Removing Smoke Smell From a Car

Can someone tell me how to get the cigarette smell out of a car?

By Sharon Rafferty from East Hampton, NY

Answers:

Removing Smoke Smell From a Car

I firmly believe in Febreeze for getting out smells. I did a foolish thing not realizing it could possibly have hurt my pet. At the time I was desperate. My dog got "skunked" and no washing, tomato juice, or anything took the smell away. I sprayed her with Febreeze while covering her mouth and nostrils. The smell disappeared entirely. I would then spray the car's seats and floors and anywhere that is padded with Febreeze. (09/26/2009)

By Kathleen

Removing Smoke Smell From a Car

I have a truck that my son used over the summer, working at a golf course mowing, and the truck reeks of body odor. I poured baking soda on the seat bottoms, and leaned the seats all the way back, and covered the backs as well. I even put it on the carpets. As I already had a second auto, I left the baking soda on it for 5 days. Then I took it to the car wash, and vacuumed out the baking soda. It helped wonderfully! (09/27/2009)

By Frances Adams

Removing Smoke Smell From a Car

The car's interior smells not because of the air, but because of dirty/smokey surfaces which, in turn, make the air smell. The only real solution is a thorough, labor-intensive cleaning/detailing to get rid of the contaminants. This will probably have to to be done more than once for 100% satisfaction, but, you will notice an improvement after each cleaning.

Unfortunately, tobacco smoke has a great affinity for plastic, and there's a lot of plastic inside a car. The best product I've found for removing smoke deposits from plastic is good old-fashioned Sunlight soap. (The bar soap, not the powdered laundry detergent.)

You'll need lots of water, as hot as you can stand it, which will have to be renewed often. You'll also need an arsenal of simple cleaning tools: fingernail scrubbers, toothbrushes, Q-tip swabs, nylon pot scrubbers, "Magic Erasers," etc. It can literally take an entire weekend to really clean a car this way, and you'll be doing a lot of stooping, crouching, kneeling.

For soft surfaces, like fuzzy headliners, seats and carpets, multiple sessions with one of those "dry foam and vacuum afterward" upholstery shampoos will eventually get things pure and fresh.

I really don't put much faith in these "air freshener" solutions, whether they come from chemical spray bottles, boiling onions, or whatever. At best, they will provide only temporary relief. You need to remove the source of the odors, not just mask them. (01/21/2010)

By Mike