Cleaning tan colored leather seats in 2002 Highlander

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I recently bought a 2002 Highlander with tan colored leather seats. Overall the leather appears to need cleaning, and it also has some sharp creases with dark dirt down in them. And, in some broad places, the leather looks very smooth and stiff, and looks ready to crack, like maybe it's too dry (?).

I tried using plain water to clean the leather (thinking water would be a very gentle choice) but I stopped because if I rubbed with any kind of firmness, the tan coloring began coming off there, leaving a darker spot on the tan leather. Bad and ugly. Also I found that if a drop of water sat for a few minutes on the leather, when I wiped it up it left behind a very clean looking spot, just from plain water sitting there. I'm afraid to pick and prod too much on those spots for fear of removing the tan color.

Does anyone know what's going on with this stuff and how I can clean the seats safely?

Thank you.

[TrailDust]

I'm moving your thread over to the car care forum where a larger body of people with leather seats are likely to reply. Also, I've left a redirect in the Highlander forum so the members there can still navigate to this thread. You might want to search the car care forum for past threads about cleaning leather seats, which has definitely been discussed in the past.

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I understand why you moved the thread, but I had put it in the Gen 1 forum in case the leather in my 2002 (gen 1) was different from newer (and maybe better) leather. As you can tell from my post it seems finicky and I don't want to hurt it further.

I might need to add that I did a search (in the gen 1 forum) before posting my question, but I wanted to get more info than what I found.

Thanks.

[shortlid]

Lexol has the best leather cleaner and treatment in a two step process!! I would but buy bthe cleaner and the treatment. You can use teh foaming cleaner and rub VERY softly witha soft cloth.

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Thanks. I spoke to the Parts dept at my dealer and found that they highly recommend Lexol also. In fact they stock it but not Toyota Vinyl and Leather Protectant.

I cleaned it a little today with the Woolite/water solution to see how it would do, and I was reminded of something I should have mentioned above. While rubbing (and maybe I'm rubbing too hard, but really I'm not rubbing very hard at all) little balls and pieces of coloring come off the leather. It's very disconcerting. It happens with water only too. Is that normal?