Hi,

I've had a good search of the forum and can't seem to find definitive answers, so hopefully I could get all this collected.

The drivers seat on my fabia vRS is a mess. The bolster has worn through, and I can feel the metal bar in the seat, while the side of the backrest has worn right through and is the real let-down on the car. Can someone explain my options?

I am lucky enough to live very near the seat surgeons but a £700 spend on a car thats probably worth £3.5k isn't really all that sensible - and I can't really afford it anyway.

I occasionally see seats on ebay but they seem to be in very high demand and usually marked.

Can anyone:

- Recommend a re-trimmers in Yorkshire, Humberside, or Birmingham area?

- Let me know which seats from the VAG group will fit inside the Fabia with minimum fettling?

- Sell me their seats or seat covers?!

Cheers!

I got asked this and was told by a couple of people that they got just the bolster replaced (one under warranty), so I'm guessing VAG will sell you the seperate parts if needed. . .

Would guess anything from the 9n(3) Polo would fit, and the Ibiza that ran alongside the Fabia would do - but check for certain first.

Mine is going the same way with over 100K on the clock - so i'm on the hunt for a Polo 9n3 GTi interior! Nice

I assume the Polo interior is a straight swap?

Can anyone offer any other solutions?

Can anyone recommend a re-trimmers on Yorkshire? I was thinking about having just the light grey parts of the interior changed but have no idea how much this might cost.

Edited 11 January, 201115 yr by stuninho

You can buy replacement bases and covers from dealers or TPS. Don't know about the seat backs, though.

The bases aren't cheap - over GBP40 each, but if they're worn, they're worn. I was lucky enough to have a set of second-hand covers, which I fitted myself over a few days - not difficult, just lengthy. If yours are just dirty, rather than worn, you can wash them in a standard washing machine, provided you don't put too much in in one go. If you need a new set of covers, though, I was advised by a trimmer near me that the dealer price of standard covers isn't much less than a trimmer's trade price for leather covers, in which case it's really down to whether you plan to do the work yourself.

If you do wash your covers, or get hold of some new / second-hand ones, it's worth giving them a thorough coating of Scotchguard before you fit them. I needed one can for the front and one can for the back, but now anything that falls on the seats just wipes off without leaving watermarks.

One final thing, if you do go for a complete DIY re-trim - I don't think the covers for the front headrests or the rear seat backs can be removed without cutting / un-picking them. I cleaned them with some AutoGlym stuff, and they came up virtually good as new - thankfully they were pretty clean to start with compared to the rest of the interior!

HTH

Thanks ap0gee, much appreciated... but whats TPS?

Trade Parts Speacilists. They are the trade suppliers for VAG.

Is it much cheaper to have the car re-upholstered with cloth rather than leather, or is the cost mostly in the labour?