Headrest material peeling off

[Mattopotamus]

This isn't the first time I have seen people have issues with the seats peeling. Often times sun screen is the culprit. Weekly I wipe down my seats with this:
https://www.amazon.com/CarGuys-Supe...1558098&sprefix=chemical+guys,aps,156&sr=8-18

Monthly I use this:
https://www.amazon.com/303-30313-CS...1&sr=1-1-25b07e09-600a-4f0d-816e-b06387f8bcf1

It definitely takes some elbow grease to rub in the Aero.

 

[Dolemite]

I work in product development. We design products for the way the world works - not the way it should work. Cars aren't something new to our culture. Sweating in your car seat, getting sunscreen on it, or simply sitting in it, aren't extraordinary use cases. If everyday stuff is causing extreme wear & tear, there's really only two explanations:

1. The product is defective
2. The product development team didn't do their jobs

 

[Noodles]

The Gyeon Leather Shield works perfectly on the Vegan Leather in Tesla's. I assure you. I drive with babies and kids that make big messes and a simple microfiber and Gyeon Leather Mild wipes it right off with this coating.

i thought that was the whole point of vinly seats? just a simple wipe down with water only does the trick.
Not too sure if this is a gimmick product or doesn't hurt to have kind of thing

 

[webbah]

i thought that was the whole point of vinly seats? just a simple wipe down with water only does the trick.
Not too sure if this is a gimmick product or doesn't hurt to have kind of thing

Go ahead and spread some ketchup, coke, kid and baby puke on your whites seats and then let it set in with a bit of sun for a bit. Then try to wipe off. ;-) Plenty of YouTube videos on people using this to prevent issues. And also some have had denim jeans transfer color to the white seats and were not pleased. Granted these seats are much better already than some previous ICE cards I've had especially for being white, but for $50 I pulled the trigger and have been happy I did.

 

[Hybrid_GHOST]

Go ahead and spread some ketchup, coke, kid and baby puke on your whites seats and then let it set in with a bit of sun for a bit. Then try to wipe off. ;-) Plenty of YouTube videos on people using this to prevent issues. And also some have had denim jeans transfer color to the white seats and were not pleased. Granted these seats are much better already than some previous ICE cards I've had especially for being white, but for $50 I pulled the trigger and have been happy I did.

The seated from what I was told come from the factory with a coating. But 50$ extra protection. Why not.. they’re gorgeous white seats I’m going to preserve them best as possible.

 

[webbah]

The seated from what I was told come from the factory with a coating. But 50$ extra protection. Why not.. they’re gorgeous white seats I’m going to preserve them best as possible.

Indeed, they do have "some" protection from the factory. However wasn't worth the risk for me as I am shuttling around a big dog, baby, and kids. One other thing we've noticed in the STOC (Swiss Tesla Owners Club) is in many cases the black seat belts transfer color to the white seats. Have a look under the rear seat belts towards the top and see if you see anything at all. If you don't make sure to coat that and let it dry for 30 minutes. I had to suspend the belts off the seat for application but it wasn't too challenging. No transfer on mine in 15 months.

 

[JohnSnowNW]

I work in product development. We design products for the way the world works - not the way it should work. Cars aren't something new to our culture. Sweating in your car seat, getting sunscreen on it, or simply sitting in it, aren't extraordinary use cases. If everyday stuff is causing extreme wear & tear, there's really only two explanations:

1. The product is defective
2. The product development team didn't do their jobs

The issue is that the cause is unknown. Here's another possible explanation:

It's an edge case

Certainly there are several examples of issues, that may or may not be related, but there are also 100's of thousands of vehicles out there without problems.

Just in case anyone is unaware, don't use OFF bug spray near any vehicle as the Product Development Team dropped the ball and it will stain/damage any plastic it comes into contact with. Also, bird poop and some insects will damage the paint on your car.

You're welcome.

 

[Dolemite]

Yeah - and that's exactly why OFF is a shitty product that isn't used in our household. I'll just devote the rest of my life learning how to levitate above my car seat, since my product-less vanilla white guy hair resting on the headrest is such an extreme edge case.

And since we're having a ball speculating - there are probably far more cars exhibiting the OP's problem than we know. It's easily missed by the average car owner - most people on here are fairly anal about their cars.

 

[M109Rider]

Yeah - and that's exactly why OFF is a shitty product that isn't used in our household. I'll just devote the rest of my life learning how to levitate above my car seat, since my product-less vanilla white guy hair resting on the headrest is such an extreme edge case.

And since we're having a ball speculating - there are probably far more cars exhibiting the OP's problem than we know. It's easily missed by the average car owner - most people on here are fairly anal about their cars.

So you’re saying your head restraint has had no contact with anything but your hair, and your hair has absolutely nothing in it.
Yet, your head restraint is peeling.

Your seats, made of the same stuff, has been in contact with your clothes, and has no peeling.

There is clearly something missing right ?

So what is different in your hair, that isn’t in your clothes. Must be something. ?
Maybe something you aren’t thinking of. ?

Until you know what is causing your head restraint to peel, you can’t say it isn’t anything you did to cause it.

Your saying you just sit in your car.
But your seats are fine.... Must be something on your head that isn’t on your clothes, or your seats would peel also right ?

 

[zhu-]

Please go do some research before you sprout your mouth. The material they use on the seats are not cheap. They are made by another company that specializes in automotive synthetic materials, rated to last longer than regular leather.

