Hi all,

Picking up my new car tomorrow (pictures in due time). I do however, need to give it a very good clean as the previous owner must have had a few cigarettes in it. Luckily there are no holes, just a very faint lingering odor that I will want to get rid of.
Got a few questions:
1 - Car has leather. Should I just use a leather cleaner?
2 - I know that I am going to steam clean the carpet, but what's the best way to clean the roof liner? My thought process is that hot air (smoke) rises, so most of the smell is going to be in the liner, as opposed to the seats or carpet. So I want to be able to give the liner a very, very good clean.

Cheers.

Regardless of whether the cigarette smell is in the leather, I would get into the habit of cleaning and conditioning your leather straight off the bat. I recently did my dad's car using Bowden's Own leather products and was quite happy with the outcome. They have a really sweet guide to leather care (http://www.bowdensown.com.au/leather-care-blog) on their website.

It might be out of your budget, but have you considererd buying a carpet cleaner (http://www.godfreys.com.au/vacuum_cleaner_information.php?cat=6&is_subcat=0&id=337&page=2)? Ffeeky bought one of those along to the QMD workshop day last weekend and it was incredible. It's small and easy to use, and really works. I reckon it'd work well on a roof lining too. He used it on my centre console arm rest, and despite being perpetually dirty (had tried spray bottle carpet cleaners, as well as the carpet cleaners you hire from the supermarkets), he got it looking like new again.

I would either pay a professional to do the roof lining, or buy a machine like that and do it yourself. The advantage of the latter is that you can do your mats etc, and you can use it again in the future too.

I'd say take the roof lining out, leave it in direct sun for a couple of hours with some baking soda sprinkled all over it. It worked great for getting dog smell out of my wagon.

You can buy a product from Chemists called 'Nil Odor' It comes in a small bottle. Put a dab on a few cotton wool balls and leave them in the car eg above the sun visors or on the floor under the seats. After a few days, the smell will be diminished hopefully to the point where you don't notice it. There is nothing worse than smoking - the smell gets into everything. The trouble is that smokers cannot smell a damned thing

An aircon guy in Dubain put me on to a good method that works i house and in car

Buy from supermarket AirWick Freshmatic automatic spray refill - he said vanilla - i prefer "Aqua Essences Icy lemon/lime". They are only few bucks and designed to go in the timed or people sensing dispensers

Start the car , fan and ac on full with recirc "Off" (ie fresh air is being drawn in from outside) and spray repeatedly from out side car into the air intakes - each spray is just a puff, so need 20 or 30 moving along all areas off the intake

Then go to recirc mode and do same from inside the car in footwell where air is returning to the system

Seems to get the accumulated smell of the evaporator coils and ducting for the sytem

Good Luck

I found that one of the best ways to get rid of the cigarette smell is to throw away the orignal ashtray and replace with one that has not been used.

No better time to go for a retrimmed headliner?

Rexona also works well at pulling the smoke smell out of a cars interior!

The car I had before the verada, I smoked in and before trading it, hit it with rexona Antipersperant and the aluminium particals draw out the smells from the fabric. It does actually work - worked in that car at least.

The Elantra had cloth seats tho - so worked well on that, I wouldnt go using it on Leather.

The roof lining does cop a lot of the smoke too.

When I used to smoke in the car full time (I dont smoke in it when driving around town since I got leather interior) I used to leave the windows down a lot and out in the sun to really air it out.

Grab a spray bottle of Febreeze as well, and go CRAZY with that inside the car - again I wouldnnt get that on the leather it might mark it. Then Air the car out, Put an air freshener in there too.
Cigs are a smell thats just hard to get rid of - lots of airing and light washing will help speed the process up if you are not going down the route of professional cleaning.

Vacume EVERYTHING in the car - often its the little bits of ash in the car too, that will stink the car out if left in the car under seats etc.

Thanks for replies, much appreciated.

I'm not too keen on the whole "spray a bottle of <product> until the smell disappears. I'd much rather go through the process of cleaning the areas that will have actually absorbed the smell and then using some air-fresheners afterwards to finish off the job.
I've only just bought the car Timi. Not too keen on getting a retrim :p

I'm tempted by that carpet cleaner Valdez. Seems like something that would come in really handy.

but black headliner? Carpets also easier to vacuum underneath if you take the seats out, electric seats are a bit of a pain to take out with undoing wires before taking them out, and not being able to move the seat once the wires are taken out.

I'm tempted by that carpet cleaner Valdez. Seems like something that would come in really handy.
Speak to Ffeeky. He bought it along (he sells them) and did most of the cleaning.

After seeing him use it, I'm tempted to buy one for myself. My floor mats seem to get quite dirty, and could do with regular cleaning. I was actually going to use it on my headlining too if I bought one. The head on it is nice and small, and is well suited to interior cleaning.

Because it has a clear head on it, you can see everything it's sucking up out of your carpet. Let's just say, it's pretty gross to see what comes out. As far as removing cigarette ash + odour, I reckon it'd have to be as good as it gets (I don't smoke so I can't guarantee it first-hand though).

Get something like the Bissel little green machine onto all your fabrics. You mix up a cleaning fluid with hot water, spray it across the fabric area, then extract it. As Damien said, it really is disgusting seeing what comes out. One members backseat turned looked like it was sucking mud out of it lol

Also as someone else said, get rid of the ash tray and lighter. If you can't find another ashtray, fill the one you have with bi-carb soda and leave it in the sun for a few weeks.

As for the roof lining, they are cheap enough, get it re-trimmed. Should cost around $200, and the smell of fresh glue will more than cover up any remaining ordours in the car :)

When I was working as a car detailer we had a Vax wet & dry vac that we would shampoo and steam the interior with. If you dont like your Vacuum cleaner very much you can use a bottle of hot soapy water spray the seats with that and Vacuum it out.

Cheaper alternatives are Fabreez? As that's a good odour eater for your seat/ headlinging. Carpet shaker all your floor and boot and leave the car closed up for a few hours before you vacum it up.

We used degreaser for the ashtray and then refilled them with scented pellets.


On a side note i quit smoking about a week ago and Im just starting to notice the horrid smell in the Magna now :(