How to Remove Smoke Odor From a Car

There is an easy way and a hard way to remove an odor (including smoke) from a car. The easy way is to leave the interior intact and use cleaners in the car. the hard way is to remove as much of the interior of the car as is feasible.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Tuff Stuff Multi-Purpose Foam Cleaner
• Fabreze odor remover
• Upholstery steam cleaner rental (for complete job)
• Large Box Fan

1. Clean the interior of all loose debris and remove floor mats of vehicle. Vacuum interior and remove all ashes and cigarettes from interior.

2. (Easy way) Spray Tuff Stuff cleaner on all cloth interior pieces and carpet. follow directions on can and scrub into interior cloth thoroughly. The porous materials of the interior are going to absorb the most odor so concentrate on these. For example, the headliner will absorb a lot of odors as will the carpet.
   (Hard way) Remove the seats of the vehicle, front seats typically have four (4) bolts and rear seats have a variety of attachment methods (probably best to leave rear seat in). After front seats are removed you will be able to scrub carpet more easily with Tuff Stuff foam cleaner. Also use Tuff Stuff cleaner on seats and other interior pieces that are cloth. If you are ambitious you can remove the carpet from the vehicle. This may require removing the center console in addition to the front seats. If you decide to remove the carpet (very labor intensive but worth effort) then you can clean the carpet with either a hose or, if available, a pressure washer. If you have removed the front seats you can use a steam cleaner on them.

3. After cleaning all of the interior parts that you've chosen to clean with Tuff Stuff foam cleaner allow interior to dry with help of large box fan with vehicle windows open. After interior parts are dry to touch you can install any parts removed. After the interior is dry then spray Fabreze on every porous surface. After spraying Fabreze then use box fan again with windows of vehicle open.

Tips & Warnings

• Ensure that the source of any odor is removed. i.e. don't smoke after trying to remove smoke odor, fix water leaks before removing mildew odor etc etc
• Odors are everywhere so the more access to the contaminated parts the better the result.
• Buying new floor mats is an easy and relatively inexpensive option ($100-$150) to improve interior looks and smell. Buy factory floor mats from the dealer as they are usually about the same price as after market and they fit and match perfectly.
• The longer you use the box fan the better. More air circulation is a good thing. (I have used one for 3 days straight (occasionally turning fan off to ensure it doesn't burn out))
• I used the above tips to COMPLETELY remove the smoke smell from my wife's 1994 Honda Accord (all cloth interior) which she smoked in daily for 8 years.
• Follow all directions on products to ensure colorfastness of interior parts.
• Make sure that interior is dry before closing windows, you must remove all of the moisture from the interior to ensure that interior does not smell like mildew.