Hello,

Curious what you guys use on your seats to protect/maintain them? Lexus leather products? Armor all?

My interior is flawless w. the exception of the drivers side front seat. Obviously this takes the most abuse, and I know other GS start to crack along the outside left of the seat. It seems to slowly be getting worse in my car...at least it is driving me insane. Its too bad these seats do not hold up better.

Any suggestions/tips? Anyone had their front seat re-wrapped? Cost?

Guess I got a lemon haha

Hi this is my first post here but I'll give you some help.

For leather you really need a detailing website.

I'll give you a link to one, but I'll also recommend some products.

This is a great detailing forum and I am a member here. Autogeek online detailing forum

Now, for your seat, you'll want to use a leather cleaner and also condition the leather. The leather in most cars (the leather in your car will be) is coated leather. This is where a clear coat (it's vinyl of some sort) is applied over the leather to enhance the durability and reduce the maintenance needed for the leather.

As it sounds like you've never conditioned or really cleaned the leather before, I would recommend starting with Leatherique. This is a really good thorough product and is great to use once or twice a year. Leatherique

After that, you'll want to condition your leather regularly.
There are many products out there that do this, but I will give you a link for a few high quality ones:

1Z Einszett Leather Care. This is one of my favourite leather conditioners.

Pinnacle leather combo

Wolfgang Leather combo

Connolly hide leather care

Now, the best thing to do would be to read. Read read read the forum and search the forum. There are a lot of knowledgeable people over there and they are always willing to help. You'll also find almost every detailing question you could ever have has already been answered so a search will find it. If not, feel free to ask.

I'm Matt and you'll see me over there often as well (I'm a car detailing nut, trust me, it's addictive).

Oh, and you can't repair your leather once it's cracked, for that you would have to have it replaced. Keeping leather clean AND conditioned is the key. If you do this to your leather frequently, it will stay in a like new condition.

Sorry for the muddled state this reply was typed in, I'm quite tired.If you need anymore assistance, feel free to ask.

Night,
Matt.

P.S. If you have any ArmorAll, THROW IT AWAY! That stuff's horrible! NEVER let it touch your leather, or for that matter, any part of your car. There are much better products out there.

Well my girl has a 04 Rx330 and she has her leather seats covered with seat covers since she got the car in 05. I think its pretty gay for the fact that the covers do not have sleeves for the arm rest for the front seats so the arm rest's CAN"T be used . Thats a pain for me since I'm always driving but thats neither here or there. When I took her car to get detailed, I took the covers off and to my surprise, her seats looked BRAND NEW. I mean there was a little discoloring due to the seat covers but nothing other than that. So if all else fails, you can get some nice seat covers with pink flames on it from Pepboys



I will check out your site but what is better to use on a "here and there" basis other than Armorall. I used it once and it made my seat's look like an oily 13yr-olds face

ArmorAll isn't supposed to be used on leather, and yes, it does look like a 13year olds oily face even when used on your dashboard! It's horrible stuff

Well for an OTC (over the counter) product, there aren't really many good ones. You can't really find an OTC product for both leather and dashboard material (well there is one, I'll mention this in the next paragraph), but, if you want a product that's not too pricey and that will do a decent job then Mothers and Meguiar's make some good products. There are much better "boutique" products out there, but these two will outperform Armor All any day.

There is one product that will work well on both, that's 303 Aerospace Protectant. I love this product, infact, I love it so much I have 2 16oz spray bottles and a gallon jug of it at home. You can use it on the dash, outside rubber/ plastic, leather (make sure it's coated or finished leather (99%+ automotive leather is finished/ coated). You can also use it around the home because it is waterbased not silicone based. When you use this, I would reccomend buffing with a microfiber towel about 3-5 minutes after application as this will bring the shine down to a nice natural sheen and will look SUPURB! (can't you tell I just love it I couldn't live without it). Infact, they'll even send you a free sample if you request it.


As well as buying this online, most boating stores should stock it- if you can't find it, ask for it 'coz they should have it.

For some more readily available automotive products, I have included a list of Mothers and Meguiar's products that are decent for what they do (I would recommend 303 before I would recommend these, but I would recommend the boutique products first as they're the best).

For leather, it's important to clean it as well as condition it. The dirt is what does the most damage to leather as it's abrasive so I'll list cleaners first, then Conditioners:

Meguiar's Rich Aloe Gold Class leather cleaner
Mothers Leather Cleaner

Protectants/ Conditioners:
Meguiar's Gold Class Rich Leather Aloe Conditioner
Mothers leather conditioner

For your dash and other interior plastic/ rubber panels, you can use 303 Aerospace or Mothers protectant for vinyl and rubber.

Of course, if you are willing to buy online (some brick and mortar stores will stock them but not all- you could try though), then I can suggest some much better products.

Any other questions, please feel free to ask.

Cheers,
Matt

Great,

Thanks for the tips.

I have had the car for nearly 6 months now. You can see on the front drivers seat where the previous owner had some sort of repair done, if you look closely.

I will most certainly invest in a good leather cleaner & a conditioner. Have you used soapy water to clean the seats first? Ive read that this is effective as long as you condition them afterward & dont let any water sit on them.

Regards

While soapy water can work, a lot of people like to use diluted Woolite to clean their seats. This works, but you have to be sure to throughly rinse the Woolite from the seats afterwards as it is a soap which is not intended to clean leather and will leave a sticky residue which promotes re-soiling faster and the remaining surfactants will wick up the moisture from the leather.

When Woolite were contacted and asked about using Woolite on leather, they replied saying it wasn't a good idea.
Question About Woolite

The part about the safety of Woolite on interior surfaces is quoted, and is just above my reply that says thanks.

If you were going to use diluted Woolite, you could use diluted Meguiar's APC or APC+ as well. I know that is popular among many detailers. While that is also effective at cleaning, it also needs to be rinsed free.

i use lexol....it works good. im not thrilled with it but it does work well

yeah i think I am gonna spring for the lexol cleaner & conditioner along w. some 303 for dash & other parts.

cheap on amazon.com....any other sites I should consider ordering from?

regards

Yea, Lexol is good. I personally wouldn't use it on the leather in my car as I feel it leaves the seats looking too greasy (even after buffing (a through wipe down). I don't believe that it's made specifically for coated/ finished leathers, so you can use it on unfinished leather too (I use it on my wallet and belt leather, keeps them looking like new).

Lexol will certainly stop any deterioration of your seats though so it will have the desired effect.

O whoops, I didn't see this.

I would recommend ordering from www.autogeek.net

They have AMAZING customer service! and great prices (infact they sell 303 for lower than the manufacturer of 303 sells it on their own site haha) (that's where I order from and even though I am ordering internationally, they are so accommodating for my orders- Infact I've just placed another order with them lol).

I'll give the product links below for you:
Lexol:
All Lexol Selection at Autogeek

This is a full kit with cleaner, conditioner, neats foot oil and a couple applicators

Lexol Leather Cleaner

Lexol Leather Conditioner

They also have different sizes available for purchase if you don't want this size (they're at the bottom of the page).

I would also suggest buying a leather scrub brush as leather has pores which you need to clean out (a microfiber doesn't really managed to get into them but a brush does).

Leather Scrub Brush


303:
All 303 selection at Autogeek

Different size 303 Aerospace Protectant bottles

Hope that helps. I'd order with them rather than order with Amazon as if anything goes wrong with your order (gets damaged in transit or anything like that) they sort it out no problem and send out a new product for you free of charge. Absolutely no hassles where I can't vouch the service of Amazon if it goes wrong.

Excellent!

Thank you all very much.