the inside smells like an ashtray! What a disappointment. Is there anyway one can permanently remove that dreadful smell!
boeingb17,
Dec 22, 1:01pm
get febreze from the supermarket works great.
splinter67,
Dec 22, 1:04pm
Take up smoking you will never notice the smell again lol
jason18,
Dec 22, 1:09pm
Dont buy it. Imagine all the crap sitting in the seats and headliner and all through the vents that you will never get rid of!
haventrader,
Dec 22, 1:12pm
That only masks the smell for a few days. I went through boxes of the stuff years ago when I was convinced by someone that febreze is the answer. to smoke smells.
Take up smoking! If you can't beat them, join them!
peja,
Dec 22, 1:13pm
Leave it in the sun with the windows down or at least partly down. Wont work instantly buti will go after a day or so,worked for a friend that bought a car with a similar issue
ambo11,
Dec 22, 1:24pm
We just bought an import with the same problem. Spent an hour washing all hard surfaces, ash, steering wheel etc with spray and wipe, and bought a vent air freshener, leave windows open whenever you can and the smell will go, and after a couple of days you won't notice it anyway.
splinter67,
Dec 22, 1:25pm
Well it will work
But seriously take to a car valet and get the seats and carpets shampooed and the hood lining will have to be cleaned
gammelvind,
Dec 22, 1:32pm
If it has an interior cabin filter element replace that as well as a damn good cleaning.
thejazzpianoma,
Dec 22, 1:45pm
In addition to the cleaning, filter change, etc, you may find nilodor works better than febreze (which I think might be called "oust" now).
nilodor is often used by hotels etc, its pretty effective, just don't go crazy with it, you really should only need a couple of drops in a car (seriously).
johnn,
Dec 22, 2:03pm
The only way to get rid of the smell permanently is to set fire to the car, we had a jap import that had been smoked in & did all the above plus left it with windows open for 4 years, parked in garage, you will never completely get rid of the smell.
bantamus,
Dec 22, 2:06pm
nil odour if you can get it
thejazzpianoma,
Dec 22, 2:12pm
So you tried nilodor after a good clean! Or just febreze! Genuinely curious as I have had good success with that.
tigger8,
Dec 22, 2:54pm
try baking soda as well
cuda.340,
Dec 22, 3:02pm
the smell is there to stay. my daughters car stunk of smoke so she vaccuumed & wiped every surface, used all manner of fragrant cleaning products but 2 years later, as soon as you sit in the seat, that smell comes back. it's like permanently embedded in the fabric of the seats etc. go find another car.
tgray,
Dec 22, 4:38pm
1.Soak the ashtray in a bucket of boiling water and dishwashing liquid overnight and it will smell of roses the next morning. 2. take out the floor mats and throw them away. 3. sprinkle 'shake n vac' throughout the upholstery but DONT vaccum, just disperse with your palm. 4. buy two air freshener hangy things from supercheap auto for $2 each and place each one in the map pockets of both front doors. Job done.
cpnnz,
Dec 22, 5:09pm
Shampoo & wet vac seats and carpet. May need to remove headlining and clean gently if discoloured.Wipe down all door panels & hard surfaces. Soak ashtray overnight. Change aircon cabin filter as it will be really smelly too.
stevexc,
Dec 22, 6:15pm
Friend of mine gave up smoking and wanted the smell removed from his car.
1) Unbolted and removed all seats 2) Used Bissell carpet cleaning machine to clean all upholstery and carpets, including head lining.Went over everything 3 times. 3) Removed as much plastic trim that we could do conveniently and washed it.Cleaned the rest in-car.
Seemed to do the trick.Took about 3 hours.
cuda.340,
Dec 22, 6:30pm
it's actually a bit more involved than just the filter if it has one. the heat exchanger coil needs to be washed with a aircond product called "coilbrite". it removes the nicotien off the fins on the a/c, as everytime the a/c coil gets wet it will emitt that odour. this is an a$$ of a job to do properly. being in the a/c industry i used to get to see PCB's on a/c systems in pubs n clubs like the RSA when they allowed smoking fail due to nicotien build up. so depending on how heavy the smoker was, you could face premature electronics failure in this car.
kazbanz,
Dec 22, 10:03pm
If its truely bad there is only one way to remove the smell -That involves stripping the interior out completely back to bare metal.-literally -seats out plastic trim out.Glovebox out kick panels outHood lining out carpet out,door trims out,--the lot. 1)replace the air con filter.-wash the filter box. Wash all the exposed metal and plastic surfaces everywhere inside the car 2).Soak the ashtray in a bucket of boiling water and dishwashing liquid overnight. take out the floor mats and throw them away. 3)If the hood lining is cheap to replace just get another one. If not then waterblast the carpet.roof lining,all seats and then wet vac them. 4) wash every piece of plastic trim.-scrubbing brush and HOT soapy water seems to be the most effective way--change the water often so you arent putting the nicotine back onto the plastics. Use the same principle on the interior surfaces of windows and all the remaining dash panels The more interior surfaces you can remove and clean the better a result you will get. The very worst car I dealt with took us 3 days to get clean.--Not all in one go as we rewashed the seats ets three times
.
cpnnz,
Dec 23, 12:07am
ASk the seller if they are prepared to give it a good clean, many good methods mentioned here, and have another smell of it once done to see if it is acceptable.
carmad50,
Dec 23, 1:54am
geepers antismoking lobby here aye , go to garage gets car washed , vacs out , spray s that awfully strong smelly stuf on seats hoodlining and floor matsholding nose drive home leave windows down next 5 days to airate , smell will be gone sale sign and ist sucker with your price buys it , waving ta ta in drive way , heads to pub after wiffee s relieved me of most of funds .smiles when and if they come backand moan yerp yerp not doing anythingabout it mate cars sold I ve spent the dosh
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