Long story short I was helping my brother move and he didn't do a very good job of packing anything. Dawn soap leaked on the driver side portion of my rear seat bench (black interior) and got under the leather and into the padding. Worst case scenario is a new padding which is $1200 but I can't imagine soap would cause damage.

Question is what do I do to solve this? It's all squishy and bubbly when pressure is out on. I tried an industrial strength shop vac and even pushed some out by hand and wiped it off. But I can't for the life of me get it all out nor do I see any way to do it. Will the squish go away? Or will Dawn never fade and stay this way forcing me to have it replaced? If so, my family is going to be pretty pissed when they're hit with a $1600 bill including labor...

Hmm... tough one. That perforations are making this worse probably. You could try something like the tornado enzyme gun... might ask a professional detailer?

I am going to be contacting a detail shop tomorrow. No one I've spoke with believes this to be of any concern because so long as it stays dry the soap should dry up into the foam.

The best news is that there can't possibly be any reason the foam is damaged due to soap. The bad news is my car, which has 23,000 miles on it and is officially paid off as of 2PM today, smells a bit like Dawn. Lol

Doesn't sound too serious at all. I could always be worse (buddy puke, or cat piss, or "unmentionable goo")

You could always pull the rear seat bottom and take the cover off. Probably just held on with hog-rings.

Then give the inside of the seat leather a good clean, clean and condition the outside, and wash down/dry the seat cushion.

Then reassemble and re-install.

I'll have to check that out. I am not sure how the leather is attached but I can't imagine it being too difficult. You're right though, it could be worse. At least my car smells like Dawn and not some nasty odor.

Sounds like OP's car is pretty damn clean with all that soap

Lmfao, it sure is! Maybe a bit too clean. I didn't think soap would ruin it but who knows now a days without confirmation.

That's still better then what happened to our tl she and leather. When we were moving we had a container of damprid desiccant to absorb moisture in closets and it spilled on the rear seat. We didn't know and a couple days later the leather became extremely dry and the cushion underneath was ruined. The seat is pretty much ruined on that patch. It still makes me mad. My wife drives the car and she is willing to leave it like it is, seeing it makes me want to have it replaced but I'm sure a new seat would be a steep cost.

Best of luck I'm sure dawn soap isn't so bad compared to what happened to our tl.

Ask Dawn. They know the chemical make-up of the soap and what help remove it.

I think I'm fine. It's been over a month and the smell has gone away and the seat doesn't seem to show any Ill effects.