How do I remove smoke oder from a car?

August 2, 2013 8:06 PM

My mom gave my daughter a great deal on a car previously driven by my step-dad. However he was a smoker, and he smoked in the car for 10 years. How do I deoderize the interior and remove the stale smoke oder?
posted by COD to Travel & Transportation (18 answers total)

Febreeze actually works wonders on smoky odors. You can spray it on all the fabrics and see if that works.

If it doesn't, take it to a car detailer. They have tons of ways of getting smells out.
posted by xingcat at 8:10 PM on August 2, 2013 [4 favorites]

I'd pay the $20 or whatever for the works at a car detailing place, and then take it for a drive on a nice day with the windows all rolled down. Preferably in the countryside or a park or someplace that won't impart even worse odors.
posted by Sara C. at 8:13 PM on August 2, 2013

Leave all the windows open pretty much constantly for as long as you can. Seriously, I have desmoked a car before and fresh air is all that really works. Febreze just substitutes the smell of febreze for the smell of smoke. You need to just completely air it out - the good news is it really only takes a week or two of constantly open windows - both while driving and while it's parked - to get most of the bad smell out.
posted by mygothlaundry at 8:14 PM on August 2, 2013

It will be absolutely worth the ~$75-~$120 (depending upon market) to get it professionally detailed. Honestly, as long as you're paying no more than $300, you're repairing a deal-killer level issue, because there's no other way to get rid of the smell.

Well, you could do most of it yourselves - thoroughly vacuum every nook and cranny, shampoo the interior with the appropriate formulation for each textile/surface, swab out the ventilation system, clean all of the smooth surfaces, strip and polish all of the glass - and then have a detailer go over the things you didn't feel confident about. But planetesimal is right - getting the right person for the job in the first place will be worth the money.
posted by batmonkey at 8:33 PM on August 2, 2013

Detail it, vacuum it regularly, and then drive with vents and windows open when you can. I got an old used smoker's car and the smell goes away and you can speed the process along by doing the above.
posted by quince at 8:34 PM on August 2, 2013

I bought a car six months ago and the dealership put it through 2 hour cleaning treatment that was supposed to work. It did for a week. I have tried everything I can think of to remove the cigar stench. I was told it is in the foam and probably impossible to remove.

I open the windows and use air fresheners. I spray it once in a while. Nothing has really worked.
posted by cairnoflore at 8:38 PM on August 2, 2013

Changing the cabin air filters may help alleviate. It's generally not too hard to DIY.
posted by Cuspidx at 8:41 PM on August 2, 2013 [2 favorites]

Get the inside wet cleaned and shop vac'd. Change the air filters. Then Febreeze it. Then drive it around for a few weeks with open containers of baking soda. (if they spill, it's no bog deal; they vacuum up easily enough.)
posted by DarlingBri at 8:45 PM on August 2, 2013

Keep trays of activated charcoal in the car for as much time as possible--all day for several weeks, if possible. It may be more convenient to remove them when you actually drive the car, to avoid spilling or stepping in them.

This worked pretty well for two cars I've used to get cat and cigarette smells out.
posted by daveliepmann at 8:53 PM on August 2, 2013

Make sure (if you're not getting it detailed) you wipe down every single surface in that car. My first car (many many years ago) was from similar situation, where I got a good deal from a relative who was also a chain smoker. The amount of yellow goop I wiped from the headliner and behind the visors... ugh.

I also do not recommend the "solution" my friends tried, which involved acquiring air fresheners from every gas station bathroom in town. To this day I cannot even be in vicinity of purple Mr Wizards.
posted by cgg at 8:59 PM on August 2, 2013 [1 favorite]

Ozone generator. I got one on Amazon for $150 and it has served me well. Seriously.
posted by bolognius maximus at 9:16 PM on August 2, 2013

You don't. You take it to a detailing service near you that has good online recommendations. Detail, detail, detail. If you live near a Ziebart Tidy Car, they have this stuff that they use while detailing that obliterates smoke smell. Shouldn't be more than $200 at the utter most.

The problem isn't that the smoke has just bonded to your interior surfaces, it's that it's in the vents, and unless you take the whole dash out, you're not gonna kill that smell right away.

Get thee to a detailer.
posted by Sphinx at 10:35 PM on August 2, 2013

Simple Green is great for this. We bought a truck from a cigar smoker. Truck had cloth seats, carpet, and cloth ceiling liner. Honey that truck wreaked from 10 feet away! We filled a spray bottle with the full concentrated solution. Sprayed the interior daily, be sure to spray the roof, front and back of seats, we even sprayed into the vents. Set the air condition to recirculate and spray near the floor near the front dash. This will suck up the Simple Green mist and disperse it throughout the vent system.

After about 10 days, the truck smelled fine. The Simple Green solution has a clean smell, it does not smell like an air freshener bomb. I purchased the gallon size from Sam's.
posted by JujuB at 11:42 PM on August 2, 2013

Freshwave deoderizing gel. Available on Amazon: cleared my car of what I thought was permanent doggy smell. Leave some in open containers throughout the vehicle and replace when they dry up.
posted by Pomo at 10:09 AM on August 3, 2013

Nthing bolognius maximus' recommendation for an ozone generator or taking it to a car detailing place to get an ozone treatment. It works.
posted by nobejen at 11:31 AM on August 3, 2013

A possibility: Go to a you-pull-it type junkyard and get seats from a non-smoking car. You may have to do a bit of hunting, since you want to pull the seats from a car that hasn't been windshield-less for a week.
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 11:43 AM on August 3, 2013

We bought a car that just REEKED of smoke-so much that it made our garage smell like cigarettes and we started to park our other car outside. We had it detailed and some ozone treatment thing done and it got a little better but still never went away. What finally worked was putting a tupperware dish of vinegar on the floor in the front every night and dumping it out in the morning before my husband went to work. He also drove around with 2 open packages of cheap ground coffee for a few months. That's what finally worked for us.
posted by hollygoheavy at 2:18 PM on August 4, 2013

Response by poster: It turn out that my step-father (who I barely knew) was also the kind of person who took his car to the premium car wash every Saturday for a hand wash, vacuum, deep cleaning, etc. It really was not nearly as bad as I was expecting. No yellow film on the windows at all, not even any dust on the dashboard. There is slight sale smoke oder, but I barely notice it and I suspect it'll fade completely eventually.

Also, if you ever find yourself on an all day drive in 10+ year old car with a factory cassette deck and your iTrip stops functioning, you can still buy cassette adapters at truck stops.
posted by COD at 5:56 AM on August 5, 2013