It’s almost better to do no maintenance if you ever plan on doing work on your leather upholstery. I know that sounds redundant, but the silicones and mineral oils in the most popular leather conditioner products can cause irreversible problems that affect the adhesion of new dye and repairs. It is possible to remove these contaminants on a solid leather, but it’s considerably more work and a lot more huffing of dangerous flammable chemicals. The real problem occurs when perforated leather gets saturated with silicone or mineral oil. The holes create a delicate situation that makes it just about impossible to do any serious cleaning. There is a possible danger of the leather fibers unraveling because the leather edge is exposed.

I’m not saying that if you ever use these products the adhesion potential is affected forever. I think most people use these products very infrequently, which doesn’t bother me in the least. My biggest gripe is when I’m asked to do leather worn all the way through repairs for the auto resale market. Usually I get these vehicles after the detail cleaning is done, and the leather has a fresh application of who knows what. Once a leather wear spot has been saturated with a run of the mill silicone or mineral oil product it’s really a disservice to the next customer to cover up the saturated leather with a repair. It is impossible to prep correctly because the chemicals get to the back of the leather because of the open tear. I’ve seen fresh repairs separate because of a lack of adhesion. As soon as the seat gets used and the leather stretches the separation occurs in this situation.

It’s worse with some of the big name leather cleaner/conditioner combination products. First I saw the color get bleached on a 06 Ford Mustang leather. I was asked to correct this problem, and I could not get the silicone out of the seat. The job was plagued with fish eyes. I know the temptation is great to do this type of job yourself, and my cleaner/conditioner is more expensive than the big name product, but in this example the customer would have saved more money using my product. Not to mention the adhesion was compromised with the off the shelf product.

http://uphfix.com/leatherinvestment.htm