Removing Tobacco smell

[thornz]

Anyone had any success at eliminating tobacco smell from a car?
The car we are looking at buying unfortunately has this horrid smell. Car dealer assures me its a simple job to remove it, but am a bit sceptical, and worried they will just try deodorise it, as reading links around teh web, no one seems to be able to rid the car completely.

The dealer claims the guy who does it uses the same equipment as they use for removing the smokey smell from a partially burnt house. Anyone head of this being successful in a car?

[Lurkin]

Owed an mr2 which someone had spewed in at some stage (had no idea at the time of purchase)... never got rid of the smell and literally had tried everything.. odour removers, groomers, carpet cleaner, taking the carpets out and soaking them, washing the seats etc. etc.. no matter what I did whenever the car had been shut up, or heated up (sun etc) it stunk.

was much easier to buy a new car and scrap it. Would not ever buy a smelly car again, unless I wanted mechanical parts off it for another project.

[iOnic]

Smoke rises. Most of it is in the headlining. At my last job we would pull it all out and wash the $&#$% out of it then deodorize the seats and carpet etc

[RS13]

He may be able to get most of it off the seats, carpet and dash etc, but its' almost impossible getting it out of heater ducts.. besides, if it was easy to do, being a car dealer he would have done it already. I'd look at another car.

[deaf_rattle]

i hear setting them on fire works quite well.

[Dell'Orto]

Its doable, but hard work. My Levin was owned by a dude who smoked, and it had a busted window regulatorfor some months I stripped the entire interior out and cleaned everything, air vents and all.

[Mr Revhead]

turn the fan onto recirc and spray a whole can of air freshener in it and shut the doors and leave it going for a while.
After you have pulled the seats out and vacuum/washed everything.
My wagon was owned by a smoker with a dog and thats how I got rid of the smells

[Brawler]

Try getting them to do it, "oh well im very keen on the car but the smoke smell is kinda putting me off, theres another car at xxx im also looking at too" blah blah blah Play to win

[AE86less]

Stuff ashtray(s) with potpourri?

[Mr Revhead]

Oh missed the dealer bit. Yeah tell them to sort it or go else where

[h8wrxs]

a mate of mine spilt bong water in my old trueno about 5 years ago, my sister has that car now and still has a faint smell.

short of replacing all the seats/carpets etc i dont think you can get rid of tobacco/bong stench

[Emperor]

I smoke in my car, but I have two underseat airfreshners which are quite potent... And once a weak I spray it full of anti-tobacco stuff(industrial) and use interior cleaner to wipe down all the plastics so they don't go brown.

[thornz]

Thanks for the replys.

Have already stated that it would be a condition of any sale.
Was more worried they might just try deodirise it indstead of really fixing the issue. After reading through as much as I can find online, looks like we will most likely pass on the sale.

Shame, it ruined a nice car!

[rollaholic]

take up smoking?

[Leon]

I smoke in my car,

Stop it! Your nose might not detect it, but you're very likely totally ruining a car!!

[thornz]

So spoke again with the dealer and aparently they use a Ozone generator which they leave running in the car for a 24 hour period. Similar to something like this:

http://www.odarid.co.nz/ViewItem.php?ItemID=110

[BZG Wagon]

So spoke again with the dealer and aparently they use a Ozone generator which they leave running in the car for a 24 hour period. Similar to something like this:

http://www.odarid.co.nz/ViewItem.php?ItemID=110

My mates parents had this done on their car - seemed to work pretty well. Didn't remove the smell 100%, but it was gone enough not to notice unless told.

[thornz]

Well we have decided to give the car a miss after the Wife found quite a few articles backing this one here:

http://www.tobaccotoolkit.ca/index.php? ... s&Itemid=1

And with babies on the cards in the next couple of years, would rather not take the risk, and for piece of mind, find something thats been a non smoker car.

[wobbly]

i had a integra years ago with same problem, so i tried burning insence sticks in it, it kind of worked, but after a few months it wore off and ciggy smoke come back

[TTEETT]

Unless its an ultra rare car and you are willing to go the distance of removing the whole interior and possibly recovering/replacing the seats and headliner I would look at a non smoked in alternative, you won’t kill that toxic smell.

Tobacco does smell quite nice until its burnt.

Owed an mr2 which someone had spewed in at some stage (had no idea at the time of purchase)... never got rid of the smell and literally had tried everything.. odour removers, groomers, carpet cleaner, taking the carpets out and soaking them, washing the seats etc. etc.. no matter what I did whenever the car had been shut up, or heated up (sun etc) it stunk.

Lol, MR2’s have that effect on people. Have had a similar experience with my dog spewing in the car, could never get rid of that smell no matter what!