Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
What you want is a product called "Bad Air Sponge". Bed Bath & Beyond sells it, as does Amazon. It is amazing stuff. Stick it under the seat or in the floorboard and you will be amazed.
My other recommendation would be a spray air freshener called Ozium Air Sanitizer, you can find it at Walmart and a few other places. I used to travel for my old job and often had to stay at cheap hotels/motels (state government per diem being what it was and all that), and I always carried Ozium with me to get rid of the stale cigarette smoke odors in hotel rooms.
Very easy to remove smells from a car. However, it is dangerous as you will be making chlorine gas but as long as you use common sense it's fine. Materials needed: bucket, gallon of bleach, quart of ammonia.
Follow this how-to:
1) Outside but near the car, set bucket on ground.
2) Start car engine and roll up all windows.
3) Set a/c to high and recirculate.
4) Open passenger door and leave it open.
5) Pour a quart or so (doesn't have to be exact) of bleach into bucket.
6) Next, while holding your breath, pour half a quart (again, not exact) of ammonia into bucket.
7) Walk away a from bucket a car length or so and get a fresh breath of air. (or if you can continue holding your breath another 10 seconds proceed to step #9
8) Now take a deep breath and walk back to bucket.
9) Place bucket on passenger floorboard inside car.
10) Close door.
11) Allow car to idle for 15 minutes undisturbed.
12) After time has elapsed walk over to car and hold your breath before opening door.
13) Remove bucket from car and dump out mixture in an area near water hose to dilute after dumping.
14) Go back to driver's side of the car and again hold your breath while opening the door.
15) Roll down all windows and turn off car.
16) Leave windows down for several hours to allow car to air out.
That's it. You're done. Car will smell like a swimming pool for several weeks but I assure you the chlorine smell will vanish. Any odors including cigarette smoke present prior to this will be eliminated.
I Googled mixing bleach and ammonia and all it brought up was how dangerous it is. Do you have anything showing that this works?
The only experience I have with an ozone machine was at a home. The owner cooked a lot of curry so the house smelled like it. After the ozone treatment it smelled 95% better. The home smelled terrible so it was significantly better.
I had to share a company vehicle with a coworker who smoked in the vehicle, albeit, against the rules. I kept a can of the Ozium Air Sanitizer spray in the vehicle. Not 100%, but made my time in the vehicle bearable.
There is nothing you can do to completely remove it. If the smell of smoke bothers you do not buy the car because you will not get rid of it
Im researching online and see detailers talk about products and other things that will remove it. It seems if it's a light odor it can be removed completely. Ozone machines seem to perform the best.
Im researching online and see detailers talk about products and other things that will remove it. It seems if it's a light odor it can be removed completely. Ozone machines seem to perform the best.
I can tell you from experience, it won't be removed completely.
I agree with m378 - it can't be removed completely. I don't have the same detailing experience but I'm very sensitive to the tobacco smell and can feel it every time, no matter how thorough cleaning was done. I'd strongly suggest to reconsider, unless you don't mind the omnipresent smell. It's not a surface smell, it really gets ingrained into the whole upholstery and every plastic piece.
Very easy to remove smells from a car. However, it is dangerous as you will be making chlorine gas but as long as you use common sense it's fine. Materials needed: bucket, gallon of bleach, quart of ammonia.
Follow this how-to:
1) Outside but near the car, set bucket on ground.
2) Start car engine and roll up all windows.
3) Set a/c to high and recirculate.
4) Open passenger door and leave it open.
5) Pour a quart or so (doesn't have to be exact) of bleach into bucket.
6) Next, while holding your breath, pour half a quart (again, not exact) of ammonia into bucket.
7) Walk away a from bucket a car length or so and get a fresh breath of air. (or if you can continue holding your breath another 10 seconds proceed to step #9
8) Now take a deep breath and walk back to bucket.
9) Place bucket on passenger floorboard inside car.
10) Close door.
11) Allow car to idle for 15 minutes undisturbed.
12) After time has elapsed walk over to car and hold your breath before opening door.
13) Remove bucket from car and dump out mixture in an area near water hose to dilute after dumping.
14) Go back to driver's side of the car and again hold your breath while opening the door.
15) Roll down all windows and turn off car.
16) Leave windows down for several hours to allow car to air out.
That's it. You're done. Car will smell like a swimming pool for several weeks but I assure you the chlorine smell will vanish. Any odors including cigarette smoke present prior to this will be eliminated.
Such great advice. OP can be buried in her now smoke free car.
There is nothing you can do to completely remove it. If the smell of smoke bothers you do not buy the car because you will not get rid of it
Quote:
Originally Posted by m378
I can tell you from experience, it won't be removed completely.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jelenap
I agree with m378 - it can't be removed completely. I don't have the same detailing experience but I'm very sensitive to the tobacco smell and can feel it every time, no matter how thorough cleaning was done. I'd strongly suggest to reconsider, unless you don't mind the omnipresent smell. It's not a surface smell, it really gets ingrained into the whole upholstery and every plastic piece.
That's not true. You can get rid of 95% of it in short order. The rest of it will dissipate in a month or so if you don't smoke in it.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
