Detailing out smoke

[msommers]

I went and looked at a vehicle tonight and overall, it was great. The only issue (and a major one for me) is the vehicle has been smoked in and I absolutely hate the smell. If the thing gets a full interior detail, shampooing the carpets etc, can smoke be successfully removed? The seats are cloth and not leather either.

[GT4rally]

A lot of the car detailing places use an ozone machine to fog the inside of the car for a few hours, eliminating most of the odor... I would also shampoo the carpets and steam clean the seats.

[gstone]

yeah, ozone it. Make sure that it's a reputable detail shop. After that, purchase new floor mats all around, change the cabin air filter and then see if you can replace the interior headliner. That should take care of it.

[heavyD]

In my experience if you are really sensitive to it you will likely have to replace the roof liner to truly get rid of the odor since most can't be cleaned properly without the cloth material separating from the plastic/fiberglass and drooping in areas.

[ExtraSlow]

I bought a truck last fall that had been smoked in for years. I got a few thousand off the price because of it.
I took it to Renee for a detail, full shampoo of everything, and the odor removal treatment. I think she used some kind of Chlorine treatment, but ti may have been ozone.
In the end, in addition to the standard detail, she shampooed the headliner, did the Chemical treatment, re-shampooed the headliner, and redid the chemical treatment.

For weeks the truck smelled of the chemical, but that went away.
Now that it's warm out, if I leave the truck sitting in the sun witht he windows closed, the smoke smell is back.

I regret ever buying the smell truck, and I'm not going to make that mistake again.

[HHURICANE1]

It's nearly impossible to get rid of. I bought a truck once that the owner must have chain smoked in. I scrubbed the interior down after I got it and even after 3 years every time I cleaned the windows and headliner the water and cloths were still yellow with gunk. Never again would I buy a car that's been smoked in.

[BokCh0y]

WERD.

I picked up a civic years ago, same thing. Everytime I cleaned the windows, would have a yellow tinge onthe papertowels. The sell, no matter i did would not go away. i will never again buy a car that's been smoked it.

[jsn]

we've bought a car that was smoked in in the past and in my experience, the smell never really fully dissapears. Ours was leather too so I'd imagine cloth would be even more difficult. They ozoned ours which helped, but it didn't fully get rid of the smell

[msommers]

Thanks for the feedback guys. That settles that!

[The_Penguin]

Agree with the others, don't buy it. Lots of companies say they have some fancy process to get rid of the smoke smell, none of them work.

Short of replacing the seats, carpet and headliner, it's always going to stink.

Someone I know bought a BMW from a smoker, which really stank. They took it to a detailer who said they could get the smell out. The next time I saw the car the person said "see if you can tell it was smoked in"
I opened the door, and it hit me like a slap in the face.
Nasty.

[italianstylez]

maybe i just got lucky but when i bought my R32 it had the same thing, really really nasty, i took out the seats, shampooed the carpert 2 times, and the seats as well as partial headliner, and got some of those California Scents air freshener cans, it took about a month and i didn't really notice it at all afterwards, but then again i always have a fresh air freshener can and clean my car like every 2 days lol

[NRGie]

It depends how it was smoked in too. I occasionally smoke in my car but if you were to come sit inside it you wouldn't even know. Though I always keep the windows down and try to air it out as best as I can cause I wouldn't want my parents to find out.

[Mitsu3000gt]

Nothing will ever get it out 100%. I've been in cars that have had ozone treatment, new carpets, etc. It's better but it's still obvious that it was a smoker car. It will have a huge effect on resale as well when you go to sell it, if anyone can detect a hit of smoke in it (unless they plan on smoking in it).