So first question that my google fu failed me on. How much of the leather seats is actually leather?

I know a lot of brands nowadays has "leatherette" seats(here's looking at you BMW), and you have to upgrade a lot to get "leather seating surfaces" and then even more to get all leather seats. is this true for an 05 infiniti?


2nd question. I see that for my year, 215/55r17 and 235/45r18 tires are the available tire sizes, would there be any fitment issues with getting a 235/50r17 tire? it looks like per several online calculators, it would be physically the same size as the 235/45r18 tire so I wouldn't expect there to be, but was wondering if anybody else has upsized their tire?

 

There is only one leather seat option for 2005. Early 2003's got cloth, but by '04 i beleive all G35's went leather across the board. So your base '05 sedan seats would be identical to a fully loaded 05 awd premium's seats.

Typically, OEM manufacturers follow a sort of rule over never exceeding 2" wider than the rim width. The original 17x7 wheel means 9" width which is around 225-230mm. So you are at the limit. You get a wider contact patch meaning more traction, but the downside is when you have a wider patch than the rim, you can get sidewall bulge which tends to flex. So handling *may* suffer a tad.

On my Mustangs i used to jam 275/40/17's on an 8" rim which is almost 11" wide. Great for drag racing, but the sidewalls tended to roll over on itself in hard turns. With the car parked, i used to be able to put my hip in the fender and move the car side to side just on sidewall flex alone.

So just something to keep in mind if you want to put a little bit wider rubber on your car without wider rims.

 

Does the seat have just leather seating surfaces or leather all around? I would like to clean and condition the leather, but don't want to waste the conditioner on the vinyl parts.


I was thinking a little wider tire, since I seem to light these ones up very quickly... and Since 95% of my driving is all freeway stop and go in a straight line, some loss in handling isn't too big of an issue.


I am an avid off roader, and I have super wide and tall tires on super tiny and skinny wheels so I am familiar with the concept.

 

How are the quality of the tires you are currently on? The automatic RWD does have an open differential (3.3 final drive ratio) so with poor tires and that open diff, you could be just experiencing good ole 1-wheel peel.


Unsure what portion of the seats is leather. I usually clean the entire seat when I do mine. I do notice a few scars present in the leather (good indicator it's real leather) but the ones i notice are on the seat-back. Never looked elsewhere

 

My rear seats have a lot of wear on them, so I am thinking of conditioning them, and then covering them and then putting the kids car seats on them, so they stay nice an protected. Kids car seats are hard on the cars seats.

I don't even know. They are pretty new, but I don't think they will last long... I've been able to get them to light up a little bit, and with the traction control off, I've done a few corners sideways. Lots of fun, but not good for tires. Plus I wouldn't mind a little more sidewall flex, as the freeways I drive on are pretty crap. and the suspension is a bit stiff. Great for nice roads, not so great for roads under construction.

 

I have an 05', the only thing that is "leather" is the part you sit on. The sides, backs arm rest, door arm rests are all fake leather.

And even the "leather" is kinda fake, it's fabric backed and really thin, but if you take care of it, it will last. You MUST feed it at least twice a year and try to keep it out of the sun. (use a sun shade and get your windows tinted)

Tires, yes they will fit.

 

Thanks Texasscout.

 

I find leatherique to be an outstanding product. A bit of a p.i.t.a but the results are well worth it. It works on the vinyl portions as well. And yes, as I understand it, only the portion of the seats that contact your body are leather.

 

+1 on the leatherique. A litle bit of work but the results are awesome.

 

Some enterprising soul had a "ghetto stagger" setup on the stock rims when I got my G - 215/55 on front, 225/55 on the back... At least they were the same brand!

I'll replace all 4 after I burn the rears down a bit.