ewbuster

Iam not sure if anyone else seen this but, on my drivers seat the leather is getting cracked looking. It is on the left side of the seat where your leg hits when i get in and out of the car. Is it just my leg smashing the leather? Is this normal? If not will Acura replace it. Also i have a 2004 Silver non-Navi.

mark 3M bra man

I would say premature wear. It is hard to say without pics.

Ask Acura, the worst can happen, they will say NO. A lot depends on the dealer.

DeadLock

mine is like that too, you just need to condition the leather periodically, the creasing is coming from wear and tear, you crease it when you sit/get in and out. I do not think any dealer will replace a seat due to wear and tear.

WildBill448

I've got it pretty bad, and I have had my car since Dec 10th. I looked down one day and was pretty surprised that the seat bolsters were in the condition they were after only 2 months. This weekend I need to get to a car supply store and pick up some leather treatment. If you do a search on the main forum, there is a good thread on what to use....well here...

https://acurazine.com/forums/showthr...hlight=leather

or this one:

https://acurazine.com/forums/wash-wax-23/leather-care-tl-319370/

audi_to_TL

iTrader: (2)

I complained about it and they replaced both the drivers and passenger bottom seat covers under warranty. I have a 05 with about 13 thousand km on it (8000 miles) and I basically said this car is way too new to show this much wear on both seats. I am the only one who drives the car and most times I am the only one is the car. They agreed and replaced them without a hassle.

Lougheed Acura in BC

DeadLock

you are lucky, do you have pics of the wear? I have a 2004 with some wear on the drivers side, just creases........wanted to know maybe I should give it a shot.

DMZ

When I bitched to the dealer's service rep about butt prints, melting spots, and cracks, while also advising him about members of this forum who got their '04 front seats replaced with '05's, they cheerfully accomodated me. Of course it didn't hurt that my main bitch that day was over my 9th service dept. visit for roof rattles.
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SGT SLAUGHTER

I had my 04 in yesterday for a service, and I mentioned that I wasn't impressed with the seat leather. I told them that the seats look like they belong in a 100,000km car and mine only has 28,000km. When I went to pick up the car he said they had ordered drivers side leather. This is my first car with leather, I would of thought the wear was normal if not for this site, thats why I decided to give it a shot. Oh yeah, it was at Southview Acura, Edmonton, AB.

KatyTL

Can any of yall send pic.s of what the leather looks like when your dealership is offering to replace it. I dont know if mine is bad or not...

DeadLock

yea

and I also heard they dont replace the entire seat, just the skins are redone.

DMZ

They replaced my leather and cushions. Big job too because I was told it involved removal and reinstall of the seat's heaters and each motor controlling every seat adjustment. Mine was laid up almost a week.
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DeadLock

DMZ how long did it take

DMZ

Please try reading my post again


P.S. My bitching was to the dealer's Acura Regional service rep.

DeadLock

missed that, dam a week huh?

I am taking it in today, want to get the leather, headliner, and bump stops taken care of. Hope they can do it fast.

thanks

audi_to_TL

iTrader: (2)

Sorry it took so long but this is a pic of my drivers seat....only 13 thousand KM on the car. Seats looked like this the day i picked up the car.

I had both the bottom front seat covers replaced under warranty.

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e5...j/IMG_1005.jpg

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e5...j/IMG_1004.jpg

need4spd

That looks like my car did after 3 months of ownership back in 2004 And that is an 05 or later seat!

The black is worse than other colors

pvansh

That looks like mine too. How did you convince the dealer to replace them? The one dealer I took it to told me its normal wear for seats!

audi_to_TL

iTrader: (2)

well my seats...both of them looked like that from day 1....i said there is no way that a brand new car should have leather like that....and they had no reply to that....they then said we will set u up to come in and have them replaced.

fergiedsp

both of my front seats look a little worse than the ones in the pictures posted above. you are right, the black ones do look worse than the other colors. my car is at the dealer right now getting the leather replaced. i have an '04 and tried to get them to replace both front seats with '05's or later but they said all they could do was replace the leather on them.

they are also checking the bump stops and for the 5th time the rattles.

for a luxury car, there are sure a lot of problems, but at least the dealer i go to is pretty good about fixing things

fergiedsp

just got my car back and as i knew they would they only replaced the seat bottoms for the front seats. my problem is, is that it looks like they used a different leather meaning its not a smooth leather like the rest of the seats. when i told the service guy about it he said it was because they were new and that the color would eventually fade to match the rest of my seats and that the stiffness would go away.

I told him i knew that and didnt have a problem with that, it was the fact that the leather had a completely different texture, like the difference between the leather in the TSX compared to the TL.

the other problem is that it looks like its loosly attached and not tight. he told me that it only attaches one way and they follow the guidelines set by Acura.

