Anyone used these items? Are they any better than regular leather cleaners/conditioners you can get at AutoZone/Advance/... etc.?

 

Like other aftermarket products, Lexus parts carries them [I bet they have their markup in there too]. Over the years I have noticed Lexus change the leather cleaner/protector/Hide_food.

The current one they carry has a heavy aroma of 'leather'. So smell it before you buy it as you may or may not like the smell.

Also visit the club lexus detailing forum. Lots of good stuff is out there.

Salim

 

I have a 2001.....leather has some wear...I find that the leather cleaners do not work very well ...I just use a slightly damp cloth to pick dust etc followed by dry cloth

 

This is the best stuff on the market IMO.

 

I think I've tried just about every product I can find, but I can never find one to keep that nice, soft, non-shiny new leather appearance. No matter what I do, the leather wrinkles and gets shiny over time. Will that Tanner's Preserve help keep that original feel? Anyone else have any thoughts, too?

 

jcjr- My DIL has a 99RX and about a year and a half ago I had done some major work on the car and noticed that her cream leather had soil down in the cracks that form on the seat. I can't stand to see that kind of thing so decided I'd do a good detail inside and out. When I went to clean the seats (with Lexol) i noticed that the soil didn't want to come of well at all. I scrubbed them 4 times to get all of it off! One heck of a job! She commented later that Gary (our son) had tried to clean and condition at 32k mi. when they bought the car and wasn't able to get them very clean. I later did some major work on their 97 Suburban (which has leather). Same thing, the leather was dirty in the cracks that form in leather. The cars look great otherwise. I went to work on his leather and soon decided I didn't have it in me to do 3 seats in a Sub. I had mixed up something called "Quick N Bright" to do some spots on the carpet. Somewhat in frustration I took the brush and Q N B to the seats and to my astonishment, the soil seemed to melt off. I was thrilled and went later to look on the tub (it's a paste you mix with water) to see how much damage I had done. (they looked great) It gives instructions for using it on leather! It is a biodegradable product that is good for cleaning about anything you can think of and I knew from past experience, it really works! For anyone who is really interested in a cleaning product that IS NOT HARSH PERIOD but really works- just Google the name. It is not sold in stores- seems like the best stuff never is. Hope this helps someone out there.

 

I recently used a Turtle Wax leather cleaner a few weeks back to clean off my seats and it only did so much. One of my friend's mothers suggested to try glass cleaner to get out those tough areas. That did work and later I went over the area again with the Turtle Wax product.

Keep in mind, as many of you know, I am not such a big stickler for appearances (a.k.a. duct tape on the intake, etc.).

 

Lexus leather is surface dyed and coated with a clear synthetic layer. It's impervious to water and cleaners/conditioners. You can get dirt off the surface with a variety of products but they won't penetrate the surface layer to "condition" the leather.

Be careful "scrubbing" the leather clean - it's very easy to scrub the surface and dye layers off and have a nice rough natural leather spot where you don't want one!

 

sktn- Leathers have always had the surface coating if they are "smooth". If the wear and tear of kids (as well as adults) in and out on leather seats doesn't do more damage than it does, I doubt that you have to lose sleep over using a soft brush and a non- hostile cleaner. i have owned cars with leather and have never seen the coating worn off to show "rough natural leather" except on the very worst wear spots and then that is only where the leather flexes the most on the outer edge of the seat. There are many different grades of leather and the cheapest grades are cheap leather and, naturally cheaply coated. In all my years of automotive work, I have rarely ever seen leather show negative signs of cleaning and conditioning- and then not much and only the cheapest leather. When I cleaned the seats in my son's Suburban I was frustrated and used the brush that I was going to clean the spots on the carpet to clean the seats (not a soft brush) and with 160k mi. on the car, 3 kids who play a lot of sports and 11 years old, there was absolutely no sign of damage, just beautifully clean seats. And they were definitely not clean before!

Also with DIL's RX- even after scrubbing vigorously 4 times to get all of the soil out of the cracks (this was 1 1/2 yrs. ago) the seats are beautiful to this day with absolutely no signs of damage- just a small amount of soil beginning in the cracks.

 

Well, I think you've been lucky - there are several wear areas (creases/cracking) in my daughters car that have only been made worse by by vigorous cleaning. Regarding the surface coating process used by Lexus - do a search on "leather conditioning" on this forum - there's loads of detailed information on how Lexus does it compared to other manufacturers (eg BMW). It does create problems when trying to do anything other than wiping off surface dirt.