Ridding car of tobacco smells - suggestions?

[Dave(tm)]

Hey all,

With our growing brood, I bought Mrs DTM an S-Max yesterday. The car is great, but was clearly owned by a smoker and doesn't smell to good. Anyone got any suggestions around how to rid this otherwise perfect car of this smell? It's driving me mad!

Thanks,
Dave

[Scottymon]

I can highly recommend Dr.Beckmann's carpet cleaner for the seats, really brings them back and smells nice too.

[Ricky123]

http://m.wikihow.com/Get-Rid-of-Tobacco-Odors-in-Cars

There's a couple of good tips on there.

Also try one of those air con cleaning bomb things, basically close all the windows on the car, leave engine running and air con on full while on the recirculate function and leave one of the aircon cleaning bombs in there spraying away.

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=221825524472&globalID=EBAY-GB

Something like that. There plenty to choose from.

[xjay1337]

Good luck.
Depends how bad it is.
EVERYTHING needs thorough vacuum.
All traces of ash etc need removing.
Headliner needs steam cleaning with added cleaning additives and odour enzyme type of chemicals (above the drivers head is where most of the smell soaks in as well as above your head to the rear drivers side window area)

Replacing the pollen filter spraying the pollen filter itself with loads of air freshining/odour eating stuff before installation.
Air conditioning bomb (full recirc, fog machine the car)
then you need an air treatment package which is a little sachet of some very horrible chemical which is left in a small tub in the middle of the car and it chemically cleans the air within the car, you can't go in it for about 8 hours during/after.

Even then it may still have some smell remaining but will be a lot better.

[AJP]

My dad bought a 130 Passat a few years ago, really nice car, but the past owner was a cigar smoker..

The most vile odour imaginable. He tried all sorts - many of those posted in this thread - and it did nothing.

So... yeah, good luck.

Thankfully he managed to sell the car in the end. Would probably be even harder to sell these days smelling of cigars.. At least it wasn't a Rolls Royce.

[Dave(tm)]

Thanks guys, done good tips here. I do think that as annoying as I find it, the smell is quite mild, so hopefully we can get rid!

Will try some of these and report back. Interestingly, when I picked the car up it did smell of a strong chemical, so maybe that's been tried...let's see!

Dave

[Golf_GT_TDI]

Dakota odor bomb (use sparingly and/or inside a box with holes in as it does leave a residue which settles on trim panels)
That's probably the best bet 

[LondonGT]

What does that do exactly? I have the same problem in a BMW, it stinks. Had it deep cleaned, all filters changed, air con service and clean up and it still stinks.

I'm a smoker (not in cars) and if I have noticed it it must be bad.

I'm not going to be able to do anything for a while so if you beat me to it please post how it goes

[LondonGT]

Has anyone tried the autoglym stuff? Lots of feedback on the Dakota making a mess. I've ordered some of the spray so will try that this weekend, odour eliminator is on order.

[TForrest94]

Good luck.

 

Dekota bombs only make a mess if you lock it open they shoot high as they are made for domestic house hold use, do short bursts around the car and footwells and shut the doors let it work for a bit and repeat and you will be fine, remember they are very strong so let the car settle and air for a couple of hours before driving

[xjay1337]

Try "chlorine car bombs".

[LondonGT]

Dakota bomb a fail. Going to try autoglym next

[Dave J]

I think you're just going to have to keep cleaning it again & again, and again! Some great suggestions above though. The Valetpro enzyme eaters work very well - suggest you try these on the upholstery.
 
My ED30 had the smells of a smoker - it has no ashtray, so presume they only ever smoked windows down.
The whole car was wet vacced when I bought it - I've had the aircon cleaned and refreshed a couple of times, every surface has been deep cleaned, & the windows cleaned every few months.

There's no smell now, but I am still surprised at the dirt coming off the inside of the windows, even considering how long it has been in my ownership & the no of aircon cleanses. Just shows how long the muck stays around for...

[LondonGT]

So summary;

Dakota bomb
Professional clean twice
Autoglym odour spray
Autoglym aircon cleanser

Nothing worked. The aircon cleaner has managed to make it worse which is weird. It's definitely in the aircon system despite all filters being done.

Next up....it's going.

[xjay1337]

Did you replace the pollen filter
this holds lots of junk.

you need to use chlorine treatment really.
you shouldn't really but have the car running for an hour with air con on and recirc on.
then turn off car and leave for the rest of day.
Scrub the whole headliner with steam cleaner and an interior cleaner
use an odour neutraliser product as well.

http://www.amazon.com/NosGuard-Auto-Odor-Eliminator-Control/dp/B00J4GHLFI