Removing cigarette smoke smell from cars?

Hello GRM's,

Looking to buy a car and some of the one's I've looked at reek of smoke. Good deals but...

Since my wife is very sensitive to it, the smell becomes a deal breaker. We are also going to have a baby soon and prefer not to have him smell that. He will create his own smells.

What is the best and hopefully fool proof methos of removing the smell from a car? normally with cloth seats. And is it best DIY or to hire a professional?

If paying someone to do it, what would be the best method to ask for?

I'm sure shampooing seats, carpet and headliner would work in part, but I'm also worried about damaging them or leaving stains. Lysol to the air intake, changing cabin filter if so equipped, leaving vinegar inside etc but I have not tried any before.

I have had an ozone machine in a hotel room remove a lot of smoke smell before but a car may have more crevices.

What has worked for you all before?

Thanks

JG went through this with his 5.0 Mustang. I'll see if I can chime in.

time.

My F-250 was headache inducing when I bought it. A year later, nobody can tell.

I put new carpet and a headliner in my Mustang, and did the ozone treatment. If it sat in the sun for a few days, I still got a whiff when the a/c first came on, though.

It'll have to be a particularly special deal for me to ever buy a smoker car again.

New cabin filter (if equipped), steam clean the living bejesus out of everything, Febreze daily for a week or so, and toss a few "odor eaters" under the seat. I'm a former smoker so I'm really sensitive to the smell, and the above pretty much does the trick for me. Some cars seem to retain scents better than others, though...within a month it was 100% gone from my 300ZX but my old Subarus wouldn't seem to let go of the smells no matter how hard I tried.

Lots of baking soda - like 1/2" thick everywhere. Leave in for 24 hours, then vacuum out.

My brother's detailer swears by it. It will even take out vomit smell.

NGTD wrote: Lots of baking soda - like 1/2" thick everywhere. Leave in for 24 hours, then vacuum out. My brother's detailer swears by it. It will even take out vomit smell.

I agree with J.G., tobacco smoke smell in a ride is a deal breaker for me!

As much as stale tobacco smoke bothers me, I'd probably need to take out the vomit smell too, right after a short and miserable test drive.

My 'rolla lost it with time and open-air ventilation...just a matter of months. But it wasn't that thick to start with. Now it has Race Car Smell (gas, oil, burnt rubber & sweat).

Thank you for the responses, keep them coming.

One I test drove yesterday had a powerful tobacco smell although at least it was not tobacco and sweat smell like others. Would buy it if it was not for that.

Shampooing everything, baking soda and open container with vinegar seem to be the normal tricks. I was looking at Ozone machines and saw one in amazon that is interesting. Seems to get good results.

http://www.amazon.com/ForeverOzone-Bare-Bones-Ozone-Generator/dp/B007GS5L08/ref=cm_cr_pr_sims_t

Tiny URL http://tinyurl.com/lf7oaon

I am mostly alright with a bit of smell leftover, my jeep smells of a mixture of a lot of things including wet German Shepherd, but I know my wife will object to a minimum amount. May have to keep on looking and pay more.

Be good

As SlickDizzy pointed out, a new cabin air filter is going to help a lot. I would also try using baking soda, both on the carpets and seats. After the car is detailed and clean, get a box of baking soda that is designed for use in the fridge. It has a cardboard section that peels away and a membrane that holds the baking soda in but exposes it to the surrounding air. Leave one or two of those under the seats and change them monthly, just like you would for fridge smells.
They look like this:

I've had good luck with some kind of ozone? smoke removal spray in an aerosol can from Home Depot. The only one I can find on their website that might be it is Zep Smoke Odor Eliminator spray.

I shampooed (with rug doctor as well has had a professional) a Lumina Van that my son's grandpa left us, scrubbed the interior very well and it still smelled. The spray did the trick.

Helped my friend's 240sx as well.

If all the cars you're looking at smell like either tobacco or sweat, maybe you should stop looking at Dodge Daytonas.

My company supplied plain vanilla Ford Taurus was purchased for me with 25 K on the speedo. Evidently the former owner smoked a fair bit. The car was purchased from a dealership and was well detailed to cover the smoke smell. Within a week or so the smell of tobacco came back. I tried room freshners cleaning the interior, Fabreeze, leaving the window open and everything else I could think of.

I no longer work for that company but they gave me the car and I still have it. Now five years later and 130K on the speedo every now and then when I get into the car I still get a wiff of smoke. I have constantly had a air freshners in the car since I have had it. For me a smokers car would be a deal breaker no matter how nice the car or how cheap the price.

I've used air sponge style air fresheners before; I suspect they just do the same thing that baking soda does. After a few weeks they lose their effectiveness so I dumped a sack of them in the passenger footwell and would crack a new one open every couple of days.

You definitely need to replace the cabin air filter and it wouldn't hurt going over the AC vents and the dashboard with some cleaner.

Direct sunlight exposure helps too, if you know it's not going to rain anytime soon.

Ozium is amazing if you have access to it.

The previous owner of my moms car was a light smoker--the smell wasn't overpowering, but it was there. We left open cups full of vinegar in it for about a month. No smoke anymore unless it is a super hot day.

ssswitch wrote: Ozium is amazing if you have access to it.

Looking at the reviews on Amazon is interesting. Example: "I've been smoking weed for about 8 years and this stuff has never failed me! Only use small bursts of sprays, if you use too much the smell is over powering. "

My truck (single cab, rubber floor) had light smoke smell when I got it. I did the vinegar thing after cleaning the whole interior (seats out, windex and simple green on everything) and then put ground coffee and baking powder out for a month and changed it every few days. This mostly helped, but you would still get a whiff right when you got in the car.

Then I moved to Arizona. One summer there and it almost never smells anymore :-)

Had a C4 Corvette that reeked of pipe tobacco. I had it professionally steam cleaned and that got rid of the stench. Cost $100, but was worth every penny.

JG Pasterjak wrote: If all the cars you're looking at smell like either tobacco or sweat, maybe you should stop looking at 80s cars.

FTFY it ain't just DCP cars from that era that smell that bad.

add lightness and race seats till it smells like a racecar!

You could also do my other technique for deodorizing a car, which is to drive around for an entire summer with a transmission in the hatch leaking 75w90 gear oil into the carpet.

The lesson? I should've done it with an auto trans because ATF smells much nicer.

i know for a fact that you can get them in a 10 tree sampler pack, because we made the machine to put the packs together at my last job...

that, and opening the windows to ventilate it..

I paid a professional $175 to deep clean the interior in my Mazda. I just factored it into the deal I put together and I'm very happy with the results.

There was one more "step" they could have done in the cleaning process that would have pushed the cost to $250, but the $175 version did the trick. This was a shop that had been detailing cars for 10+ years and they had a great reputation in the area.

I remember JG's 5.0 needing an ozone machine running overnight and replacement of the carpets.

Smoke is pretty insidious.

My biggest concern with trying to clean out the smell is the smoke/nicotine residue will still be in the ducts. That is going to be hard to clean out as well.