Pic from 3 year old used car.

Why do leather crack like this?

- Driver too heavy.
- Lack of care, like leather conditioner.
- That's normal wear & tear.
- Cheaper grade of leather.
- Weather conditions.

I know the answer could be all of the above. I never own a leather interior. If I look at a used car and see this, what does this tell me?

What is the leading cause of this, if you had to choose one?

 

good question, i got a leather interior in my accord and i saw the same thing happened to my front seats... wonder why

 

heat and your fat *** stretching the leather lol idk my civic has same thing going on

 

That looks normal, it doesn't look like deep dry cracks, with a good conditioning you should be able to see great improvement.

 

If you keep the seats cleaned and conditioned on a regular basis it will help prolong the life of your vinyl. You have to use non-abrasive cleaners to make sure the dye doesn't come off with the dirt.

It is possible for them to be repaired and dyed if they ever start to crack so I wouldn't worry too much.

 

IMO lack of maintenance would be number one if i had to label. i guess you could say the quality of the material would be next, but even the most pedestrian materials can be maintained with the right stuff (optimum protectant FTW!). so, without maintanence, the heat and UV takes its toll, dries the material out and the stress of sitting in it will compromise the now brittle material.

 

I would have to say its kinda of a cheap material.

I have an 2001 accord that had seat covers it's whole life and I'm only 140 pounds. It's still doing it.

My neighbors 1989 benz just starting to show signs of cracking with 140k garaged. I hear that mercedes use lather that's twice as thick and foam that's twice as thick

 

Do you guys think leatherette would perform better with use over time?

 

Lexol products.

 

hmm...i'm confused. leatherette perform better than what?

 

leather.

 

than super thin, mat-backed leather like what we see in many of todays cars? probably...either way, it's gotta be cared for because both will lose UV protection and become brittle pretty quickly if not protected.

re: the statement about the benz, yeah, good leather will definitely prove to be pretty durable, but it as well will become extremely frail if not cared for properly. many a ferrari i've seen (this includes relatively modern models too) has bolster wear because though it was good material to start, it was just not fed properly and it's become stressed, and fails.

 

Leather and heated seats are a brutal combination in cold climates as well. If you have heated seats with leather, the abrupt fluctuations in temperature are particularly stressful to the material.

And Honda's leather has been typically very average in quality, nothing to boast about.

 

Make sense, didn't think about that.

 

on a side note, heated seats can also help you take care of them as well...

if you apply a quality leather treatment and you have heated seats, by all means do it with the heat element on because it will open the pores of the material and really allow the treatment to feed the material.

 

Now I don't know which way to go........

 

Its because the sun and the heay will make it crack like dat!!!!!

 

so whats a good product to clean and condition/moisterize the seats again?

 

alot of people prefer staged products, like lexol, where there is a cleaner then some sort of leather food and maybe a maintenance product.

i really like optimum car care leather care/protectant. it's awesome! i use it on high end leather, such as ferrari and lamborghini, as well as pedestrian cheap leather such as the thin leather on my seats in my mazdaspeed3.

 

hahahahah

 

i bought lexol cleaner and conditoner its alright, it doesnt say anything about spf or uv protection tho

 

horse saddle products are the best ive seen at conditioning the leather. fairly expensive when compared to automotive based products but i feel they are ten times better at conditioning the leather

 

I also have a conditioner for my leather jacket. Do you guys think we should stay with "automovtive" products when comes to leather care for the car's seats?

 

i'm unsure if the other products offer UV protection. what i use specifically cites this as being included. a leather jacket and a leather saddle are never really exposed to the UV that the cabin of a car sees so i could understand why they might not be ideal, but again, i can't say for sure what's in those other products.

good question.

 

Totally different...........I would opt to stay with car care leather products.......
Heres some good leather care reading...........