How to Remove Smoke Smell from the Car Interior

Cigarette smoke is difficult to remove from a car's interior.

Cigarette smoke permeates every fiber of the materials used in the interior of your car, including the upholstery, floor mats, carpeting and the plastic console and fixtures. This smell can linger long after a driver or passenger has stopped smoking. The smell of smoke proves difficult to remove, and a car interior is unlike a smoky-smelling sweater, which you could conveniently discard in the garbage; however, diligent and repeated cleaning can remove the odor of cigarette smoke from your car's interior.

Difficulty:

Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Vacuum
• Carpet steamer
• Baking soda
• Sponge or microfiber towel
• Bucket of hot water
• Dish soap
• Carpet shampoo with odor remover
• Patent leather shoe cleaner
• Towel
• Vinegar
• Hard-bristled toothbrush
• Newspapers

1. Remove the floor mats from your car. Pick up any large pieces of garbage, such as empty soda cans and candy wrappers.

2. Vacuum up all lint, dirt and small pieces of trash and hair from the entire interior or your car. Use the attachments that enable you to vacuum out from under the seats and pull up hair and dirt from the upholstery.

3. Mix a solution of one part vinegar, six parts hot water in a bucket. Dip the toothbrush in this mixture and then scrub all the plastic and metal fixtures, including the console. Remove anything from your car's glove box and scrub the inside of that area clean.

4. Add shampoo and water to the steam cleaner. Steam clean your car's carpeted floor, including any carpeting on the floor mats or panel between the rear seats and rear windshield. Repeat this process for any non-leather upholstery on the seats.

5. Clean leather upholstery by applying patent leather shoe cleaner to the leather seats. Rub the cleaner into the leather with a wet sponge or microfiber towel until the cleaner produces a foam. Let the foam sit for 10 minutes and then remove it with a dry towel.

6. Sprinkle baking soda on the carpets and on any non-leather upholstery. Give the baking soda about 24 hours to absorb remaining odors from the carpet and upholstery. Vacuum out the baking soda.

7. Repeat Steps 3 to 6 until you can no longer smell any smoke odor in your car. When you can no longer detect any odors, fold up newspapers and place them on the floor and under your car seats so that the newspaper ink can soaks up any remaining odors. Throw the newspapers away after a week.

8. Ride with the windows down for a few days to circulate fresh air into your car, if the weather allows.

Tips & Warnings

• You can rent a carpet steamer from local and chain hardware stores and some supermarkets.

References

• Made Man: How to Remove Smoke Smell from Car
• Get Rid of Things: How to Get Rid of Smoke Smell
• Cars Direct: How to Clean Leather Car Seats

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish