Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Car/Cigarette Smoke

10-4. My last 3 trucks must have had a different issue.

every foam backed headliner will fall eventually... the foam fails... i believe heat & time are to blame... vehicles that sit outside in the sun 24/7 loses it's headliner a lot sooner than a garage queen... some say using the wrong adhesive causes this, this would mean the factory used the wrong adhesive also... smoking may or may not speed this process up?... but it sure makes em stink!...

Every square inch of the interior has to be scrubbed and then you have to use an ozone machine. Use it carefully it can destroy plastic, foam and interiors. There is probably smoke residue in the vents and ductwork. Good Luck

I was at a dealership 2 years ago and there was a used TRX on the lot with either 2 or 4 k on the odometer. They were asking 87k for it . I opened the drivers door and it smelled like an ashtray.

Residue in the ducts is where the whole car aerosol deals come in handy.

https://www.meguiarsdirect.com/meguiars-whole-car-air-re-fresher-new-car-scent.html

They work well in those musty smelling cars where people don't shut the AC off and let the ducts sweat instead of running the fan for a few seconds getting the cold air out of the ducts.

Castrol was selling something that sprayed into the fresh air intake on the outside of the car.

the last repo i did was an 01 Buick Century which was a yr old at the time... 300+# groid woman was living in it... after using a rake to pull out the debris, i put a trash bag on the seat and drove it home(150 miles)... had my head out the wind'a most of the way(almost puked several times)... i pulled the complete interior out, including carpet & headliner (gloves)... used purple clean & a pressure washer on the carpet & trim... and a steam extractor with non foaming carpet cleaner & hot water/bleach rinse on the seats & headliner... kept cleaning until the the water came up clear and then cleaned it again... no more stink!

dishwashing liquid, baking soda, and vinegar

Try hydrogen peroxide instead of vinegar next time...works pretty well on skunk stink, probably most every stench.

I purchased a RJ61 Toyota Landcruiser some years ago that had been owned by a heavy smoker. The vehicle interior was oily/greasy, I pulled it apart completely, even pulled the seats apart and used a garbage bin and detergent to soak the mess out.
The headliner I cleaned by gently washing/rubbing with strong black tea, it worked a treat and brought it back to original shade with no smell.

Did this, ran it 4 days all gone.

Pour five gallons of gas in it followed by a zippo

This. You will never get the smell out of it. You can mask it. You can get used to it to the point you think the smell is gone. But the smell permeates all soft materials: the upholstery, the foam cushions, headliner, carpeting and underlayment.

You Can! get the smell out... it's just a schitload of work, which most folks cant or aren't willing to do... remove everything(and i mean EVERYTHING!)... dismantle the seats, remove the seat covers and power wash them(same goes for the carpet & seat belts) .... soak the foam cushions in detergent/deodorizer, rinse & repeat... lay the headliner on the shop floor, spray it down with detergent and use a steam extractor, rinse & repeat... ditto on the dash, door panels, trim ect... let dry in the sun, reassemble... done this schit on countless repos, floods, burn jobs ect. in my day... no stink...

when I bought my used tacoma, it smelled like a smoker had owned it. I complained about it to the sellsman and they used a product called "Auto shocker CLO2 odor eliminator" and it's just a small canister, but it worked.

The odor bomb does work. It has a component in it that is in antifreeze. Turn A/C on high in recirculate mode, and start the spray, being carefull to not actually spay it on the interior/headliner. Most of the smell you are noticing is in the air ducts.

One of my friends passed many years ago from lung cancer. He smoked 4 packs a day. I used to watch football at his house and when I got home I smelled like an ash tray. The air conditoner vents were almost brown from the nicotine residue. It would have involved removing the ductwork and carpeting in the house , all window decor and scrubbing every inch of that house that could not be removed. I am guessing his Toyota pickup and 300Z were just as bad.

Thats why a lot of people will not buy a smokers used car.

Thanks everyone that offered helpful advice[we used some of the ways mentioned] and it seems to be about 95%+ beat at this point.

While preferring a newish truck I'll make this thing do for a while.
Can't wrap my head around dumping $40, 50, 60K into something that will top around 20-22 MPG with current direction gas prices seem to be headed.
Instead we've decided to drop around $10K worth of 'fixes/updates/maint.' to our 04 Tahoe that we bought new and know the history of.

My new 13 Avalon with 36K granny[mom] miles will suffice.

You should have that Avalon broken in by the 80K mark. One of the finest trouble free sedans ever designed.

A few times over the past week I've glanced at the speedo while on the interstate and I'm running 100MPH......feels like I'm doing 60!

Tough to whoop an Avalon for comfortable cruising. "The Japanese Buick".

Slow er’ down Ringman