Cream leather discolouration

[Guy XC70]

The cream leather on the driver's seat of my June 2014 XC70 is discoloured. The car is 21 months old with 30k on the clock, which is practically factory fresh for a Volvo.

Several areas of piping and the right hand bolster of the driver's seat are showing cracks and dark staining. My local dealer are looking at it for me next week, they have seen several recent cars with light leather that have similar problems, but at least some of these have been bounced by Volvo warranty as being due to obvious staining from denim. Mine is different: it's not blue, for a start!

I have owned it from new and used a proprietary leather cleaner (Auto Glym) whenever the surface of the seats looks even slightly grubby, I also wipe all leather surfaces over lightly with Auto Glym leather balm every couple of months. This has been my practice for years without incident. The steering wheel became shiny (as they often do) but a quick rub over with a Magic Sponge sorted that out and it looks like new - it's only the seat that's an issue.

I have never seen this kind of wear on a Volvo seat before. I had a P1 V70 with beige interior, the seats on that were in better condition at 150,000 miles and ten years, when it left me, than the current one. A bit shiny, but not a mark on them. Others have mainly been off black (which appears bulletproof and would not show the dirt anyway).

I have heard that this may be due to a change in the dyeing process, especially related to water-based dyes used on the leather. I don't know if that's right, as Volvo typically are early adopters of new fangled environmentally friendly processes, so I'd have expected them to shift years ago. Anyone know if this is the case?

Has anyone else seen similar issues, and has Volvo been helpful with them?

[Sasha94]

My car has the off black leather and it was very shiny when I got it. My procedure for cleaning leather is Gliptone Liquid Leather and a small brush. It works very very well and brings the lovely leather smell back. Following that it's a spritz of Gtechniq L1 leather guard which is a hydrophobic coating with no finish to it so it stays matt. Keeps wear and creases at bay.

I don't suggest for a minute your routine is inferior but if you are wanting to keep the leather matt, once your AG stock has run down I would look to invest in the Gliptone product, it is very good!

As for the staining that is poor show for such a new car, keep us posted on the progress

[Austin160]

I'm not sure if this is going to help or complicate. As I understand it most car manufacturer's leather seats have been "sealed" and as such do not require cleaning and feeding. In fact, it could be argued that using chemical cleaners can cause problems. It might be worth not mentioning what you have done (as you saw correct in line with a lot earlier experience?).
Having said that, I recently used Autogym leather cleaner and balm on a 2003 non Volvo car with very pleasing results - I've always used Autoglym polish so chose theirs for the leather. Would I use it on the same car on a regular basis?? Probably not.
Good luck with getting it sorted.

[Sasha94]

The Gliptone cleaner and GTechniq sealant I mentioned are both designed for semi aniline lacquered leather. This type of leather doesn't require feeding but regular cleaning is needed especially on lighter coloured upholstery. Sometimes cracks and picks in the leather can appear as a result of the coating failure or poor quality coating, though I haven't heard of this in regards to Volvo seats though it isn't unheard of within the VAG group. Also not all of the 'leather' on P3 cars is leather, they are only leather facing... my old P1 platform S40 was leather all over. The only real shortcoming I notice in the P3

[Ninja59]

Chances are the piping is down to the wear getting in and out.

As for the rest of the leather it could be down to the balm sadly as there is no way it can be absorbed, Volvo's official kit for leather does not even have a balm/feeding product, but a sealant product after the cleaning one.

Nearly every manufacturer now has switched to coated as it can take more wear, the main problem with this type of leather is when the coating breaks down the colour surface is exposed and is very weak.

The main reason the jean dye one will have been refused is because it is one of the worst items to come into contact with the leather surface and can break it down very quickly so needs attention within a short time frame.

As said above much better to use a sealant product instead of a balm/feeding after cleaning - the Gtechniq L1 product is good, but I also like the Dr Leather Dye Block and LTT leather protection (both of the cleaners from Dr Leather and LTT are very good as well).

You can just see the leather that I have done with the Dr Leather "twins" - Watch out though a number of places want £40 for the Dye Block (which Darryl the owner of Dr Leather used to sell only to a major OEM manufacturer), Polished Bliss when I purchased it had it at about £25.

[dme123]

The leather on modern Volvos is pretty nasty stuff unless you pay for the premium soft semi aniline leather (whatever name they're given it this month: soft leather/sovereign hide/inscription). I was quite amazed at how much like a Woolworths Shower Bag the leather in my Mk2 C70 is, and the various P3 cars with standard leather were just as bad. It's a particular shame as historically they used really very high quality leather indeed, the light coloured Sissal seats in my high mileage 2004 V70 is wearing beautifully and developing a proper patina. It seemed to be with the introduction of the P3 large cars and P1 small cars that they switched to a more BMW-esque quality leather.

What does surprise me is that you'd see wear/discolouration though. These modern leathers generally wear extremely well with almost no care at all. A lot of the time modern leather is not dyed so much as it is painted, once the protective lacquer is damaged or broken the colour comes away very easily to reveal the sad grey coloured material underneath. Perhaps you have over-cleaned it and damaged the protective surface? Old school leather creams like the Liquid Leather product were great for old Jaguars, I know this from experience, but I cannot see how the "feed" product could actually be absorbed by modern leather as the surface is sealed.