IS300H Leather Seat wear / lack of wear :)

[Colinb623]

I've noticed very little if any wear on my 2016 F Sport seats at 96k miles .

Lexus must have very good leather in these cars .

Has anyone had any seat bolster wear?

[rayaans]

We had very little on ours too. Our Rx is slightly worse though. 

I think it's all dependent on a number of factors. Some people literally get into the car and rub their whole backside on the bolsters before getting in which would understandably cause a lot of wear 

[Notamech]

Mine is a 2014 at ~92k while theres no major wear. The right side portion of the seat base has stretched and it looks a bit saggy. I treated it with some leather balm which tightened it up a bit but its still not gone completely. Like in the pic

[Mr_Groundhog]

It is not leather in most cases, it is synthetic leather. Balms usually don't get absorbed, but what you can do is throughly clean, then apply some matt protection or colour refresher, and then apply some shield such as gtechniq's leather guard.

From their site:

Quote

Many leather products market themselves on how they feed leather, when in fact this is not needed. Modern automotive leather uses synthetic fat liquors which do not evaporate. Any product that is designed to feed leathers will not be absorbed by modern automotive leathers but instead, remain on the surface attracting dirt which will then act as an abrasive foreshortening the leathers finish.

 

[Notamech]

1 hour ago, Mr_Groundhog said:

It is not leather in most cases, it is synthetic leather. Balms usually don't get absorbed, but what you can do is throughly clean, then apply some matt protection or colour refresher, and then apply some shield such as gtechniq's leather guard.

From their site:

 

Yeah i think the 2016 onwards models have artificial leather which i think is perhaps more durable. Models prior to that had genuine leather from what ive understood. 

[wharfhouse]

15 hours ago, Notamech said:

Mine is a 2014 at ~92k while theres no major wear. The right side portion of the seat base has stretched and it looks a bit saggy. I treated it with some leather balm which tightened it up a bit but its still not gone completely. Like in the pic

All the non F sport seats seem to have the same problem with the right drivers seat cushion (or left on lhd cars) - mine looks same as the pic (I have a 2014 car with 134k miles on it now). Looking at cars for sale online they all have the same issue. Other than that the seats are in good shape though. My seats are real leather and I did once read about using a hot wet towel to tighten the leather back up but haven't tried it yet.

[Notamech]

1 hour ago, wharfhouse said:

All the non F sport seats seem to have the same problem with the right drivers seat cushion (or left on lhd cars) - mine looks same as the pic (I have a 2014 car with 134k miles on it now). Looking at cars for sale online they all have the same issue. Other than that the seats are in good shape though. My seats are real leather and I did once read about using a hot wet towel to tighten the leather back up but haven't tried it yet.

Same. Was considering using a heat gun with a wet towel to fix it. But never got a chance to. 

[IS300FSPORT]

Still looking fresh at 53k or 8 years 

 

 

[Mr_Groundhog]

Using heat you would ruin the little flexibiltiy that leather may have left, so I would advise against, strongly. Use a colour refresher or something like that. I know colourlock offers colour matching aside from the standard colour range

[Mr_Groundhog]

1 hour ago, IS300FSPORT said:

Still looking fresh at 53k or 8 years 

 

 

Looking great!
Would you say the rubber mats are a lot heavier than the regular ones?

[wharfhouse]

4 minutes ago, Mr_Groundhog said:

Using heat you would ruin the little flexibiltiy that leather may have left, so I would advise against, strongly. Use a colour refresher or something like that. I know colourlock offers colour matching aside from the standard colour range

A colour refresher wouldn't shrink the leather back though where it is sagging over the seat cushion bolster. Looking at how to shrink leather naturally, the general advice seems to be: 

To shrink a leather product is to soak it in tepid water and dry it with a heat source or under indirect sun. The warm water will make the leather fibres soft enough to come back to their original size, and the quick-drying process will help them shrink back.

Hence something like a towel soaked in hot water applied to the bolster. A heat gun may be a bit extreme, but a hot towel should be safe enough.

