I have a 2001 Max SE-AE with roughly 35,000 miles on it. Started to notice that the driver's side seat leather is starting to crack and has a small rip on on side. I bought the car last year I've been applying the Maguires contioner spray on it but it's not helping since it's already worse. Can we change the leather later if we want? would the dealer give us the same type thats already on it right now? how much do you think it would cost?

 

your best bet would be to pick up a seat at a junkyard of the same color. also keep in mind if you have meridian package then you will want to look for one with heated seats. my ae driver seat is wearing pretty quickly as well but no rips as of yet.

 

would the seat come as a whole assembly..as in the heating element ( for heated seats) etc...or would i just take the leather cover off and put it on mine?

 

i would take the whole seat if the price was right. i dont have any experience with removing the cover so i am not sure how viable that is. if you take the whole seat then you can just bolt it in and connect the wiring harness for the heated seats.

 

I have a 2k1SE with 32,000 miles. Hasnt even been 3 years and the leather is cracked and looks as if its about to break. This leather seems really cheapy. Can this be replaced under the 3year/36k warranty? I have never seen leather wear out this fast. I too sometimes armor-all leather conditioner the leather.

 

possibly could be covered under warranty, lets just say its been done before.... i had a 98 pathfinder a while back. Same thing, leather started to crack and actually wear down a bit, and at 35,xxx miles, i had them replace the driver seat leather and replace the bose head unit where the numbers were starting to wear off where you push 1,2,3,4,etc... had no problems from the dealer on either issue in respect to it being covered and getting fixed.

 

I think this is a problem with the Max. My driver seat on the side is also tearing. You can look into a upholsteror to fix the leather. they can just replace that piece that is torn.

 

I just bought my 2000 gle and nothing is ripped. Everything is perfect. It has 84k miles on it and when I bought it I took it to the local nissan dealer to find out what had been done to it and they said nothing. everything was nissay factor installed.

The previous owner used armor all on it and had nissan do all service work and maintenance on it. From what you all are sayin, it's making me wonder what nissan used on it to keep it nice. I'm in florida and the seats should have been cracked by now but they are perfect.

 

I'm thinking the people who owned my Max before me propably did not condition the seats regularly and that is why it ripped. But who knows

 

Proper conditioning and protection from the sun whenever possible are the keys. Also, to revitalize leather that's dry and cracked, check out http://www.leatherique.com/

BTW - Yeah, my car is only 1yr old, but I do have 34k and leather looks new due to conditioning and parking out of the sun whenever possible.

 

If you guys still have the warranty intact, I think this should be covered. Leather shouldn't rip on it's own...

 

my 03 leather seems kind of thin, it looks like its wearing fast, i only got 12k on it, but it looks like its fading, i have a very small tiny rip/wear on it, the conditioner doesnt work on wear and tear, they just moisturize the leather, leather looks fragile, like it'll rip if i do anything to it, like a light scratch, but you can always get custom leather when your leather gets old. but do the warranty cover leather seats?

 

A good window film will help as well because it blocks the UVs.

I have heard that Lexol makes great leather care products.

Make sure that you are not just cleaning the leather but re-conditioning it afterwards. Cleaners will dry out the leather. That is why good leather care systems use 2 parts (cleaner and conditioner).