How to get rid of interior cigarette smoke smell?

chagan02

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All,

Well I’m loving the new car, but apparently the smoke smell from the previous owner is harder to get rid of that I anticipated. So far I have taken out the seats, used carpet and upholstery clean on the headliner, flooring, and seats. Have also wiped all hard surfaces with Turtle Wax Cleaner with OdorX. Also changed the cabin air filter. Lastly I used one of those scent bomb cans and ran the car with AC on recirculating. Although it’s better, I can still smell the cigarette odor. I took it to a detail shop and the guy was actually pretty honest, said he could deep clean everything but it would likely return, and said the only true cure was time and air.

Thus, is there anything else I can try, or do I just need to ventilate and be patient.

Thanks.


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nxhappy

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By far the BEST. and I have tried MANY products

https://amzn.to/2HgLXmG


Spray it everywhere. It will take about 1 month. But eventually, it will smell AMAZING
 
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nxhappy

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that febreze is high concentrate. It works WONDERS. Some old cars I sold were TERRIBLE inside. This spray made them smell like dandelions in a beautiful wonderland hahahaha
 

specracer

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Try an ozone generator. Not to expensive, but really works. I got one for a musty car (leaking vapor barrier). Worked fantastic. the ozone was really intense, but settled down after a day After the musty smell was GONE (note, got the carpet dry and fixed barrier issue also).

For me fabreeze simply covers up the smells with a stronger one.

 

blue 07

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An ionizer is your only hope and if deep in the headliner, you will really find out on a hot day with the windows rolled up. Adams Premium Car Care has some really good stuff as well- Car Bomb , Odor Neutralizer, etc. if really bad the ionizer should work
 

DSG2003Mach1

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the owner before me smoked in the Lightning I had, thankfully not heavily but you could smell it. I scrubbed EVERY nook and cranny with a brush to remove any residue. It sounds like you've cleaned everything else up pretty well. I left the truck in the garage with all windows open and it gradually faded.

Coffee grounds are excellent for absorbing odor - Id be tempted to pull the seats again and put the grounds in the carpet to sit for a bit then vacuum em up.
 

cidsamuth

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Isn't there an industrial time machine/process that car dealers use? Had in my head there was, and that it was fairly effective.
 

chagan02

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Thanks to all whom have replied. A few options mentioned that I haven’t tried. Of course the ionizer and ozone machine would be last resorts due to cost. I guess I could try the coffee thing. Also, on the ozium, is that just an air fresher that I’ll just have to re spray, or does it spray into the fabrics and kill the odor. I really I want a permanent solution. Give how much cleaning I’ve done, it now smells like a Smokers Janitor closet. Lol. The smoke smell isn’t as strong, but can still get a whiff of it.


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Corbic

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Cat piss does a great job of covering it up.


In all seriousness, replace your headliner, deap clean the upholstery, steam, wet carpet vac. Replace floor mats.
 

Revvv

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the owner before me smoked in the Lightning I had, thankfully not heavily but you could smell it. I scrubbed EVERY nook and cranny with a brush to remove any residue. It sounds like you've cleaned everything else up pretty well. I left the truck in the garage with all windows open and it gradually faded.

Coffee grounds are excellent for absorbing odor - Id be tempted to pull the seats again and put the grounds in the carpet to sit for a bit then vacuum em up.
Baking soda also absorbs smells.

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Revvv

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Cat piss does a great job of covering it up.


In all seriousness, replace your headliner, deap clean the upholstery, steam, wet carpet vac. Replace floor mats.
Just leave the car in CV355 's subdivision. There is a cat that will make sure to take care of the problem. After that you will need to consult @CV355 on how to remove cat piss.

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CV355

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Just leave the car in CV355 's subdivision. There is a cat that will make sure to take care of the problem. After that you will need to consult @CV355 on how to remove cat piss.

Cat Piss? Enzymatic cleaner, a portable extractor, and a few sessions of scent-bombing the car, and you can't tell. But you know. Oh, do you know.

