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[Ninda]

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 ?

[Andy B]

......

So any advice ?

Anyone know much about air fresheners? 

[omega3000]

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 

[Welung666]

Have a look in your local motor factors, they should do an air con bomb that will greatly reduce any stale smoke smell.

[trainastock]

empty some coffee granules into  a open cointainer and place on back seat leave overnight that should help

[omegod]

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!

[cem_devecioglu]

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..

[dazzerM]

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 

[Omega_Dan]

Have a look in your local motor factors, they should do an air con bomb that will greatly reduce any stale smoke smell.

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.

[tgm147]

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.

[hotel21]

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.    

[D]

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.

[robson]

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

[Radar]

If they are cloth seats i would buy a steam cleaner (argos/homebase) and give it a few goes.

[Auto Addict]

Put a kipper in the the air con filter, that will disguise the stale smoke.