[BiturboS4] Cleaning Alcantera?

[John M. Harrison]

Hi fellow S4 folks,
Haven't posted to this list in a while, so here goes.

My driver's seat heater drained down the battery overnight due to busted
dash switch and possibly other issues with the circuit - will get it
attended to closer to winter.  Temporary fix was to pull the seat heater
circuit fuse.

The alcantera is OK, but IMHO the preferred seating surface for comfort
would be a nice breathable tough cloth.  I think the Recaro seats for
the S4 are cloth.  Leather doesn't seem to have any functional advantage
beyond appearance and toughness.  Certainly it does not breath well.
Don't understand why leather is still so trendy for car seats, furniture
and coats.  But there is a lot of this trendy stylistic affectation
stuff that I just don't get.

How does a raccoon get into your vehicles?  Windows would have to be
left open, right?

Seat covers are not acceptable on the front S4 seats because they will
prevent deployment of the side air bags incorporated into them.  I would
check into the S4 Recaros that have the air bags if your seats are
sufficiently messed up to justify replacement.  See the Recaro website
for more.  This cleaning of the alcantera business could be problematic
due to the light color as much as anything.  Mine are still looking
pretty good.  I don't smoke or eat food in it and have managed not to
spill any coffee or beverages on them so far.  And I have no children.

S4 Avant 6 spd Mar 2001 build silver, alcantera (white? Cream?) & black
interior, cold package, 22,000 miles, two deer hits last summer - fully
repaired, bought new exactly 2 years ago this month.  I love this car
and have had no mechanical issues beyond a replaced coolant temp sensor
and the seat heater thing.  Stock except for winter tire/wheel package.
Vag-com to communicate with it and Bentley factory repair manual on CD
to figure out how the magnificent thing is put together.  Valentine 1
radar detector - this thing is very sensitive which makes it tough to
sort out the many false alarm emitters in an urban setting, but I'm
still learning.

Cheers fellow S4 pilots.

John M. Harrison
University of Wyoming
Space Management Office
Facilities Planning
johnmh at uwyo.edu