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The treatment I recommend for engineered leather products is a regular cleaning with a gentle cleaner and a water-based fluorocarbon protectant to avoid possible dye transfer issues. This is the identical treatment I suggest for real coated leather as well. Leather conditioner are not useful nor is hydration an option with Nuluxe or other synthetic engineered leather products. All you can do is keep it clean and protected. A product like Meguiar's Quick Interior Detailer might also be useful as it does provide some UV protection and no gloss or slippery feel. Those stretch wrinkles are not going away and I believe will become more pronounced over time.
wow...after you took so much care, it still cracked in less than 3 years. Imagine how it will be in few more years. My 18 yr old lexus es300 (In TX) has cracks now and that is with no maintenance.
Clearly Lexus is cutting costs on their leather. Take it to the dealer and talk to them and also contact Lexus corporate.
Is this the regular leather on Premium package or upgraded semi-aniline that comes with Luxury package?
Since he has the luxury package, it should be the semi-aniline leather... I would consider that the main selling point of the package along with the seat extender. IMO, I expect the side bolsters where you get in from to wear more than the rest of the seat in an SUV, especially with the way these seats were designed, although, I would expect the semi-aniline to be a little more resilient. If OP wants a point of reference, here's the drivers seat in my 13 RX without the lux package @ 42k miles. It generally gets wiped down with Meguairs Leather 3 in 1, quick interior detail, or a damp cloth every two weeks. Am I happy with how it looks? Not really. My IS looks a lot better @ 100k miles and being 5 years older. Would I consider bugging my service advisor about it? It depends on those creases on the back of the bolster. I still have some warranty left at the very least.
How do you guys feel about Leatherique on the leather in these cars? I've had some sitting in my Amazon cart for a while, just haven't had an excuse to buy it until my current leather stuff runs out.
I have a 2010 RX 350. Both front seats has cracks on the outer edge of the window side of the
seats. I have had different cars over the years and have never seen this happening to any of
seats... The back seats have the exact same leather seats and those are not effected. Is this a
Defect?? Is this covered but the warranty?
As previously mentioned, leather will wear with use. I imagine your front seats get way more use than the rear seats, and it is most common to see these creases along the outer edge as you put a lot of pressure there when getting into and out of the car. This is normal wear.
From other responses it seems it is not covered under warranty, but normal wear. However, mine started the cracking at about 7000 miles. Discussions with your Lexus Service Manager would be advised. I do treat my leather with Lexol and seems to help.
Wife has a 2010 RX350 and I noticed that the creases are getting deeper in the leather. What options do I have to get this corrected? I have the Lexol cleaner and conditioner but the creases and cracks are very noticeable.
I'd suggest a leather restoration expert in your area. No conditioning will eliminate those cracks. Oily conditioners will only make it worse. This is because the painted coating has cracked and oily conditioners will lessen the remaining bond the coating has to the leather.
If the vehicle is mechanically sound and you intend to keep it for some time the restoration might be worth the cost. You might also be able to find a good skin from a salvage yard. Ask your restoration guy about options.
That is severe wear for what is around a 6 year old Lexus.
I used this product to repaint the cracked leather front seats on my 2010 RX350 with less than 40,000 miles. Perfect color match. They looked like new afterward. Just follow their preparation instructions. Still looking good a couple years later. http://www.leatherrenew.com/
I'd like to ask this forum your thoughts on our leather seat cracking. We contacted Lexus and their only response was that it's not warrantied and it's general creases that come from general use which I don't believe to be the case - it appears more like a material defect that should be warranted. Here's our background and a photo of the seat.We bought a 2015 Lexus RX350 SUV July 2016, which we couldn't have asked for a year old SUV in such perfect condition, which now makes me wonder if they replaced the seats before selling it to us (given it didn't look like it had been sat on at all). I'm a 112 lb female and have only driven less than 9K miles over the 6 month period of owning it. A few months into driving it, we started noticing creases developing on the driver seat.I just chalked it off to the fact that it comes with using the car, however by the 3rd month (Oct), the creases started to appear more prominent, as if it had deteriorated more rapidly. By now, the creases look like deep creases that look like they will crack.
I have an aunt/uncle who currently have 3 Lexus brand automobiles and have showed them the cracks and they have told me they haven't experienced it before. It wasn't until 9+ years later that the leather seats started to appear more worn with larger creases but no developing cracks like what we have in ours in such a short period of time.
