How to Remove Cigarette Odors from a Car
If you smoke, you're not likely to notice the cigarette odors in your car, but if you're a non-smoker and inherited a car from "two-packs-a-day" Aunt Ginny, the smell might drive you crazy. Here's how to remove it.
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Things You'll Need
- Glass Cleaner
- Sponge
- Baking Soda
- leather cleaner/deodorizer
- odor-eliminating shampoo
Instructions
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Shampoo the car's interior, including carpets, upholstery and floor mats with an odor eliminating shampoo, available at hardware or home improvement stores.
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Clean all washable interior surfaces with the same shampoo. Put a small amount directly on a damp sponge, work in and wipe down.
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Clean all the windows inside with a glass cleaner. Repeat if necessary.
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Sprinkle baking soda on dry carpet, working it in with your hands. Wait a week and then vacuum.
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Clean leather upholstery with a commercial leather cleaner/deodorizer, available at your dealership or at home improvement stores.
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6
Vacuum ashtrays to remove residual ash. Place a small amount of baking soda or kitty litter into the ashtrays to absorb odors.
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Tips & Warnings
To freshen the car, keep dryer sheets under the seats, or place a little activated charcoal in a no-spill container (such as a jar with small air holes in the top) and place in car.
Whenever possible, keep windows open when smoking in a car.
You may need to replace the car's headliner (or "ceiling") if you can't remove the smoke odor from it.
Cigarette smoke can be extremely difficult to remove. If you are unsuccessful, consider taking the car to a professional detailer.
Air fresheners may disguise the smell of smoke but they won't remove it.
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Comments
View all 9 Comments-
Anonymous
Oct 28, 2011
A great how-to, the steps explained should get rid of the odor if its light but like you said an odor from a 2-pack-a-day smoker will be very hard to get rid of and will often require professional help. For those hard to get rid of stains one should first do all the steps posted above and then using an interior cleaner like Griots Vinyl with a steam cleaner re-do/clean the entire interior, use some specialize fabric cleaner for your car seats as Pristine clean or mothers seat cleaner (be sure to steam clean your way)... doing all this and at the end use a car deo that should make the car's smell pleasant. If this is too much for someone he or she can always come to us, we at DetailXperts provide professional cleaning help for these kind of tough to get rid of odors. -
moh2o
Nov 08, 2007
I work for a man who has been doing odor removal for 18 years. He owns a professional carpet cleaning and janitorial business and he is a Member of a National association of Smoke Damage removal specialist and has been to all the national seminars on this subject. Ok you ready? Here is what the man had so say on this subject. You cannot remove the odor completely even if you re-upholster and even replace the headliner the odor will come back to haunt you later. He told me cigarette smoke is one of the worst to get rid of. This is what he basically told me to do: - Clean the hell out of your car. (he's letting me use his professional steam cleaner van) -Remove the ashtray and clean under it and all over and inside the dash housing for it. -Shampoo all the upholstery and carpet. Clean the heck out of all the sufaces. -He said the Ozone generators will also help alot.
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sergio702
Sep 27, 2007
Rent an ozone generator and let it run inside for an hour or so. The ozone will remove the smoke 100% so that it won't be able to come back. Works like a charm. Call any auto dealer or detailer and they'll tell you ozone generators is what they use to get rid of odors. I use a 3500 mg/h ozone generator at work and it works wonders.
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sergio702
Sep 27, 2007
Rent an ozone generator and let it run inside for an hour or so. The ozone will remove the smoke 100% so that it won't be able to come back. Works like a charm. Call any auto dealer or detailer and they'll tell you ozone generators is what they use to get rid of odors. I use a 3500 mg/h ozone generator at work and it works wonders.
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lynn
Feb 08, 2007
Try Vamoose 1808T, there isn't a product that compares when it comes to complete and permanent tobacco and cigarette odor elimination.
