Cigar smoke smell, Help???? IT WONT GO AWAY

Orinda Auto Detail

Orinda Auto Detail

Opti Coat Pro Certified
So I have this truck back at my shop for the 3rd time it is a super charged range rover that someone smoked cigars in and then sold it handed it down to one of their kids. Well orignally it came in for a detail, and to get the smoke smell out. I said no problem, I have an OZONE machine and it'll get handled. Did a full detail on the car inside out and ozoned it for 10 hours total and could still smell a little bit of the smoke 80-90% improvement.... Told the customer if it came back let me know. Week later car shows up and smells just as bad as it did when it came in... Ozoned it again and changed the cabin air filter, also extracted it agian, clean everything agian. 80-90% improvement.....here we are a month later and it smells again same thing just as bad..... Any ideals? :wall I'm married to this car and until that smell is gone..... I've never seen any smell that couldnt be ozoned out its nuts????? Thanks for the help
 
Did you clean the head liner? Tell them to stop smoking in it? Lol. That mess gets every where. What about the seat belts? Just trying to think of the odd stuff. Good luck with it.
 
My neighbor had the same problem with his truck he just bought until he used vinegar in bowl overnight. He tried just about everything and it would always come back but the vinegar so far a month later has worked. He says about the only time he gets a faint smell is on hot humid days after it has been closed up all day.
 
Sounds like a great opportunity for a demo of DrivePur. I haven't tried it myself, but have heard good things. Knowing you ozoned it already it would be a great test.
 
Cigarette smoke can penetrate anywhere. I'm sure there is still untouched surfaces you cleaned like underneath the seats, vents, inside panels that you can't get into. It can even penetrate metals. I wish you the best of luck and hope you find a way to get rid of it for good.
 
I had the same "smoke smell" issue in my Dodge Ram. The former owner must have been a smoker. I found that Car Pro So Pure really helped. I did clean and wipe down the interior first.
 
:confused: I've never heard of anything survive an ozone machine too. I'd also throw in a charcoal suggestion. Pat nailed it with the So2Pure (aaaaand.. it's BOGO somewhere in the PBMG family :D). It does help a lot.

Edit: I did a smoker's car once and the smell came back; I then removed the carpeting, cleaned the chassis, sprayed the carpet with some vinegar overnight then rinsed and allowed to dry. It was a pain!!!
 
Vinegar can help remove a lot of odors. I'd give it a try. When I bought my old truck it had smokers smell in it that the dealer tried to cover up. I ended up pulling everything out and cleaning it really well and letting it all air out
 
Thanks for all the ideals guys I was up till like 5am working on this car I ripped the entire interior out of it PITA and cleaned everything, I ozoned it empty for an hour while I took a nap. I put it all back together and parked it outside windows up, just checked it....... And well guess I'm gonna try vinagar then if that doesnt work ill get the car pro stuff... Thanks again for advice guys this is annoying I just did like 15 hours of labor for free... Umm 1 question about the vingar do I just set a bowl in the car? and close it up?
 
One of the problems with smoke smell is if it was done while running the a/c. The tars and resins( which cigars are very heavy) coat the condenser along with it's housing inside which sweats. Unless this is also cleaned it will almost always come back.

Lay some sort of clean absorbent cloth under where the vehicle drips while running a/c. Then doing a sniff test might let you know if this is where it is. Although many of those have dual a/c which gets more complicated.
 
Jsmooth said:
Umm 1 question about the vingar do I just set a bowl in the car? and close it up?
Click to expand...

That is tedious stuff, props to you!! Yes just place some vinegar in a bowl and leave it sitting inside for a couple of hours at least. Just make sure it doesn't spill :D

What John also said. I used to spray some odor bombs in the outside vents with the a/c on.
 
i'm late to the party. was gonna suggest dakota odor bomb

interested if the vinegar trick works. I think I also read somewhere that an open bag of charcoal overnight works
 
There is a product called OMI Fresh Wave that I have used in the past. You can get it Bed Bath and Beyond. You will need to clean all surfaces really good and spray it into the vents when the AC is off and then again to the AC intake on the outside of the car when the ac is on. I would bet it would work like a charm. Best part is that it is natural.
 
Jsmooth said:
So I have this truck back at my shop for the 3rd time it is a super charged range rover that someone smoked cigars in and then sold it handed it down to one of their kids. Well orignally it came in for a detail, and to get the smoke smell out. I said no problem, I have an OZONE machine and it'll get handled. Did a full detail on the car inside out and ozoned it for 10 hours total and could still smell a little bit of the smoke 80-90% improvement.... Told the customer if it came back let me know. Week later car shows up and smells just as bad as it did when it came in... Ozoned it again and changed the cabin air filter, also extracted it agian, clean everything agian. 80-90% improvement.....here we are a month later and it smells again same thing just as bad..... Any ideals? :wall I'm married to this car and until that smell is gone..... I've never seen any smell that couldnt be ozoned out its nuts????? Thanks for the help
Click to expand...

That's really strange..almost sounds like the drivers smoke too. There are all kinds of odor removers you can get from abatix.com. Here's a link to one of them: ["http://www.abatix.com/default.aspx?page=item+detail&itemcode=UNS221522000&catlist=656" Microban Disinfectant Spray Plus 4/Cs] Hope you are able to fix it!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top