Originally Posted by LT4vert

As a detailer, my honest suggestion is to replace the carpet and headliner. Then pull the leather covers off the seats and clean the back sides of the covers and then let thoroughly dry before putting them back on, also wipe off the foam cushions. Most of the scent is gonna be coming from the headliner, so if your on a budget and cant do the carpet, do that first and clean the carpet the best you can as well as the seats. If you had access to high pressure steam cleaner(dont bother if its not high pressure), that would be an alternate to replacement as that would blast out and sterilize all the residue causing the smell to linger. (even with the steam though you'd need to replace the headliner because you'd ruin it cleaning it) You would beable to physically remove the smell as opposed to covering it up like most cleaning methods. You can use the steamer on the plastic, carpet and seats. I wouldnt advise typical water extraction carpet cleaning machines as there are few that have the suction power to really pull up the ick from stuff like the juke padding under the carpet. It also leaves the carpet wet and allows all the stuff left underneath to seep back up until its completely dry. Thats why alot of cars that have been heavily smoked in then had the carpet cleaned with an extractor have a new equally gross smell....which is a musty chemical cleaner smell that still has a muted tinge of the cig scent.

It sucks but nicotine stains and the scent it leaves are a nightmare to 100% eliminate. Heres a tip for an all natural air freshener to use regulary that IMO are alot more effective than chemical based air fresheners. Go buy a spray bottle and $1 gallon of "distilled" water, then go to a local health food/supplement store and look for the section that that essential oils. Pick your favorite scent, theres alot of different scents. Then fill the bottle with the water, add about 10 drops of the essential oil to it and spray in the car as needed. The oils are expensive ( typically 10-20 bux a bottle) but it pays for itself over time as it will take forever to use it all. I mix natural mint oil and grapefruit oil together that makes a killer de-deodorizer. The mint and citrus together might sound odd together but it smells really good and freshens the air well.

Originally Posted by M4N14C

When I did gingerly clean the headliner, a lot of crap came out, but I was careful because I heard if you clean it too vigorously or use too much chemicals you can dislodge the fabric from the glue holding it in place.