I was told that when the DM came in next that I would get a call to bring my car in and show it to him.

any other suggestions on what i should do?

05TLTony

Sorry to get off topic, but what was the rattle you were experiencing from the bump stop? Is it the thumping sound over bumps? I've had the thumping on the rear right side ever since they replaced it.
Thanks

thoots

Howdy!

My first post here. Sorry, not a TL driver, but the falling-apart rattle-trap here is a 2004 Accord EX-L coupe, one of the TL's little brothers. Obviously, both cars are built very similarly, so I think I can relate to a bunch of stuff I've been reading here. I'm getting a whole lot more ideas from folks here than in any Honda forum, and I've been around the horn a couple of times, so I thought I'd drop in and see if I could return some favors and help out a bit....

Anyhow, I had some nasty wear on my seat bolster -- it might well have been due to a snowboarder coat I was wearing that had a "vent" zipper that was ripping over the bolster every time I got into the car, but the actual "vinyl" part or whatever it's made of on the outer edge of the bolster was getting ripped up very badly.

As others have mentioned here, my Honda dealer didn't bat an eyelash, and ordered up a new seat cover. They farmed the work out to a local upholstery shop. And, my experiences were similar to yours. But, here's my take on things:

I was about fit to be tied -- I have a BLACK interior, and the color of the new leather seat cover was GREY as GREY can be! But, before I said anything, I took it home and did the usual cleaning and conditioning that I would do on any new leather.

I used the Armour All "cleaning" wipes on the new leather, and I got tons and tons and tons and TONS of stuff off of that new leather! I probably used 10 wipes on the thing, though it rather immediately started turning black. Ultimately, it was the same old black as everything else in the car, no worries at all. So, I think the concept here is that the new leather has a HEAVY, THICK protective coating on it -- get in there and work to get all of that off, and then do your usual leather conditioning. That sure worked for me.

Also, the new leather very most definitely wasn't installed as tightly as the original leather -- it wasn't "bad" in any way, but you could tell that the fit just wasn't as tight as the original fit. But, actually, I quickly began to like it -- the slightly looser fit made the seat feel a bit more "overstuffed" or however you would describe a quality leather chair or recliner for your home. With a little bit more room to move, the leather just feels a bit plusher and more luxurious -- I'd almost consider going to the upholstery shop and have them uninstall and reinstall ALL of the car's leather, as I'm sure happy with it!

You might share my satisfaction in your situation, but I think it really sounds like the factory can build seats with a tighter leather fit than mere human beings can duplicate -- they probably have some kind of robot at the factory that yanks the leather tighter than any hometown upholstery shop could do. So, I sure have doubts that any replacement seat cover is going to get installed quite as tightly as the OEM seats. But, again, I think that's OK in the end -- in fact, I think that might help the leather wear better longer, as it's not stretched to the very nth of its life, and now has a bit of "give" to it as you sit in it and move around in it.

So, for whatever that might be worth -- I hope it helps!
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thoots

fergiedsp

no rattles with the bump stops, just getting them adjusted to fix the tire wear problem.

the rattles are all over inside my car, but it seems they fixed most of them now.

thoots - i will try cleaning them today. its not that they are a different color or feel stiffer, its that its a completely different leather. i have smooth leather with no texture throughout the car and now my front seat bottoms are textured. thanks for the reply though

txathlete

Damn dude, my 05 TL driver's seat looks just like that! I only have 16K miles on it. My dealer is stingy about replacing my seat. I took my car in a few weeks after I purchased it b/c the outer (cushion section close to the doors) back seat's leather was loose and was not tight. SM said it was natural like that even when I asked him to check the other TL's on the lot to see if they were in the same condition.

I think I am gonna try to take it in and see if they will replace the seats. But the dilema is, if they do replace the seat, will they replace like the original - meaning not loose, but tight?

audi_to_TL

iTrader: (2)

i will take pics of my new seats on sunday and post them for you....and they told me before the covers were replaced that they will not be as tight as from the factory. I have to admit they look much better even though they are slightly loose.

Also another point...I looked at a few seat covers and I ok'ed them prior to install. I saw some brand new ones that looked worse than mine. So make sure you look at the seat cover and stretch it out and look at it before they install it.

