Omega Owners Forum
Chat Area => General Car Chat => Topic started by: Ninda on 02 January 2012, 15:45:47
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Can anyone help me with the smell of cigarettes in my car, the previous owner I brought it from was a heavy smoker, and I have no idea what to do to get rid of it, and I badly need to get rid of it as my son and daughter both suffer from asthma, and find it harder to breath in my car. Also the smell is very powerful, and gives me a headache
I have googled this issue, a lot of people are saying to get the car professionally valeted, but I was wondering is there any cheaper ways to do it?
A few people are saying to cut a onion in half and place in the car over night, they say this should absorb the smell, and the car shouldn’t stink of onions, I would try this but don’t want to run the risk of it not working and smelling like a mixture of both
So any advice ?
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So any advice ?
Anyone know much about air fresheners? ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ;) ;)
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A full valet would get rid of a lot of the smell , around here its only £10 and a free smelly thrown in ....depending on what fragrance you prefer i think the apple interior cleaner makes it smell nice and absorbs any nasty smells .
Dont know about the onion though :y
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Have a look in your local motor factors, they should do an air con bomb that will greatly reduce any stale smoke smell. :y
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empty some coffee granules into a open cointainer and place on back seat leave overnight that should help
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You could try hiring a rug doctor with the upholtery attachment . I had some success with an extremely doggy smelling signum.
I think it was £30 for the weekend but 3 cars and the whole house got done too!
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I dont like the mixture of smells .. nothing can replace the fresh smell of properly cleaned car.. there are foam sprays ( a bit alcoholic) that can clear different parts of car (if chairs not leather, for leather there are some creams).. 2 -3 bottles will do the job..but you need to work nearly whole day.. and winter is not a good season as it requires some time to dry..
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empty some coffee granules into a open cointainer and place on back seat leave overnight that should help
Ive actually heard that one before, that and leave an open bag of charcol on the back seat, I did neither though just bought a really good airfreshner :y
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Have a look in your local motor factors, they should do an air con bomb that will greatly reduce any stale smoke smell. :y
Agree with lee. Thats what we do and it works well although it may need to be redone a few weeks after for a more permanent effect.
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A good scrub of the seats and headlining with Autoglym interior shampoo (leave it on to soak for 20 minutes or so, then go over it again with more foam and rub it all off. Let it dry and give it a soak in Febreeze. I've stuck 2 of the Ambi Pur vent mounted air fresheners in mine and it smells lovely now. Lost all the staining from the headlining too which was a bonus.
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If its a really stinky car thats been smoked in from new then, frankly, you are onto a hiding to nothing.
The molecules get into the plastic and cause discolouration. And leave a smoking smell.
The molecules get into the fabric of the carpets, seats etc and remain, despite scrubbing and cleaning, wet and dry vacuuming etc. And leave a smoking smell.
Use of aircon bombs clears out covers up the recirc portion of the aircon system. And still leaves a smoking smell.
A proper, full, professional valet costs significantly more than a tenner (as its at least a good days work, most probably nearer 2) and leaves a varied combination of chemical cleaner/air freshener smells and STILL a non smoker can smell cigarette/cigar smoke.
We had a fully specced (and I mean all the tick boxes ticked) Range Rover worth quite a fair wedge that was valeted twice, had plastic trim portions replaced with new, bombed more times than Coventry at the height of the blitz, left with doors and windows open to get the air moving etc etc and still a blind man running for a bus could detect the smell of tobacco. And was sold at auction at a circa £10k hit rather than grow roots on the forecourt.
Ultimately, you can only do what you can. All you will do is reduce/mask the level of odour in a really smoked in car. :'(
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I had a lovely 53 reg elite. All the toys, very low mileage (21k) and immaculate, but smoked in. I had it properly valeted (took a day and every bit of the car was essential washed and hoovered and treated with a biological cleaner). Then the car got bombed, pollen filters changed, fogged, ozoned etc etc. Yet at the end I could still take a deep breath in and get the smell of ciggys. Off it went to a car dealer at a loss only for him to sell it onto some unsuspecting person for a profit. I certainly couldn't even manage to sell it privately. Because I couldn't bear to get into it for test drives with others and lie about it being a non-smokers car.
Like the others have said, you can cover up the smell but it will never ever truly go away. There is a system called Aromatek which seemed to have the most effect in my car but even that did not completely remove the smell.
