgraded black and gray interior option for a cost of $2500. From my evaluation the only cause is related to driver and passenger egress. It has nothing to do with seatbelts etc. Having been the owner of several cars which exhibited the same problem and the general manager of two furniture companies who dealt in leather coverings but not the person who selected materials the following is my opinion/understanding. It has everything to do with the leather specified. The bolsters leather on my 1993 Lexus GS 300 which was leased also had the some problem ( I didn't care because it was leased). In addition to my CS I also own a 2001 Corvette and a 2006 ML350. The Corvette in around 2004 exhibited the a breakdown in the bolster area- not a leather finish problem but rather a breakdown in the stitching in the bolster area. I under warranty got the seat back leather replaced and it has held up well since. GM dealt with the problem will Porsche? I feel the problem with our CS's will not be solved by anything other than a new spec (leather finish that better handles abrasion). In my opinion all sports cars require us to slide into the seat and Porsche understands that they need to fix our problem and remedy those of us who own this poorly spec'd leather. I've not talked to my dealer and wasn't even aware of the problem until your post-who expects that kind of problem in 2000 miles and 6 weeks?

I wonder if the choice of leather has any impact? My Cocoa seems very sturdy but the Natural Brown that I looked at recently seemed more pliable. It could also be the choice of seat. I have no wear with the standard power seats which are easier to get into and out of than the sport seats. What are yours? And it could be owner frame size related as well? Others?

First is the ownership of Cayman's restricted to the size of the owners? If so tell us when we buy our cars. It is entirely possible that the finish on your leather has a different spec than mine or that you enter and leave your seat differently than me or the others with the problem. All sports cars require a slidng entry. Regardless I've owned many sports cars (austin healy, 300zx, many corvettes and many luxury cars) and not had this problem other than those mentioned in my previous note. I don't think blaming owners for a spec problem (failure) related to our size or suggesting we ordered the wrong seat is the issue. Owners should be able to order anything on the opotion list and expect superior performance. My CS cost $79,000 (list) - no excuses for that price.

Hey not blaming the owner but trying to figure out the issue. Some of us don't have the wear and some do. What could it be? I would say that if you choose to order the narrow sports seats than you have decided to accept a more difficult entry. Porsche cannot tell if that works for you or not. I had the same problem on an early 911 but on my other seven Porsches I have not. So I sure don't know the answer.

I don't think much discussion will allow us to better understand the solution to the problem. Porsche doesn't design cars for me or a select few but for a general population. The materials and specs are expected to be appropriate for that population, Certainly better understanding of how many faulures and the type of failures will help us understand our problem-very important. We can only explain our own experience as to the failure. I don't think the solution is for us to have ordered different seats or become smaller. That doesn't mean discussion isn't therapudic and helpful. The issue is a problem that some of us are experiencing in a very short usage period. Our size or the option we selected shouldn't be the the focal point from my perspective. I shared that I do know that leathers have many different properties ranging from color, suppleness to abrasion resistance etc. those of us that are experincing the problem probably don't think that driving the car for a few weeks or months should be the problem. My vote is my failure mode is an abrasion problem not my weight, the seats I ordered or my using the car. Abrasion resisitance is a function of spec assuming normal usage. I apologize for being so confrontational but I weary of the constant speculation over which we have little control and failure to deal with problems with which we are all concerned.

I'm interested in other's techniques for entry. Over the past 40 years of sports car ownership I've sort of developed a way to enter without damage to the leather (which is playing to the manufacturers I suppose). Anyway I try to drop my butt into the seat without sliding or touching the sides and then tuck the legs up and swing them into the cockpit (helps to have strong legs and stomach muscles). No damage yet, so it seems to work, although the older I get it is a little more difficult. Does anyone have a better "entry"?