Is the leather that Honda uses "naked" leather that can be treated with a leather conditioner? Like Porsche and Ferrari. Or is it like most automotive leathers; covered in a thin plastic coating the renders conditioners useless?

Ken

 

It is treated leather but cleaners and conditioners do help it last longer and stay flexible

 

OK. I've got some Leatherique from my Porsche days. I'll try that.
Thanks for the quick reply.

Ken

 

I find ap1 leather to be heavily treated, if I put a drop of water on my seats it can sit there for a long time and not be absorbed, and when I wipe it off there is no sign of where it was sitting. I believe they call it pigmented or semi-aniline leather. When you see older ap1 seats cracking and peeling what you are seeing much of the time is the vinyl like top surface that has cracked, not always the leather itself. Some pars of the ap2 seats seem less treated compared to ap1 seats IMO, but they still aren't traditional aniline leather.

I've used Leatherique on my seats and it doesn't seem to absorb, the traditional conditioners that are supposed to "feed" leather won't work that well on our seats like they might in a Porsche or Ferrari or Rolls Royce etc.... . Some products I've used ask you to wipe on and then wipe the excess off, but I think you are just wiping it all off as they don't absorb into the surface. I've had best luck letting products sit on the surface for longer periods of time. I think this is also the reason why some people have good luck using 303 aero on our seats despite it being a vinyl treatment product.

Einzett has a good product for our type of leather, take a peek at their summary in the product link I have posted below, I think it makes a lot of sense. I have been using their product recently after using Lexol for a while, it seems to have softened up one area of my seat that was getting a bit hard and had a bit or orange peel on the top surface of the leather. I've been happy with it thus far, and it has some UV protection in it which a lot of leather products fail to provide. Have a look at the link below and read what they have to say :

http://www.eshine.ca/1z_einszett_lea...e_85oz-106.php

 

http://www.eshine.ca/lexol_premium_3..._16oz-3129.php
That is what I bought in a recent purchase from eshine.ca.

Do you have any tips for me with using this particular product?

 

The 06+ seats are less treated and require more upkeep.

Ive used Lexol on my 05 seats for the past 8 years and 130,000 miles and they are in very good condition considering the age/year.

I might look into the product mentioned above!

 

I'd also highly recommend 1Z. It does a really good job of cleaning and conditioning the leather in our S, RX 400h and Rogue.

 

Definitely follow the directions. It is best to work on a clean seat. I clean the seats with Lexol cleaner as I have a decent supply of it. You can also use Autoglym cleaner, which is easily available at any Canadian Tire store, and you can also use plain water on a damp cloth if you are in a pinch but I prefer the above listed cleaners, just follow the directions.

Once clean and dry apply the Einzett leather conditioner, I use a round applicator pad that you typically use to apply wax to the vehicle. I dampen the pad first so it doesn't absorb too much product. I then apply lightly to the entire seat. I prefer to leave siting it on the seats for 20-30 minutes, I don't find too much residue after I leave it on the seats, you can give it dry wipe or buff to get a uniform appearance but I don't usually need to do much at that point. It seems to absorb better using this method, if you do a quick wipe on and off you could be wasting the product IMO.

 

JFUSION - thanks for the tips. I attempted it yesterday with an old face cloth. I felt it did absorb into the face cloth therefore the product did not get into the seat. I only let it sit for a minute or two before wiping with an old t-shirt.

I also only did the seats. Is there any other places that leather cleaners should/could be used on?

 

Yeah to be honest with you I never like the recommendations of wipe on and wipe off, it seems all leather conditioner manufacturers put that in their instructions, and that just leads to minimal product going into the seat. I put it on the seat and walk away for a while - couple hours ?, by then it is pretty dry and I just give it a light buff to smooth out any appearance differences. I always let my seats soak in the product, I give it a thin even application and it gets s wet look upon initial application.

With the oem parts it is hard to say exactly what is leather, but you can condition the shift boot, elbowpad, and door card inserts effectively. On the actual seats I would only do the parts that touch your body, the rear of the seats are pretty much vinyl and I give them a touch up with 303 Aerospace protectant.