I have a friend in Dallas with a new BMW 3 series convertible. The car has 4000 miles and is less than a year from the showroom floor. She left the top down and it sprinkled LIGHTLY in the car -- just a little damp. Now she has a yellow stain on the back seat that the dealership says is mold. Stain is very large, and very obvious on her grey leather interior.

Problem: I have had convertibles as daily drivers for 10 years, and all have been rained in at some point. The Merc 450 SL got completely soaked one day -- at least an inch of water in some places. I have NEVER had something like this happen. All of mine have had leather interior.

Question: Has anyone had this sort of thing happen? If so, what remedy is there other than the insurance company? Since I have never had this happen, is this unique to BMWs?

All help appreciated.

my first thought would be a stain from a leaf? or maybe some bird crap? I cant see mold growing that fast after a "sprinkle" Are you shure it didnt rain harder and she didnt know it? Or possibly someone threw somehting into the car that she forgot about that may have caused the stain? I dunno, theres too many variables that may be going on here. If it is indeed mold then what has teh dealer told her that needs to be done? And will her insurance cover it? Has she tried to clean it herself yet? Maybe some softscrub with bleach and then some leather conditioner to follow?......

Leaf? Dealership said it was mold. Dunno. They are saying it just needs to be re-dyed.

Ummm... If it IS mold, wouldn't you have to kill the spores to keep it from coming back?

I have a M3 convertible and mine has been rained on a few times. My grey leather has no stains so I'm not sure what happened.

Is the dealer in Dallas Moritz BMW? If so, they are crooks and not to be trusted in my opinion. I had a bad experience with them on one of my BMW's and found that they are completely lacking of morals and true customer service.

If your friend is unhappy with the dealer determination then request that you speak with the regional customer service people so they can inspect it. That should help.

If she is in Dallas, have her goto Classic BMW. A good friend of the family is the head service writer there. HE is really good to us and the people we send to him. PM me and I will give you his name and times he works.

Your box if full let me know when empty will send again.

DONE.

I had mold trash the seats in an '82 Vette.
The mold made the leather hard and brittle and weird looking. Never figured out exactly why it happened (other than it got rained in when losers stole the TTops out of it - I never made that connection but that may have started the chain of mold events). The car basically sat unused for 6 months and then when I went to start driving it again the mold was there. I ordered a set of seat covers from Ecklers and slapped them on myself in a few hours...

If her leather is NOT hard and weird feeling, then I'm guessing it is not mold. If it's not mold, redying the seat is a cheap proposition (a hundred bucks should do it).

I'd expect a seat cover to run no more than $350.

My SL has been rained in lightly for a few minutes, and there has been no weird mold issued with it...

Hard On - Thanks.

mcollinstn - What? No dissertation on the size and concentration of mold spores, and no design specs for a nuclear particle accelerator that will effeciently deal with them as well as making a damn good cup of cappuchino out of the irradiated spores???

I am so dissapointed in you.

Actually I would venture to say that 100 bucks for a dye job is correct but the $350 number is probably shy by 2/3 for a rear seat cover.