We've only had this car less than 6 months and I can see that creases develop overtime with use but I estimated that would be years down the road before it would get to this level of appearance or condition.
What do you think of this condition? Creases or cracks, usual or unusual?
Has anyone had success getting it warrantied and if so, how did you get it?
Lexus 2105 RX350 driver leather seat cracking in less than 4 months since ownership in July 2016.
Thank you! Grateful to have a forum like this to seek for help.
Excuse me for asking but when was the last time that leather was cleaned? The picture of the leather appears to show that this leather is filthy.
Leather will shrink as it dries and expand as it regains moisture (hydration). Repeating this drying and rehydration cycle will leave creases that may eventually result in cracks. That said, leather comes from different parts of a cow. Some skins are more prone to wrinkles/creases than others and require more attention.
Leather is not maintenance free. I'd start with a deep cleaning and follow with a leather protector. I'd wipe the seats down weekly with a wrung out towel to rehydrate the leather. Hydration will cause the leather fibers to plump up a bit and make the creases less severe. If you don't want to do this yourself seek out a leather care professional in your area. Uncared for, that leather will crack in time.
IME, the leather used in newer models is not as nice as that used in older models. It's all about saving money. My 2014 leather feels about half as thick as my 2004 model. If Lexus could shave as little as $100 per vehicle on leather cost that would translate to around $35,000,000 every year. Thats one reason many auto manufacturers are moving to synthetic (faux) leather.
I've seen cars that have 100k+ miles that still have near brand new leather and cars with 10k miles that have cracks and creases like this.
Aside from cleaning the seats with a quality product on a regular basis and being careful when you wear rough clothing (jeans, etc.) there is little you can do to prevent it.
If you're a heavier person 200lb+ you will naturally wear the leather out much quicker than someone weighing 100lbs. No way around it.
My buddy is pushing 350lbs because he's a naturally huge dude and he would turn his new leather seats into complete crap in a short amount of time because of all his body weight.
This is MOSTLY repairable. The process involves:
-Stripping the top clear coat
-Getting a computerized color match of the leather
-Possibly sanding the leather to smooth it
-Using a synthetic flexible leather filler to correct cracks
-Repainting with color matched leather paint
-Resealing top clear with correct sheen as factory (likely a semi-gloss or mixture of semi-matte/semi-gloss.
Contact a local leather restoration place, but I'd guess this kind of work is rather specialized and even a "detail" shop probably doesn't do this type of work, you might have to contact a furniture repair place.
Originally Posted by donnafb
I'd like to ask this forum your thoughts on our leather seat cracking. We contacted Lexus and their only response was that it's not warrantied and it's general creases that come from general use which I don't believe to be the case - it appears more like a material defect that should be warranted. Here's our background and a photo of the seat.We bought a 2015 Lexus RX350 SUV July 2016, which we couldn't have asked for a year old SUV in such perfect condition, which now makes me wonder if they replaced the seats before selling it to us (given it didn't look like it had been sat on at all). I'm a 112 lb female and have only driven less than 9K miles over the 6 month period of owning it. A few months into driving it, we started noticing creases developing on the driver seat.I just chalked it off to the fact that it comes with using the car, however by the 3rd month (Oct), the creases started to appear more prominent, as if it had deteriorated more rapidly. By now, the creases look like deep creases that look like they will crack.
I have an aunt/uncle who currently have 3 Lexus brand automobiles and have showed them the cracks and they have told me they haven't experienced it before. It wasn't until 9+ years later that the leather seats started to appear more worn with larger creases but no developing cracks like what we have in ours in such a short period of time.
We've only had this car less than 6 months and I can see that creases develop overtime with use but I estimated that would be years down the road before it would get to this level of appearance or condition.
What do you think of this condition? Creases or cracks, usual or unusual?
Has anyone had success getting it warrantied and if so, how did you get it?
Lexus 2105 RX350 driver leather seat cracking in less than 4 months since ownership in July 2016.
Thank you! Grateful to have a forum like this to seek for help.
I've noticed a lot of 2010+ RX's with leather issues. I had an RX loaner last year with 3k miles and the leather looked worse than my GS with 100K miles. I'm not sure if it's maintenance or just Lexus skimping on leather quality. I just saw this 2015 with 30K miles that looks very similar to the OPs leather.
08-10-16, 06:42 PM
