Removing cigarette smoke smell from cars?

I tried everything on an Audi A4, manual trans, wagon I had with cloth seats. Nothing fully worked. Better but not better enough. Sold the car at a loss after a few months.

Tried ozium, baking powder, white vinegar, special carpet cleaner for smoke smells, special carpet cleaner for animal smells, time. Did that over the course of a few months. Nothing cured it.

Tried a professional detailer who said he could 'fix' the smell. Total waste of money there.

An industrial ozone machine used for smoke abatement in houses got my F250 from "bottom of an ashtray" to "freshly washed baby" in about 3 hours.

Probably helps that it is leather.

If it's not too much trouble, take the blower motor out and give the squirrel cage a good cleaning. You can clean some of the blower outlet toward the ducts while the motor is out too. One problem is the smoke residue gets on the heater and evaporator cores, hard to get clean. I think GM and other manufactures have a mold midlew remover that can be sprayed into the HVAC case.

Ozium works well. After cleaning the blower spray some into the recirculate air intake with the blower running. You can sprinkle baking soda under the carpets and seats and leave it there.

Clean the dash, blower ducts, and all the interior plastic you can with Castrol Super Clean, full strength. Use white paper towels, you'll gross yourself out, but you'll know when all the tar/nicotine is removed. Use rubber gloves, Super Clean is hard on the skin. Your baby won't like your rough hands.

Or you can just pick up the habit and then it won't bother you Joking aside, I had a explorer that stunk of smoke, and every 2 weeks I would vacuum and spray febreeze. I got the seats and floor good, but the headliner I could never get the smoke smell out completely.

mtn wrote: 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.

This works.

But, if you want to do the same thing quicker. Hook the car to a charger, this step is Important..

Then.. Boil a big pot of vinegar. Get it boiling really good....

Quickly bring the pot of boiling vinegar to the car and place it inside, on top of a hunk of wood to keep it from melting anything it sits on. Make sure the windows are shut,and vents are open and the fan turned on it's max setting.

Keep things as mentioned above for as long as possible.. Over an hour is good, but if you can leave it that way overnight.. Even better!!

Boiled Vinegar is a awesome deodorizer.

Full Disclosure.. At first Boiled Vinegar replaces the offensive smell with a strong Vinegar smell... The Vinegar smell goes away and is replaced with no smell. The speed with which it does so is dependent on the amount of ventilation.

I've had my Tahoe for about 3 years and I still get a whiff of smoke every now and then. It was really bad once the dealer cleaning product smell was gone after 2 weeks. They did an ozone treatment and I had the carpets professionally cleaned. It got better with time. You need to keep cleaning it though as the oils come through the leather and carpets. I curse at smokers I see driving around now.

I got a cheap price on a magnum wagon - between the smoke and the sticky sweet blunt spray, it would almost knock you down when ya opens the door! I took the seats out, and under the back seat was lots on rotting candy and food. Poor kids!!! In addition to deep cleaning everything, I also took out every panel, a few at a time, and cleaned the BACK side... along with all the duct work I could get to. Worked good!

We seem to buy cars w some kind of stink.  We bought an ozone machine that was reasonably priced, it has more than paid for itself. It took out both mildew and smoke.  Sorry I just can't loan it to you.