Has anyone encountered this issue? I am at a loss as to why this is doing this on both doors. Can I replace just that leather piece? Out of warranty

 

I suppose you grabbed the handles with grease-dirty hands.

 

How far out of warranty are you? That is weird it’s only happening on both front doors(?) but I suppose those are the most used.

It’s almost as if material was stretched too much and is now coming back as your arms would rest against and go back and forth over those areas. Kinda like an over blown balloon that is finally, over time, shrinking and latex is wrinkling where it was over stretched. Probably a bad analogy but the wrinkling is just not normal under normal wear and tear use.

I would still check with the dealership — maybe they’d replace out of goodwill, you never know, and it’s just those two panels…

 

We did before warranty out and they said those items only get covered in first 3 years

 

That's really strange, first time I see real leather like this. Did you use any detergent or liquid to clean other than water/soap or specialized leather cleaners?

I just reviewed my warranty booklet and leather coverage appears to falls under the "Basic Warranty", which provides protection for 48 months or 50,000 miles to address defects in materials or workmanship. There’s no indication of a leather-specific exclusion or a reduced 3-year coverage period for these. There's a gray area of "Normal Wear and Tear: Noise, vibration, cosmetic conditions and other deterioration caused by normal wear and tear." but still I would politely try the dealer or corporate even out of warranty since you claimed under it.

Looking at the parts, it doesn’t seem to be a standalone component. Replacing the entire door panel trim would cost approximately $1,750 in parts only. You could also try a local upholstery shop instead. I had one repair the leather center console and door armrest of an old out-of-warranty Honda for a couple of hundred dollars, and the results were nearly identical to OEM quality. Perhaps they can address this issue as well.

 

We would have been out anyway it was 60k check. We bought car as certified 4k miles from there fleet. We have always used there Lexus leather cleaner so not sure. I will take to upholster shop they say they use locally.

 

They appear to be wrinkles. Is the leather very dry to the touch?
Since it's already out of warranty. You could try a soak with a leather conditioner/moisturizer and iron them out with a heat gun or steamer, a hairdryer could probably work too!

Note: Don't overheat and avoid keeping the heat source at one place for too long as it can damage it. Also, be gentle massaging and smoothing the leather, without applying excessive pressure.

 

Not dry but I wonder if your idea would work? I may try spot. Thanks!

 

Could also use a clothes iron and set it to low heat setting first. Cover the area with some cloth and try iron it out.
But never place the iron directly into the leather.
I have done this on some leather jackets. Still the first time I see the type o wrinkles in you picture.

Here's a quick video.

 

I thought the only things in the car that was leather are the seating surfaces and steering wheel and the shift boot.
The rest was nu lux.

 

That is what I thought with respect to my 2024 ES350. Might it depend upon the year?

As for that picture, it looks a lot like the skin on my arms, and it has taken 84 years to get that way.

 

Shouldn't NuLuxe supposed to be more durable than leather or semi-aniline? That's very strange wrinkling if it's in fact NuLuxe. My DW '19 Rav4 Adv. SofTex (Toyota's name to Lexus NuLuxe) still looks like day 1 without much of a care.

LAMAO! I had a similar thought in mind.

 

That's a great analogy! That's kinda how I see it when I look at it. If it was from wear and tear it would be worn more. It looks new but wrinkled to me.

 

Someone suggested that maybe it was over stretched when created and now it's relaxing?

 

Like some others point out, I do not believe the armrest in an ES is leather covered. Like the vast majority of cars, when you specify leather it is only on the “seating surfaces”, i.e, the seat bottom and seat back upon which you actually sit is leather (the “face” of the seat, not the sides or back), the rest is NuLuxe. This sort of thing has been industry practice for decades even on high end cars. So the leather-look on the armrests, the dash, etc. is not real leather unless your model of car has that as an option (like the LS, for instance where you have to pay for the “interior upgrade” package to have it added to the armrests), or your in the highest market like a Rolls or Bentley.

As to why, I am puzzled as well. It almost looks like the material has been pulled on or twisted (like when pulling the door close) or is being pushed downward from your arm while seated somehow, and has stretched/delaminated/separated from its underlying base material. From what I can see online, the armrest is integral to the door card itself. It MAY be removable somehow from the back once the door card is removed, but I don’t have any info on that and I haven’t seen it as a separate part number on the parts blow ups I can see. Perhaps an upholstery shop might be able to do something for you, but no guarantee there.

Good luck and keep us posted.