Anyone else getting bad wear on the drivers side bolster closest to the door? I have burnt orange leather and its cracking badly on the bolster. I'll mention it next oil change, but I know I'll get the "normal wear" from Nissan. Its a 2003 with only 30,000km on it. The rest of the leather is showroom new...just that one spot. Wondering if I was the only one.

 

Do you condition it?

 

With leather you really need to clean and condition. I do this every six months or unless I spill something first. All my cars have leather in them and typically look new other than the normal creasing that will occur, but conditioning also helps to slow that process as well. I use Armor all Leather Conditioner, but have also used Meguiars. Both are good depending how strong a leather smell you want and residue afterwards.

 

A fellow Volvo owner...that's what I'm talking about!!!

Lexol makes great stuff too. My room mate has a BMW with the real leather interior and conditions it about once a month...at least. He's real picky about his interior. So far it's about the nicest condition daily driven leather interior I've seen. The bolsters will always show wear first, unless you can magically hover over your seats upon entry/exit

sean

 

I have cloth seats and the driver's side is slightly frayed right there. It's from your azz rubbing against it as you slide in the car. I'd assume your problem would be from wear and possibly not conditioning the leather as stated before.

 

Agreed. Mine is wearing from me getting in and out.

 

On the cloth seats, there's a TSB in place for premature wear on the side bolsters. I've got the same problem, and I've been going back and forth with my dealership about it for a week or two now. First, the service manager tried to tell me the TSB was for the insserts on the seats and not the side bolsters....so I went home, printed the tsb out, drove right back there and told him I wasn't leaving until I got an answer from him. They're supposedly "researching" the matter right now...will post up again when I have more details.

 

I wouldn't really call mine 'premature' as it is an 03 with 32k miles. I wonder if they'd change them out for me though? hmmmm

 

I've not experienced any cracking (since 1/03), and only completed my second leather cleaning and conditioning treatment the other week with Meguiar's. However, in the first 8 months or so (approx. 10k miles) I did notice accelerated leather wear on the driver's headrest, which shows up considerably on frost. I attributed it to aggravated wear since I have a military cut causing alot of friction on the headrest. I stay off it now.

 

It's funny how sometimes small things like that are the culprit to the demise of a nice interior!

 

I've posted this a few times, but I'll do it again. I don't want to bore you guys. I own a company that repairs automotive interiors. We service mostly new car dealers-used car departments and rental car companies etc. We also do quite a few new cars that come in with defects.We service 306 dealers in Central Jersey and Eastern Pa. So, I am the guy they call when you guys come in with these problems.

Lets address the cloth seats first. They are garbage. Totally non-durable and subject to fraying. Non-repairable. Needs to be replaced, but same thing will happen again. Usually, cloth is much more durable and forgiving than leather. But, not this garbage.

Leather: leather will wear, especially on the driver seat left (outside) bolster on the backrest and also but not as quickly on the lower outside bolster. The design of these seats as well as other cars, BMW's in particular causes you to wack the seat in the same spot every time you get in and out. Depending on how big you are and the type of clothing you wear determines how fast you will show wear in this area.

The way to slow down this problem is (as others have stated) to condition the leather. Any brand conditioner is better than none. You can do your whole interior in probably 10-15 minutes.If you are really lazy just do the outside of the driver seat bolsters. This will prolong the leather indefinitely. Also, if you plan on keeping your car for a long time it will keep the leather from drying out. If you have a roadster, always condition the entire seat especially the backs of the seats. The sun will really do a job on non-conditioned leather. If you need to clean your seats, use any soapy mixture with water or a leather cleaner. Use a green scuff pad, get these in the supermarket. Do not use any other color scuff pad you may see in a hardware store. These are very coarse and will take the finish off of the leather. The green pads are harmless and great for getting the dirt out of the grains in the leather. No need to use much pressure when doing this. Last but not least. NEVER EVER USE ANY ARMORALL OR SILICONE PRODUCTS on your leather. It does nothing but make stuff shiny and slippery. Over time silicone will cause the leather to breakdown from the inside because it cannot breathe.

Getting back to the original issue, yes your dealer if he is out to do the right thing should honor this wear under the warranty. We do these repairs every day on a warranty basis for the Honda, Acura, Volvo, Mercedes, GMC/Chevy (Yukons, Envoys etc), Nissan , Porsche etc. I am actually amazed that these guys cover these cars under the warranty. Some are 2 and 3 years old with fairly high miles. But, if they are still under warranty most of the dealers cover them. Like anything else, it is best to plead your case with an upbeat pleasant attitude rather than starting off confrontational. Good luck.

 

That's the exact situation I'm in...and now that I've caught the dealership lying about the TSB, I'll be damned if they think I'm gonna let them weasel out of honoring it.