Review: Wolfgang Cockpit Trim Sealant

StoleIt

StoleIt

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First post, but I've been reading on here quite a bit. Lot of information and experts!

The Wolfgang Cockpit Trim Sealant I was very excited to try as my new RS7 has contrast stitching on the seats, and I was looking for something that would seal them so the stitching wouldn't get ruined over time. I've read all the rave reviews on autogeek so I ordered a bottle immediately after I got the car.

Manufacturer claims: Wolfgang Cockpit Trim Sealant is non-greasy, non-oily and it dries fast after application. Perfect for all plastic, rubber, vinyl and leather surfaces.

When I got the bottle in I was very excited, however opening it caused me concern. The smell was horrific, so bad I almost discarded it immediately. Very very chemical like smell, not typically something I would put IN my car, maybe exterior, but inside products shouldn't be so harsh. However, I had read such glowing reviews I thought I'd press ahead and give it a test run on my back door. Unfortunately the smell changed the smell of my car, from new car to a chemical dump for about 24 hours with doing that one panel. I'm not trying to be harsh, but seriously it is some very nasty stuff, and when you have a new car you want to preserve that new car smell for as long as you can. Fortunately the smell faded away after 24 hours, but my new car smell officially went with it. When it applied it looked smooth, but it dried very splotchy and changed the color of my black leather from black to dark grey (see the photo 24 hours after application).

wolfgang_cockpit1.jpg


Area on the right side of the green line is the original black, everything left and above that had the wolfgang cockpit sealer applied to it, changing it from a black to dark grey.

I was told the blotchiness might be due to over applying, but support had no explanation for the color change. Also the smell is what it is, no changing that. Very disappointed with this product. I was able to clean most of the Wolfgang off the panel, but it's still slightly discolored and, the stink from the product killed my new car smell. It might be fine for lighter leathers, but I'd recommend staying away if you have a darker leather. Overall I give it two big thumbs down.
 
I've been attached to this product because it works so well, and much better than others in the same class. If you get to the bottom of this, let us know please.
 
WOW. Kind of scary on a new car!! Really shocked since it's a WG product. The color change would have freaked me out!
 
expdetailing said:
I've been attached to this product because it works so well, and much better than others in the same class. If you get to the bottom of this, let us know please.
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Yeah I was pretty dismayed by it as well. As you can see it did a number on my Audi black leather. I'm not going to try it again, too worried on what it will do now. Will be looking for something else to protect it.
 
What did you do the prep the area prior? any apc wipe down? I've used this stuff a ton over the years, dark interiors, leathers you name it, no issue like this. never seen this weird issue. And fwiw it always has a funky chemical smell. But for it to be that overwhelming, by chance did you over apply? it should take like one or two sprays at most to cover a large area, its spreads far and thin.
 
This doesn't sound right at all. Maybe it's a bad bottle? Smell can be subject but it from the sounds of it, it is way too overwhelming. I've been a huge fan of WG products but have never used WG cockpit.
 
cleanmycorolla said:
What did you do the prep the area prior? any apc wipe down? I've used this stuff a ton over the years, dark interiors, leathers you name it, no issue like this. never seen this weird issue. And fwiw it always has a funky chemical smell. But for it to be that overwhelming, by chance did you over apply? it should take like one or two sprays at most to cover a large area, its spreads far and thin.
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I followed the directions on the bottle, but I didn't apply any pre-cleaner to the area. I probably should have done that just in case, but the leather didn't appear to have any other coatings on it. You can see it took more constantly to the armrest area, but it also turned that area dark grey instead of black. Maybe I got a bad bottle? Maybe mixed incorrectly or something, the smell is off the charts chemical like, and I haven't read that complaint in more than one or two other reviews. In fact 95% of the other reviews I read were very good, that's why I bought the product. This is an expensive car so I wasn't trying to go cheap, rather go with the best....
 
Cabrio said:
This doesn't sound right at all. Maybe it's a bad bottle? Smell can be subject but it from the sounds of it, it is way too overwhelming. I've been a huge fan of WG products but have never used WG cockpit.
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Just did a write-up on 3 other wolfgang products. They were all good to great, this one was an anomaly, so maybe it was a bad bottle.
 
I would be totally freaking out right now...do you have any other leather/interior cleaner on hand? Maybe try a small area to see if you can "fix" it a bit?
 
I've used zaino leather cleaner on it since the photo. It's better, still spotty, but thankfully it's in the back seat so I don't have to look at it every day. I'll have to try another round of cleaning tomorrow night and see if it comes cleaner.
 
Very Interesting. The odor, I know is sort of chemical, but I never felt it was horrific or overwhelming at all. Only if I stuck my nose in the bottle.

But everyone has different sniffers. The smell has certainly never stayed at all for me.

The discoloring you are showing really does NOT match the results I consistently get out of my WCTS. I have used it on all of my 2001 Honda CRV SE's Dark Grey leather and vinyl, my brother's Black leather interior, and my Uncle's black leather, and have not experienced any sort of this discoloration.

