Picked a new car (new to me) up on Friday. Bit of a drawn out story but I decided on a PX on my Corsa and after lots of too ing and fro ing by the garage I found a car that was okay and put a deposit. Later on my mam and dad drove by and decided to have a look at it and the engine was apparently in an oxidised state so they upgraded the car there and then and lent me the difference, which was good. Anyhow I'd not seen the car, other than a picture on the internet until I picked it up and the previous owner has been a heavy smoker. There's no stains or owt but the smell is literally making me sick (I've got a sensitive sense of smell ) combined with the air freshener the garage has sprayed in there.
Can anyone personally recommend anything to get rid of it. I've masked it with a magic tree but that's dying off a bit now. I've tried Febreze on things in the past and it was rubbish. I've seen some Autoglym spray and the neighbours recommended Neutradol but as i say, has anyone here had any experience and can help.

Why not take it to a car valeters?

A valet for the inside of a car is a pretty nominal fee, and they are the people that deal with stuff like that all day long...

I'll second Neutradol, but it's going to take a while to get rid of the smell as it'll have soaked into the fabric of the seats and carpets.
What I'd look to do is get a carpet shampooer (VAX or similar) and give the carpets and seats a good going over.

[Edited on 15/2/09 by bilbo]

Hmm. Yes i didn't think of it as being absorbed into the seats.
It has been valeted before I picked it up, not fantastically mind so I spent all yesterday with a toothbrush and 1" paintbrush getting all the smelly dust and stuff out of the seams on the panels. Insides all clean now.

Second a valeter. A good one will wet clean all the seats and carpets and do a thorough job with the right cleaners. You can soon spend the same money on cleaners yourself and not get as good a job.

If you don't want to do that, I bought some Autoglym odour neutralizer, I would spray the car but also put the blower on full and spray it through the air intake to get the full system cleared.

Steve

Since I became a non-smoker the first check looking at a car is a sniff inside. More important than mileaage , condition etc
I would suggest having the upholstery steam cleaned with odour neutraliser in the solution?

Here you go. This is what the trade use.

[url=http://www.valetshop.co.uk/categories/odour/unsmoke-coc-crystal-odor-countractant-citrus.htm]

You'll never get it all out with the usual domsestic products.

HTH

I have found soaking the inside with fabreze and leaving the doors open to give it a ood airing worked for me.

But valeter with a proper insterior wet clean with get rid. Shouldnt cost alot. Alot of these polish places do it.

One of the other issues is Aircon with recirculating air. I tried to get rid of smells in an old car of mine but seemed to fail. The "up close sniff test" revealed that the seats and carpets were smelling like roses after I cleaned them. The smell had been ingested by the aircon system and pumped back out every time the blower was on. I used an aerosol cleaner (can't remember which one) that you set inside the car shut the doors and leave for about 15mins with the aircon on lowest temp and maximum vent recirc.
Worked very well to get rid of the smell.

JC

as above... try a valeter.

I had the same problem when I bought my tintop. I used to leave the windows and sunroof open whenever possible driving or when standing (only problem is I bought it in Dec and it was mighty cold driving around with the windows and sunroof open!! )
It worked though and within a month the smell had gone.

[Edited on 15/2/09 by mads]

Have you thought of taking up smoking ? How about the nose clips that swimmers wear just keep one in the door pocket.

Seriously, we had one once and used the Vax and Vanish carpet cleaner on the car interior and it cleared it up nicely. The hardest part is the roof lining.

ewww, not neutradol, it works but it gives me the boak (thats that dry sickness you get)
hmm, what about fabreeze?

Teh aerosol that does the aircon clean is sold by halfords. £12 and works like a smoke grenande, put aircon on cold , recirc, full power and click the top of the can and chuck in rear passenger footwell. You can shout "grenande" for your own entertainment and spook the neighbours but either way it works great, smells nice.
kills all nasty bugs and cleans through aircon. i use one everyspring after not having aircon on for a few months.

it usually with the aircon topup aerosols in store.

My Xantia stank terribly of heavy smoker residue ... and I'm a smoker.

I ended up using 2 of those Aircon cleaners over 2 weeks, lots of Fabreze over a period of time and eventually the smell has gone.

Now all I have to do is get rid of the smell of gear oil that spilt in there when I got that Diff from JoelP. It only smells when the boot get disturbed.

Well I found some Febreze at the back of the cupboard so I've given that a go and I'm going to start with one of them A/C cleaners. Couldn't find them at Halfords earlier and got pi55ed off looking. I had a sniff at some AutoGlym stuff but that started making me gip too.
Gearbox oil is probably the worst for me. It gives me a splitting head and makes me retch then its stuck in my nostrils all day

It might be worth changing the air con pollen filter, if it has one...

Probally not what you want to here but once smoked in that's it, the smell will always lurk.

The missus has a 306 pug, purchased at 1 year old so now 8 years old, it was a leased car with minimal mileage when purchased and smelled clean.

Even now when its damp the smell of smoke creeps in occasionally and she cleans it reguarly.

If the cars to be a keeper I would try and pass back to the dealer and get a clean one, a heavily smoked car will be much worse.

Regards Mark

Open up the heater box, and remover the remains of the kipper that someone put in there for a lark

I would bit the bullet and go for a valeter's

It's worth the money, and will give you a nice clean car.

Cheers

Its supposedly had a valeting at Vauxhall(!) What's the rough price of said valeting then? I've only seen these hand car wash/valeting places in Manchester that just employ illegals, scratch your car and basically do a bit of a rubbish job.

Have a look in your local yellow pages for a decent valeters, the Albanians and Poles don't tend to advertise .