Been almost a month now since I got my WS6 and previous owners were smokers. I scrubbed carpets, cleaned all visible plastics and vinyls, wiped down all glass, cleaned headliner, and cleaned the leather seats. Then washed everything down with a good douse Auto Febreze. Did all this MULTIPLE TIMES yet the smell still stays. Searched and so far no home remedy worked. I'm thinking if just biting the bullet and taking it to a professional detailer. But will that even get rid of it?

 

Sorry, but there isn't anyway to get cigarette smell *completely* out of your car.
It'll emanate out of your seat cushions, carpet, etc etc.

Replacing your carpet would help significantly - but that's a lot of work (I've done it).

That being said, clean it thoroughly enough and it'll help.

 

I bought my camaro from a heavy smoker. Meguiars has there own 'febreeze' and it works pretty well. What I did was completely soak the entire interior; then I would open each door about a 1/3 of the way with the hatch cracked open(resting on the latch); then I would put a fan in one of the door openings blowing until it was all dry. I did this numerous times. Sometimes I would leave the fan on over night sometimes just to go grocery shopping. It ended up working very well. I went through about two bottles. Every once in a while if the car has been sitting for a long time I open the door and get a minor wiff. I almost got the stock f body interior smell back. Hope this helps. Good luck and dont give up.

 

I recently ordered from Amazon as I heard some good stuff about it. If it doesn't work, I'll check out the Meguiar stuff. 10 bottles of Meguiar Odor Eliminator is still cheaper than a professional detailing

 

pretty sure I recall one of the detailers here saying to leave a jar or two of coffee beans in the car for a day or two and that should clear up the smell

 

Thx Im gonna check that stuff out!

 

Just remember your not only dealing with what you can see but everywhere you can't, behind door panels, cracks in molding, the smoke leaves a nice residue just about everywhere and it does stick, if they ran the air or heater it's in the ventilation too, I smoke in mine and every time I take something apart I clean it and, use a white cloth you will be able to see what I'm talking about...

 

The PO on my car was a smoker that continued to use the ash tray in the center console after the tray holder broke and I had to pull out the center console so I could get in there with a vacuum and suck out several packs worth of cigarette ash, so I would check there, also when you did the carpet did you pull the seats out so you could get to all the carpet?

 

What the hell? That seems quite outlandish. But if that works, I would laugh at whom ever came up with that.

 

cleaning it a few times like soaking the carpet especially the headliner and soaking up with a towel will help pull out a lot of that smoke smell. you may never totally get rid of the smell but you just have to clean it a couple of times IMO. smoke is a pain in the *** to clean out. i cringe when i see nice cars with people smoking in them. im sure the coffee bean thing may work because its a strong smell that masks the smoke smell but i dont imagine it permanently fixing it.

 

Ash tray was clean when I bought it and smell doesn't seem to come from console area, but I haven't actually taken the seats out, probably good idea. Strongest smell seems to come from actual seats though, guess I'll have to go through couple more bottles of Meguiars leather cleaner

 

Find a detailer in your area that owns a "ozone generator", we use them here at the dealership. We get cars that people just use the floor as an ashtray. Clean and scrub all the carpets, glass and interior really well, put the ozone generator on the front or back seat, turn it on and close all the windows and doors. Leave it in the car for 24 hours and the odors are gone.

 

use one of the odor bombs. Greatest thing ever to use on it. Literally eliminated the odor I had in mine.

 

just be careful ive had those bombs eat through plastic interiors on more than one occasion. but they do work pretty well, just make sure you enjoy the smell youre bombing haha

 

WalMart sells a product called "Kids & Pets." It is located around the cleaners, laundry detergents and such. Comes in a spray bottle. Works miracles! I bought a truck from my father-in-law who smoked 3-4 packs a day and it smelled like *%^$#. Get 2-3 bottles. Soak everything down. Don't forget headliner, door panels, seat backs and hatch area. Crack windows to give it somewhere to evaporate. Does not hide odors with fragrance. Eliminates it. This stuff works.

 

Open an entire pack of little trees. The "black ice" scent is particularly potent.

 

google it. it works.. it's at least a cheap/easy thing to try first

not sure of the explanation, but coffee beans somehow neutralize odors... If you've ever been cologne/perfume shopping you're probably familiar with how they have the coffee beans there for you to smell to clear up the scent after you test each one

 

Black ice x100

 

You can put backing soda on the carpet for 24 hours and then vacuum it up. Replacement carpets are around $120.

Kitty litter in an open box will absorb some odor too.

Also, orange peels can help.

 

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.