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Cigarette smoke smell removal

2K views 19 replies 18 participants last post by  pinstriper 
#1 ·
Hello, I just purchased a 04 TJ. It has a bad cigarette smell, that I used as a negotiate a lower price. Is there any tricks that you have done to elimate the smoke smell? I will get around to removing seats and carpet and clean them.

Thank you
 
#3 ·
Ozium works temporarily. I have had success by removing seats and carpets, treating with upholstery cleaner, and then pressure washing.
 
#12 ·
NOTHING takes out cadaver smell!

I had a sweet '71 442 that I picked up super cheap because the guy that owned it had a heart attack and ran off the road. They didn't find him for 9 days. I junk yarded seats, new carpet AND padding and even changed out the dash. If you got in it after it sat in the sun closed you could still smell a kind of bad cheese and urine smell.
I had always heard about that mythical Corvette deal and thought it was just an urban legend. Not so much after I had one. I ended up selling it break even.
 
#7 ·
Thanks for all the advice. Over the weekend, I removed the seats and carpet. I steam cleaned the seats, and then sprayed with odoban. The carpet has been washed and sprayed off three times. Im still getting yellow brown nasty water out of them, so they are now soaking in a citrus based cleaner. I hosed the tub out. I also used one of the turtle wax car bombs in it. Hopefully will have all put back together tomorrow. Front seats are in now, and so far, so good.
 
#8 ·
Cigg smoke odor is tough to get rid of totally. The smoke leaves a smelly residue on everything behind the dash, on the wiring and in the heater ducts.
There are duct cleaner sprays that can help neutralize any stink coming from the HVAC system.
 
#13 ·
+1

I used to be a heavy smoker and when I tried selling my first house my realtor received numerous complaints about the cigarette smell. I had stopped smoking in the house many weeks before putting it on the market. I cleaned the whole house from top to bottom, still had complaints. Hired some professionals to make it shine, still got complaints. Steam cleaned all the carpet, still got complaints. What finally worked was having the HVAC system cleaned (they also left some kind of smell neutralizer pellets/containers in the vents). No more complaints, finally sold the house.
 
#11 ·
you can rent an ozone generator at most equipment rental places. put it inside, and crank it up. put a battery charger on your car, and turn on the climate control (fan) and leave it on low. (battery charger saves the battery while doing this) let it run overnight. check it out in the morning. open it up, let it air out for a minute or so, and hop in and take a sniff. if the smell is still there, close it up, and run it for another 8 hours. be sure to run the fan on low, so you are cleaning out the insides of the vents and duct-work.
 
#14 ·
I had this same problem many years ago and nothing worked. But looks like you have better advice and suggestions compared to what I did, and I did a lot...please keep us updated if anything worked, I know someone who wants to sell a vehicle super cheap because of the smoke smell but I am reluctant to buy it.
 
#15 ·
for carpets and cloth seats I boil water and use whatever brand carpet cleaner you prefer (mix after you boil the water) take it out in the hot pot mix the carpet cleaner in and pour directly into the fabric. I use my wet dry shop vac to pull it out almost immediately. wash rinse repeat a few times. this works best in the summer to help dry out the the bit you cant pull out with the vacuum. Then I sprayed Ozium directly on the fabric seal up for a few hours in the sun then open it up and let it finish drying.

This has worked for everything except the salmon that spilled into my rear seat.
 
#16 ·
Rug doctor with upholstery kit, hot water, and **** and span dry powder, mix the S&S in hot water spray everything let sit suck up repeat then mix some in spray bottle spray on let dry vacuum up.

Worked on carpet that someone let there cat pee on ALOT.
 
#17 ·
My last tacoma came with a free case of black lung, but it was a good deal...

Anyway I had a carpet/uphosterly cleaner that had the hand wand/cleaner. I vacuumed everything really well and then did a wet clean with it on every surface that I couldn't remove. So headliner to carpet. I probably did every surface at least 3 or 4 times using various carpet cleaners, starting with the generic spray foam stuff you get at the auto aisle and included pet smell remover because I had some in the garage. All hard surfaces got the usual spray cleaners. Then I let it dry with the windows down. After that I febreezed the heck out of everything including spraying into the vents and defroster ducts. I cleaned the windows etc at the same time, and again left it windows down to air out for about a week in the sun. And then I threw one of those 'odor neutralizing' blocks under the seat and left it. At the end of the week, 0 cigarette smell. It might have stopped smelling before then but it was my 4th or 5th vehicle at the time so I wasn't in a hurry. It was worth it, paid 2400 for a 9k truck and drove it for 4 or 5 years before selling it for 8k.

Being the TJ is likely to have far fewer cloth areas that need to be dealt with, I'd probably start out with dawn dish soap, and a pressure washer.... Pull the rear seat, pull the carpets and go to town. Just don't shoot directly at the dash.
 
#20 ·
When I bough a F150 a while back, two weeks later the dealer’s air freshener wore off. I hosed down the seats and carpet with fabreeze, twice. It was pretty well gone except on a sunny day it would come back a bit.

I had a Ford Escape for a few months earlier this year, same issue. Didnt smell like a smokers car until I had it for a few weeks. This time I used the smoker bomb from Armor All. Worked great in one treatment.

I just flipped that car for a 2014 JKU that I already knew had a mild case. Will bomb it this weekend and fabreeze it as well, repeating as needed.


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