All premium vinyls like Mercedes' MB-Tex are made by specialized companies and last longer than leather but their entire purpose is cost cutting. Faux leather is the literal definition of a cheap alternative. It's the "vegan leather" marketing term that has gotten people to believe their plastic seats are somehow special when they are not in any way.

I use all kinds of pomades and other products in my hair and whether it's in Mercedes actual leather or Tesla's plastic seats the headrests all start looking like that after 1-2 years. A deep scrub can remove the majority of it though.

 

[Dolemite]

So you’re saying your head restraint has had no contact with anything but your hair, and your hair has absolutely nothing in it.
Yet, your head restraint is peeling.

Your seats, made of the same stuff, has been in contact with your clothes, and has no peeling.

There is clearly something missing right ?

So what is different in your hair, that isn’t in your clothes. Must be something. ?
Maybe something you aren’t thinking of. ?

Until you know what is causing your head restraint to peel, you can’t say it isn’t anything you did to cause it.

Your saying you just sit in your car.
But your seats are fine.... Must be something on your head that isn’t on your clothes, or your seats would peel also right ?

It’s probably the intense energy radiating from my immensely intelligent mind that’s searing the upholstery right off. If only I could find a way to wire the battery to my skull.

 

[GenralSpecific]

Folks, let’s all save some time and energy and clarify a point that’s caused some confusion... the seat material is polyurethane, as already noted. It is in fact Ultrafabrics Ultraleather 291-0001. The manufacturer’s cleaning instructions are located here:
https://intranet.ultrafabricsinc.com/img/pages/care_and_cleaning/CleaningInstructions.pdf
IPA is in fact listed as an acceptable cleaner here:
Cleaning and Care | ultrafabrics

I personally clean with Fantastik, which works well enough for my needs.

I hope this was useful.

 

[Shrekkie555]

To the OP. I had the same problem after the September heat wave in CA. Driver head rest bubbled, and passenger side showed a white patch.

After being turned down by one service center, I went to another one and they explained that their synthetic material is much more susceptible to everyday chemicals (think sunscreen, hair products, etc). I don’t use any hair product other than shampoo, and my sunscreen residue might have somehow rubbed off on the headrest - who knows. That combined with the heat wave and direct sun could have been the reason.

To the people that say this material is better than real leather, my experience is it isn’t. I have a 2005 RX and the leather is in great condition with none of this drama. Since buying that car used I have not applied any leather cleaners to it.

The employee apologized to me that they did not provide better documentation of how to take care and what to beware of with this hyper sensitive (and IMO inferior) material that they’ve managed to gimmick as “vegan leather”.

And there’s the truth.

 

[geometro]

To the OP. I had the same problem after the September heat wave in CA. Driver head rest bubbled, and passenger side showed a white patch.

After being turned down by one service center, I went to another one and they explained that their synthetic material is much more susceptible to everyday chemicals (think sunscreen, hair products, etc). I don’t use any hair product other than shampoo, and my sunscreen residue might have somehow rubbed off on the headrest - who knows. That combined with the heat wave and direct sun could have been the reason.

To the people that say this material is better than real leather, my experience is it isn’t. I have a 2005 RX and the leather is in great condition with none of this drama. Since buying that car used I have not applied any leather cleaners to it.

The employee apologized to me that they did not provide better documentation of how to take care and what to beware of with this hyper sensitive (and IMO inferior) material that they’ve managed to gimmick as “vegan leather”.

And there’s the truth.

Did they provide info to you on how to take care of it? If so, can you share?

 

[holmgang]

For everyone saying the seats are vinyl (PVC); they're not. They're polyurethane (PU).

Thems some big fancy words for...plastic.

TBF I've no problem with my (seats), of even the steering wheel, but real full-grain leather is always superior

 

[Shrekkie555]

Did they provide info to you on how to take care of it? If so, can you share?

Hi, The service representative felt bad for not being able to give me a specific recommendation on what to use to clean, because he/tesla dont want to be liable if it leads to future problems.

I will continue to use mild gentle soap/damp microfiber towel to wipe the seats down every other week while hand washing the car.

 

[clydeiii]

I was driving down the highway yesterday when I began to wonder why my head felt so sticky. I reach around and touch sticky too. My hands are covered in black, almost like shoe polish. After getting home, I wiped the surface clean of melty gunk but this is what my headrest looks like after cleaning it. I hadn't noticed this issue until just yesterday. What the hell?

If I bought the car new in 2018, is this covered under warranty? I don't use any hair products at all, other than shampoo.

 

[JohnSnowNW]

I was driving down the highway yesterday when I began to wonder why my head felt so sticky. I reach around and touch sticky too. My hands are covered in black, almost like shoe polish. After getting home, I wiped the surface clean of melty gunk but this is what my headrest looks like after cleaning it. I hadn't noticed this issue until just yesterday. What the hell?

If I bought the car new in 2018, is this covered under warranty? I don't use any hair products at all, other than shampoo.

View attachment 655756

What shampoo?

 

[TexasTezla]

Nothing but water and a MF cloth on my car for the seats. The white interior is absolutely spotless after 18 months and 12,000 miles. Flawless. My previous ICE car with very, very expensive full leather airconditioned seats had the leather showing visible signs of wear after 12 months, specifically stretching marks. On the Tesla they look as though they came out of the factory yesterday. Amazing seats.

 

[clydeiii]

What shampoo?

Buy 2-in-1 Anti-Dandruff Shampoo & Conditioner

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