How To Remove The Smell of Cigarette Smoke From Your Car
The smell of cigarette smoke is unmistakable, and it permeates fabric and coats hard surfaces with a pretty nasty brown film that retains the scent. The smell is offensive to many non-smokers, and this is one of the main reasons why many non-smokers do not allow smoking in their vehicles. Unfortunately, used vehicles sometimes come equipped with the odour of cigarette smoke, and it can be difficult to know how to get rid of it.
Fear not! It is possible to get rid of the smell of cigarette smoke in a car and some of the most effective methods are completely natural. However, if the past custodian of your car smoked like Dot Cotton and the natural solutions don’t work you may need to move on to the hard stuff!
Ground Coffee
For decades, truck drivers have used ground coffee to get rid of strong odours in their trailers, and others have discovered that it works like magic to get rid of cigarette odour in vehicles. Get yourself a shallow open bowl or two and fill them with ground aromatic coffee. Place the bowls in the car foot-wells and on the seats with the windows and doors closed. Allow the coffee to absorb the smell of cigarette smoke in the car for at least 48 hours. We shouldn’t have to point this out but it’s not a good idea to drive with these open bowls of coffee in situ. If the odour is not completely gone after 48 hours…….leave it a bit longer! Alternatively you could fill up a couple of old tights with the coffee and stash it around the car and drive on! After a while the smell of cigarette smoke will dissipate and In the meantime your friends will be impressed by the luxurious and robust coffee aroma wafting from your car (and probably you)
Charcoal
Ordinary charcoal is a fantastic odour absorber, and placing charcoal or charcoal briquettes in a car is a great way to get rid of the smell of cigarettesmoke. Place a large bowl of charcoal on the car seat, and allow the car to remain closed for at least 48 hours. The charcoal should absorb the scent of cigarette smoke, and the vehicle should smell fresh and clean (again, we shouldn’t have to point this out…but you don’t light the charcoal)
Ordinary White Vinegar
White vinegar is also a fantastic natural product to get rid of odours, and although it can be messier, it is very effective. (and your car will smell of vinegar instead of cigarettes!! at least for a short while) Pour about 200ml of ordinary white vinegar into the bottom of a deep bowl or clean bucket, and put it in the foot-well of the car. Allow it to remain undisturbed for at least 2 full days. The car should smell significantly better, and the scent of cigarette smoke should be all but gone.
Newspapers
Newsprint also works well to get rid of the smell of cigarette smoke in a car. Roll up a few ordinary black and white newspapers, and place them under the passenger seats. They will continue to work to absorb odours, and within a few days the car should start to smell a lot better. Periodically change the newspapers and they will continue to keep the car smelling fresh and clean
Commercial products
The most aggressive solution however is to turn to the chemicals. If your car is exceptionally stinky what you really need to do is clean all the interior surfaces of your car, both the soft fabrics and the hard trim panels because as we mentioned right at the top of the article, cigarette smoke permeates fabric and leaves a pungent tar-like film that you’re unlikely to be able to see on all the surfaces in your car.
A great product that’s kind of a ‘One-Hit-Wonder’ and well worth trying if you’re not a big fan of manual labour is the Einszett Aircon Bomb bundle. This is an aerosol that you place in the foot-well with the engine running, the fans on full blast. You press the trigger, close the car door and let the entire contents of the can dispense. The active odour neautralisers circulate round the entire ventilation system, soak into the seats, carpets and headlining and it’s really effective. Check out our demo video
Also included in the bundle is an Aircon matrix cleaner which has a long hose which you pop down the air vents on your car and then dispense the active ingredient. It cleans the Aircon matrix and all the pipework where dust and bacteria build up. Result – non-stinky Aircon!
There are plenty of other products that will help, all of which will require a bit of elbow grease to apply. Turtle Wax, Autoglym, Einszett & Meguiars all have extensive ranges of products for cleaning and conditioning your cars’ fabrics, seats and carpets. You can browse the range of Carpet & upholstery Cleaners here or Dash & Plastic Cleaners here. All of these products will help to get rid of the smell of cigarette smoke. Also Febreze could be well worth a try and can be bought in your local supermarket.
Our most popular interior product is the Simoniz upholstery cleaner which is really handy because it comes with a built in brush
Air Fresheners
Air fresheners wont get rid of the smell, they will just mask it, but until the smell is gone you may well want to mask it! and there’s no better man for the job than our very own Eau De Mick He can cover up all kinds of noxious niffs!
Comments
0 comments
Please sign in to leave a comment.