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I had a similar problem and I found that by giving the headlinning a good clean( amazing the muck that came off) certainly made a big difference
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If they are cloth seats i would buy a steam cleaner (argos/homebase) and give it a few goes.
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Put a kipper in the the air con filter, that will disguise the stale smoke.
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How about changing the interior, completely ?. With the number of cars being broken, a non leather interior should be easily obtainable, and fairly cheap, and if the smoke is being held in the fabric pile then changing it should cure the problem. OK the headlining might be a pain, but I did one on a previous Mig without too much pain. That leaves the dash which might be a lot of bother, I don't know. There could still be an odour in the vents, so changing them as well ?.
Ken
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Not ciggy smoke, but 'eau de chien' is nigh on impossible to get rid of. I had a cheapo Astra estate as a run-around that had obviously been used as a kennel for a large German Sheppard. I scrubbed most of the inside with all sorts of stuff, jet washed some of the rear trim & carpet and even used a spray from a mortuary 'Mortician's Friend'. The inside of the car still stunk. It was especially pleasing when you first got in the car on a nice hot summer's day! ;D ;D ;D ;D
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Get in touch with a detailer in your area and ask them if they do autosmart fogger treatment not sure what they charge but should help to sort it out of course you will have to give the car a full clean shame your not closer to me. I have been looking into getting a detailing fogger and have just missed out on one a few weeks ago but the price of the kit new is high.
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I'd shampoo all cloth and fabric. Then Febreeze everything. Then purchase a Magic Tree. My fave is ''Ice Blue''. Bloody gorgeous! :y
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Get in touch with a detailer in your area and ask them if they do autosmart fogger treatment not sure what they charge but should help to sort it out of course you will have to give the car a full clean shame your not closer to me. I have been looking into getting a detailing fogger and have just missed out on one a few weeks ago but the price of the kit new is high.
Autosmart aromatek, yes thats the one. Works to get rid of 90 - 95% of the smell. But still doesn't completely cure the problem as I experienced even after paying for a full treatment, which by the way is not cheap!
And as Andy B said, wet dog smells just as bad and is just as hard to get rid of.
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Be careful with the headlining. Get it too wet and it can deform. I would use a biological cleaner and spray it on. Light misting means you wont cause the underlying board to get wet/deform. Hopefully the biological cleaner will breakdown the thick gloopy stuff residing in the headlining.
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Wheres Kim and Aggie when you need them :y
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Put a kipper in the the air con filter, that will disguise the stale smoke.
;D ;D ;D ;)
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Wheres Kim and Aggie when you need them :y
;D ;D ;D :y
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Put a kipper in the the air con filter, that will disguise the stale smoke.
:y :y :y I like that. If you dont like the smell of smoke then the smell of fish will deffo refresh you nostrels. lol. :y :y :y
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This time of year replace Headlining, thats the main culprit, if it was a hot summer I would steam or lightly jetwash Headlining. Seats (if clothe) and carpet next to be steam cleaned and steam and vacuum front Air vents (again best done on a summers day, lots of smellys and a couple of plastic sink bowls lined with news paper and filled with BBQ Charcoal left behind the front seats for a few weeks (the coffee thing works well as an addition with the charcoal).
Chris.
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shame you not close to me, i have a spotless headlining in the garage thats going in the bin as it no use to me with mine being a estate
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shame you not close to me, i have a spotless headlining in the garage thats going in the bin as it no use to me with mine being a estate
Tis a shame, also a shame I didn't know earlier as pretty much drove through Nuneaton today on the way back from Elite Pete's as gave up on the M6 on the way back, could have got it down to London, OOF Courier Service not working again.
Chris. :-X
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I find if you piss in the glovebox it masks the smell of cigarettes
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There is a professional method for this called "ozonizing" or something like that, here http://www.ozoneclean.co.uk/ (http://www.ozoneclean.co.uk/) you'll get the idea. Very effective.
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A really good Jalfrezi helps mask the smell of cigarettes too . . especially the morning after. ;D
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I used one of these types in an old astravan that I bought years ago to get rid of the smell of old dog fur and dirt/dust - worked a treat.
(http://i999.photobucket.com/albums/af113/om3g22tf/Glade.jpg)
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We used to use an industrial ioniser, worked great once it had been vacced well afterwards. From memory its because the ionised air bonds with the smells making them a larger particle and hence they vac up easier.