When I got back to my car, parts of my armrest looked wet. It was in sunlight and about 90 degrees. A few hours later I saw a slight tear in the leather. (I rest my elbow on it) Could the sunlight heat cause the tear? Never happened till it got hot

 

Not terrible but noticeable to me

 

Take it to the dealer. That shouldn't happen, and the tear will only get worse. The armrest in my old Explorer started tearing like that and now it's opened up to full on gashes.

If the dealer won't repair it under warranty, I think the armrest cover is one unit so hopefully shouldn't be too expensive to replace.

 

Here's a better look of the wet look

 

That looks horrible. I put my arm on it most of the time but do not have the problem. Car has 55k miles as well.

 

Did the dealership take care of this issue? I have the same problem but on both armrests on the driver’s side. I’d understand one tear but both tears really tick me off. I’m not 500 pounds either.

 

What do you clean the leather with?

 

I use either Aerospace 303 or Lexol conditioner. I take care of my cars and have never experienced this on the past 6 cars. I'm doubting the type of leather used.

Lexus dealership here had me drop by so they can take a look at it, but in reality they just took photos of it, and they have to get with the interior guy. I'll be royally ticked if I have to pay anything.

 

Resurrecting an old thread. Same thing happened to me last week. Local upholstery shop will recover with leather instead of the nuluxe vinyl. They're booked out to late October currently. I can save some time if I bring in the lid myself and they can work it in for me.

I've gone through the DIYs and searched online for a tutorial for removing that lid or simply the cover with no luck. There are two screws that I can't get to because of the geometry with the rear of the console. Does anyone have a method or know of a DIY I can follow?

Thanks in Advance

 

I had a similar post. My rip was in a non stress area.


https://www.clublexus.com/forums/is-...-covering.html

 

Unfortunately the tear was square in the middle. Actually, I say tear, I think it's more a puncture as that's generally where my right elbow sits. At any rate, I finally did get the last two screws out last night after borrowing a very(very!) short phillips screwdriver. Dropping the pad off today to be recovered in leather instead of the vinyl.

 

Both and dealership and Lexus Corp denied me of a claim. "they said its due to "wear and tear" which i think is BS. Maybe if more people call Corporate they will provide a fix for this?

 

There have been similar complaints with the current generation GS. Here are the relevant threads:

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/gs-...-wrinkled.html

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/gs-...-cracking.html

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/gs-...t-leather.html

Lexus dealerships took care of only some of these cases.

 

In my case, I’ve got a good relationship with the local Lexus service dept but they wouldnt help out. $85 for local upholstery shop to recover the pad in matching vinyl. $135 for leather.

 

I just had mine repaired, and I'm way past warranty. As others have said, the tear will get longer and get worse. I purchased the leather (its actually vinyl to be honest) cover off eBay for like $30, and I had a local upholstery shop install it for like $80. He also added extra padding so its a little cushier than it was before.