This past Fall, my neighbor's car decided to jump up and piss down into my sunroof gutter. Just so happens that the hurricane that passed through dumped enough water, and my gutter drain tube was clogged, that it backed up and popped the tube out in the car. So, when that mangy cat pissed, it went RIGHT down behind the console in my Volvo. I had to damn near tear the car apart and wash everything by hand. I confronted the neighbor, who said "it can't be my cat" even though I had pictures. Sucks, the neighbors are super nice people, I just hate their cat.

Anywho, cigarette smoke is another problem entirely. Unlike cat piss, it gets UP into things (unless you shake the cat, then it goes everywhere too). There are commercial products that claim they remove the smell, but we all know it doesn't work like a magic bullet. The only thing that I have ever witnessed as working for smoke is manually tearing down the interior and steam-cleaning everything, followed by an ozone generator.

The problem with "absorbers" is that they do not address the root cause of the problem. If there's nicotine and tar built up in nooks and crannies in the headliner, an absorber on the floor isn't going to clean that buttsludge out.

One of the work trucks I used to have to use was referred to as a "rolling ash tray." Most of the guys that put the 250k miles on a 4 year old truck were heavy chain-smokers. It was so nasty, all of the windows had a yellow tint that you could scrape up with your fingernail. It followed the "Subway Rule": Spend 15 seconds in there, and you smell like it. The company retired the nastiest trucks to "service only," so no customers, Thank God. They got a new F150 and established a "no smoking" rule. Ha. That didn't work. The truck stunk within 3 months. The general manager went to use it one day, and he was disgusted. He sent it to a local detailer who did just as I described. I put around 4000 miles on that truck over the next few years and never noticed a cigarette smell.
 

Revvv

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Cat Piss? Enzymatic cleaner, a portable extractor, and a few sessions of scent-bombing the car, and you can't tell. But you know. Oh, do you know.

This past Fall, my neighbor's car decided to jump up and piss down into my sunroof gutter. Just so happens that the hurricane that passed through dumped enough water, and my gutter drain tube was clogged, that it backed up and popped the tube out in the car. So, when that mangy cat pissed, it went RIGHT down behind the console in my Volvo. I had to damn near tear the car apart and wash everything by hand. I confronted the neighbor, who said "it can't be my cat" even though I had pictures. Sucks, the neighbors are super nice people, I just hate their cat.

Anywho, cigarette smoke is another problem entirely. Unlike cat piss, it gets UP into things (unless you shake the cat, then it goes everywhere too). There are commercial products that claim they remove the smell, but we all know it doesn't work like a magic bullet. The only thing that I have ever witnessed as working for smoke is manually tearing down the interior and steam-cleaning everything, followed by an ozone generator.

The problem with "absorbers" is that they do not address the root cause of the problem. If there's nicotine and tar built up in nooks and crannies in the headliner, an absorber on the floor isn't going to clean that buttsludge out.

One of the work trucks I used to have to use was referred to as a "rolling ash tray." Most of the guys that put the 250k miles on a 4 year old truck were heavy chain-smokers. It was so nasty, all of the windows had a yellow tint that you could scrape up with your fingernail. It followed the "Subway Rule": Spend 15 seconds in there, and you smell like it. The company retired the nastiest trucks to "service only," so no customers, Thank God. They got a new F150 and established a "no smoking" rule. Ha. That didn't work. The truck stunk within 3 months. The general manager went to use it one day, and he was disgusted. He sent it to a local detailer who did just as I described. I put around 4000 miles on that truck over the next few years and never noticed a cigarette smell.
This left me laughing with tears in my eyes.

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850SNCobra

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sitting a cup of vinegar could possibly work too. Maybe 2 cups, one sitting in the front and one in the back. This will obviously work when the vehicle isn't being driven.

My parents say this is how they got the smoke smell out of my car while they drove it back when I went on a year vacation lol. When I got back, the car didn't smell of any smoke and I was super impressed.
 

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