[Notamech]

6 minutes ago, wharfhouse said:

A colour refresher wouldn't shrink the leather back though where it is sagging over the seat cushion bolster. Looking at how to shrink leather naturally, the general advice seems to be: 

To shrink a leather product is to soak it in tepid water and dry it with a heat source or under indirect sun. The warm water will make the leather fibres soft enough to come back to their original size, and the quick-drying process will help them shrink back.

Hence something like a towel soaked in hot water applied to the bolster. A heat gun may be a bit extreme, but a hot towel should be safe enough.

Yeah the logic is correct. Also watched a few youtube videos and all use a heat gun to apply heat and a wet towel to keep wetting the leather. I am not sure a hot towel will provide enough heat. Ofcourse i guess you would need to dial down the heat on the heat gun. 

 

[wharfhouse]

2 minutes ago, Notamech said:

Yeah the logic is correct. Also watched a few youtube videos and all use a heat gun to apply heat and a wet towel to keep wetting the leather. I am not sure a hot towel will provide enough heat. Ofcourse i guess you would need to dial down the heat on the heat gun. 

 

Might have a look at some more videos in that case and give it a go

[IS300FSPORT]

1 hour ago, Mr_Groundhog said:

Looking great!
Would you say the rubber mats are a lot heavier than the regular ones?

The above are the genuine rubber mats but have to admit they are very thin/light, I was quite dissapointed when they were delivered I expected them to be made of a thicker rubber. 2 years in though they seem alright to be fair, fantastic in winter, although I do prefer the carpet mats they feel alot more comfortable just a bugger to keep clean. 

If your after a set of rubber mats just buy them from Costco Michellin mats look to be good quality & can be cut to size the ribs on them can be tailor fit. Cost approx £27.

If I recall correctly think I paid around £80 for the mats from Lexuspartsdirect. The advantage is being OEM they fit perfectly, at a cost though 🫤

[Gary H]

My 2020 UX F-Sport has red leather and whilst the leather itself is still more or less 'as new' throughout - (just with a few incredibly minor creases showing on the front side bolsters of both seats if I'm being really fussy), I’ve noticed my seat appears a little ‘darker’ than it used to be. I’ve tried cleaning it with both leather cleaner and warm water with a drop of fairly liquid in. Whilst it does bring it up a little, it still seems fractionally darker than the rear.  

4 hours ago, IS300FSPORT said:

Still looking fresh at 53k or 8 years 

Now that really is looking superb!

[IS300FSPORT]

1 hour ago, Gary H said:

My 2020 UX F-Sport has red leather and whilst the leather itself is still more or less 'as new' throughout - (just with a few incredibly minor creases showing on the front side bolsters of both seats if I'm being really fussy), I’ve noticed my seat appears a little ‘darker’ than it used to be. I’ve tried cleaning it with both leather cleaner and warm water with a drop of fairly liquid in. Whilst it does bring it up a little, it still seems fractionally darker than the rear.  

Now that really is looking superb!

Iv just stuck with Autoglym leather cleaner & the balm bottle do a treatment every 6 months or so. & keep it out of the sun where possible. My driveway is shaded, + maybe having tinted rear windows has helped deflect heat dont know the exact science behind it though.

[Bluemarlin]

21 hours ago, Notamech said:

Yeah i think the 2016 onwards models have artificial leather which i think is perhaps more durable. Models prior to that had genuine leather from what ive understood. 

My understanding is that even genuine leather seats have some kind of plastic protective clear coat, so I'm not sure whether using leather conditioners has much effect or not.

Personally I just wipe the seats over with a damp cloth and then use 303  protectant, which seems to keep them in good nick. If they need anything beyond that then I've found the colourant from Furniture Clinic to be very good, and easy to apply.

[Mr_Groundhog]

How do you guys apply the colourant those of you who do, without maing a mess of the white stitching in black leather?

[Notamech]

4 hours ago, Mr_Groundhog said:

How do you guys apply the colourant those of you who do, without maing a mess of the white stitching in black leather?

Personally i didn't bother with keeping it white. I went all out with the colourant and now i have black stitching. I dont mind it. I reckon you could use masking tape/cello tape to mask the stitching but sounds like a lot of work frankly.