What's happening to my Ultra White Seats? Tesla won't fix!

[wallstguy]

So I've taken extreme care with my car in general, barely let anyone sit in it to begin with, and when they do, I make sure they're careful with everything.

Basically even after babying the car my white seats, the driver seat is taking most of the beating with the sides completely discolouring and wrinkling, arm rest discolouring, and the seat back discolouring. Even when cleaning used Sonax Leather foam recommended by my SC at the time of delivery.

Then I'm seeing my rear seats and they have random white dots on the seat backs.

Based on everyone else's experience with the white seats, I figured there must have been a defective batch, but Tesla says they've escalated it to engineering who rejected the replacement of the seats.

Any comments/opinions?

 

[azred]

White seats will always become gray seats and some wrinkling is also to be expected.

 

[wallstguy]

White seats will always become gray seats and some wrinkling is also to be expected.

The car is only 1 year old....

 

[Tslrsx]

You need a different cleaning method. Try something with alcohol, also babywapes work really Well with my car. Got even worse bleu coloring after a year without cleaning anything and they look almost as new now.

 

[mattack4000]

That cleans up with the right product, I would not use alcohol

 

[Ludalicious]

You are cleaning Them wrong. Use a damp clean towel with warm water only. Had this issue with my light brown seats. it came right off.

 

[Ludalicious]

 

[Anzir]

I would try some hydrogen peroxide on a Q-tip for the stitching.

 

[swgdan]

I would do what the manual says....

 

[xyeahtony]

Technically these seats aren't leather. Try baby-wipes that seemed to work for this guy.

 

[rainforest]

My manual says isopropyl alcohol.

 

[jgrgnt]

As @rainforest mentioned, isopropyl alcohol works very well and is, indeed, the Tesla recommended method for more stubborn debris.

 

[PrGrPa]

Wrinkles are part of the leather and PU-leather experience. I thought that ‘worn-in’ look was something that drew people to leather seats.

As for ‘grey’. Like folks say, dirt collects on the surface layer of all seats. It’s just on the lighter colours that it’s more visible. For the ultra-white PU-leather at least there are effective cleaning choices. White leather I suspect would be a different story.

 

[Peteski]

I'm wondering how you have managed to get the stitching to discolour so much on the armrests? Also no idea what's going on with those "dots" on the seat backs. The wrinkling on the bolsters looks pretty normal and that's exactly what natural leather seats do too - often more so. My car is only 7 months and 8k miles old, but the seats still look like new. Only issue I've had with the ultra-white seats is dye transfer from a child seat protector, which was a bit of a disaster, but that's another story!

 

[MelaniainLA]

I'm wondering how you have managed to get the stitching to discolour so much on the armrests? Also no idea what's going on with those "dots" on the seat backs. The wrinkling on the bolsters looks pretty normal and that's exactly what natural leather seats do too - often more so. My car is only 7 months and 8k miles old, but the seats still look like new. Only issue I've had with the ultra-white seats is dye transfer from a child seat protector, which was a bit of a disaster, but that's another story!

Which seat protector did you have? Manage to get the dye off finally?!

We have a Clek Mat Tgingy and now too afraid to check.

 

[Padelford]

I use Lexol leather cleaner on my white seats when they get dirty. Follow the directions on the bottle.

You can also try Mr Clean Magic Eraser pads (melamine sponges), but soak them in water first.

The wrinkling is normal. Of course Tesla isn’t going to replace the seats for that.

 

[Birdman325]

Has anyone tried a magic eraser?

 

[Big John]

I'm a slob. My 8-12 age grandkids (6) are worse. After taking them home (3+ hour drive), there was blue ball point ink all over the seats. Chocolate candy and icing and some colored disgusting sugar drink. I really was naive when I said--be careful--thinking that was all I needed to say. It has been a year of this kind of treatment and I can say that the super white seats look pristine. Never had seats clean this well. Car wash guys alway ask me if the car us brand new. So I guess I just got a "good batch". Very thankful and totally impressed. But still I'm trying to be more careful--no point in pushing it.

 

[MelaniainLA]

I'm a slob. My 8-12 age grandkids (6) are worse. After taking them home (3+ hour drive), there was blue ball point ink all over the seats. Chocolate candy and icing and some colored disgusting sugar drink. I really was naive when I said--be careful--thinking that was all I needed to say. It has been a year of this kind of treatment and I can say that the super white seats look pristine. Never had seats clean this well. Car wash guys alway ask me if the car us brand new. So I guess I just got a "good batch". Very thankful and totally impressed. But still I'm trying to be more careful--no point in pushing it.

Nice. What do u use to clean?

 

[Big John]

Ink--Hairspray--can you believe it? and some kind of green power stuff when soap and water did not work. All well except for the large holes that are now appearing in the fabric.