When applying this product, a little goes a long way. I only spray a few sprays on a Foam Applicator pad then wipe on the repeat. It seems like there may have been an over use there.
 
I did follow the directions on the bottle and on the site but it is my first time to use it. I would say you were correct, that could have caused one of the scenarios I encountered. However I am having a hard time wrapping my head around why it would be so blotchy on the top and then turn the armrest grey. If it was over application you would think it would be somewhat consistent in what it did when I applied it or be the opposite, inconsistent everywhere, not a mixture of the two. Maybe two different grains of leather took the product differently?

Smell is subjective agreed, the smell was an issue for me because it killed the new car and leather smell I had going on prior to applying this product. Car hasn't smelled the same since. I think I will do some more vigourus cleaning to get the cockpit sealer off completely and see if it goes back to normal after its full removal.
 
I am looking forward to hearing what happens. I mean that would have been a "flag" for me too, if I saw that discoloration. I am hoping that you can remove that, and get it to even out.

I hope I didn't sound like you were wrong for stating the smell was horrific, because like you said, it is certainly subjective. There are Favored smells out there that many other guys like, that I don't like at all. I hope you get that Leather straightened out though Stoleit. And hopefully can find out was going on. I have not heard this from WCTS before.
 
willowcat11 said:
I am looking forward to hearing what happens. I mean that would have been a "flag" for me too, if I saw that discoloration. I am hoping that you can remove that, and get it to even out.
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Same here.

StoleIt (lol, nice S/N), you sir are extremely calm. I would have been furious. Not AG's fault, of course, but furious nonetheless. I'm sure AG would get on it as soon as the staff sees this.

I wonder what happened.... Bad bottle? Worse still; bad badge? Because it would mean there are unsuspecting volatile samples floating around. I hope not.

Heat/temp exposure?

I had a gallon of D156 going south on me during the record freezing the county experienced not too long ago. Came from east coast & the temp definitely killed it. A total dud - like spraying skim milk & displayed the same "gloss" characteristic. lol
 
Oops! One thing I forgot to ask, is if you shook the bottle really good before using?
 
Let's get to the bottom of this. :)

1. Is the material you coated leather or alcantara?
2. How many sprays of product for the trim on the door panel?
3. Was any protectant previously applied by you, the dealer, previous owner, etc?

:props:
 
Hi Willow, yes I shook the bottle and followed the directions on the wolfgang site. Wolfgang Cockpit Trim Sealant Best I can recall, only thing I did different is use a soft microfiber from autogeek to apply rather than a foam applicator.

Hi Nick,

To answer your questions
1) Unknown. It's an Audi RS7 2015 model, not sure the exact leather they use?
2) This was a close to two weeks ago, but best I can recall, I do not directly apply to the door panel, applied to a microfiber.
3) No other protectants/sealers were applied to my knowledge. I did use Lexol leather conditioner throughout the car about a week prior. I've only had the car about 3 weeks, but it appeared to be clean of anything when I got it.
 
This seems strange. I have never experienced this with any interior product used properly. Nick, perhaps you can reach out to the Audi dealer in Stuart to figure out the material on the door panels as the OP does not really know.
 
So I did a second round of leather cleaner. Completely saturated the area and let it set for 2-3 minutes and then scrubbed, then a third scrub and it appears to be off! Pretty dark in the garage tonight and I cannot open the door more than half way to view it with the wife's car in (raining outside) but I think it's clean. Will know for sure tomorrow and will update you if it looks different in the sunlight, hopefully I'm done and no permanent issues will linger from here.

As for the smell of the cockpit sealer, I smelled it again to see if it really was that bad. It is, smells like very strong acetone is the closest thing I can describe it as. Not the nail polish stuff, the more industrial stuff. I cannot believe that would be correct, I doubt you guys would not notice such a smell?

At this point I would love to reapply and try again, but I'm not going to risk it, this is much too expensive of a car to risk a second round of this stuff.

Nick if you'd like to send a prepaid label I can send it in for you to analyze, and if you'd like to send me another bottle I will try it again unless this is really how this stuff is supposed to react to surfaces and how it's supposed to smell? Otherwise a refund would be much appreciated for my trouble. It's the 16oz version and I can provide and invoice # if you want it. I've bought about $500 worth of stuff from autogeek over the past month and so far this is the only big loser of the bunch.

I also have a couple spare bottles I can pour a sample in and mail out to a couple of you experts on here if you want to give it a whiff and compare it to the normal sealant? Nick if auto geek is up for it, just send me the labels and I will be happy to send out the samples to a few folks to compare to what normal cockpit sealant is like and post back. That way we can get multiple people to weigh in. I'd hate to be giving a product a bad wrap when it's just a bad bottle or something.
 
I'm just wondering, if applying that conditioner just 1 week before the Trim Sealant had an effect.
 
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