The dealer had to reorder the covers twice before i said ok to the ones that they installed.

dkla75

Try some leather lotion to keep it lasting a little longer. I've been using leather wipes and conditioner to avoid those cracks, but it seems that it happens due to constant wear and tear type of deal. Hope that works out for you. Good luck!

fergiedsp

txathlete - just to let you know about how the new ones are or not, they will not be as tight as the originals. i complained about that also and they told me that they installed them according to acura's standards and that there was nothing they could do about it. i have an appointment with the District Manager to talk to him about it and see if i can get them to replace all of the leather because now my front seat bottoms are a different texture of leather than the rest of my car.

arseny87

I have the same problem, and my car is a lease so i am hoping that they wont look at it when I return the car and call it abnormal wear and tear. I have only had the car for about 7 months now and I weight about 150lbs and the cracking on the left side of the driver seat is pretty bad. The fact is that the quality of the leather or even the stiffness of the styrofoam layer beneath the leather is terrible and its allowing the leather to stretch and thats what is creating those lines and cracks. I think that if you do talk to the district manager you should see if the 06 has the same problem. My If you get anywhere with that, then keep us posted so that we could take the same precautions -- thanks

Actuary

Mine looks a little better than the picture posted above. I just try to not to rub left bolster when I get in and out of the car. Then I noticed my rear right back started showing wear because my back is hitting them when I get in.

txathlete

Can you take the car to another dealer (one you did not buy from) and ask them to replace the leather...or should you go to the dealer you bought the car from?

I had asked the dealer I purchased from to fix the back seats and they said they tried to tighten the leather, but it looked the same. I wonder if they will give me the same BS to avoid having to replace the leather under warranty.

I'll post pics Monday or so to show what my seats look like. And I do use conditioner on my leather seats.

audi_to_TL

iTrader: (2)

I took it to the dealer I bought the car from....I take it to them for all the warranty work and regular servicing. They are a very good dealer...basically are open to any and all concerns I have about my car. They take very good care of me.

tjsahara

I have a 2005 TL with 13k miles and the leather is actually pitting on the driver side both low and high. I took it into the dealer and I explained, I owned a 2001 GMC Yukon with 70k miles with no issues with the leather. They agreed to replace it one time as a goodwill jester. The service manager recommended you condition the leather periodically. He gave me a Acura interior cleaning kit.

Wid-TL

Drivers leather seat in my '05 TL with 6k miles is showing creases - and also in my wife's '04 MDX with only 13k miles.

She says it's my fat ass, but I'd like to believe it's the quality of leather/support cushioning that Acura uses.

I had a Galant GTZ with 55k miles, and the leather wasn't as comfortable, but never had these issues.

Will mention to dealer at the next service for each vehicle, let's see what they say!

txathlete

Sorry it took a while, but here are picks of my seats:

Driver's Side Profile:


Another view of the driver's seat:



Front passenger seat:



Rear passenger seat (see how loose it looks):



Now are these legitimate concerns and worthy of being replaced or fixed? Or am I being too anal and OCD?

audi_to_TL

iTrader: (2)

Looked like mine until I had it replaced....I would do it for sure.

Andrew McCarthy

Yet no butt prints on the seat- interesting.

rrickh1

wow, i have an WDP with ebony interior, and i can see the start of this happening ... i only have 1000 miles on the car, and its not as bad as the pictures posted above, but damn .. is that what should i expect? it looks so CHEAP. My friend has a 2G TL, and the whole car looks like that, including the leather on the door, all the seats .. arm rest in the middle .. everything! ... it looks really bad .. i hope someone can tink of a way to permanatly fix this.

Previously i had a toyota camry and the leather was smoother after 5 years than my car is now only after 2 weeks! Only complain i haave with the car, but it sure is a big problem!

mikey4226

Does anyone have any pictures of the new leather seat bottoms AFTER replacement? I just called to make an appointment for this Thursday to fix the subwoofer rattle, take a look at the dashboard fading, and to take a look at the leather seats, but i'm worried about the "loose" fitting of the leather after they replace it and might just make more problems. b/c if it's not that much of an improvement then I may just not bother...thanks a lot for the help guys =)

I have an '05 AT btw..if it matters

mikey4226

well i just brought my car in and I'm pretty sure they're going to replace the drivers seat, passenger seat, and back seat leather...hopefully it turns out well and doesn't look "loose"

txathlete

In general are most Acura Service departments pretty good about replacing the cracked leather seats (like the pics posted above)? I'm a young guy so I wonder if the Service guys use my age as a me being anal and that my concerns are without merit.

I have brought in my concerns about the loose fit of the back passenger seats and the Service manager has told me that that was just how the leather sits on the seat cushion/frame.

Now I am noticing a sharp squeek when I brake. Not hot enough here to believe that the brakes are glazed (actually it's been kinda cold - low 60's).

Meh, I am just gonna have to take it in. I bought two cars from this dealership (including the TL), hopefully they treat me with respect.