So I bought a Jeep. The PO was a smoker, and seems to have an addiction to air 'fresheners' too. The Jeep STINKS. My daughter said it smells like a stale root beer sucker and a wet dog. Not inaccurate I must say.
So, other than washing all the hard surfaces and vacuuming all the soft surfaces, how can I get this funk out of the Jeep.
It does not have a removable top BTW.
Spray the interior in two part bedliner, the smell of the polymers outgassing will be strong enough to cover any other odors for a good long while
The best bet is using a rental steam cleaner with an upholstery attachments on all soft surfaces including carpet. Use vinyl cleaner on all the hard surfaces. Change all the cabin air filters if it has them. Put the vents on recirc and soak it down in the odor ir eliminate of you choice. Close it up and let it sit in The sun for a day, then open all the windows and let it air out. For a long time.
I have had god luck sprinkling baking soda liberally everywhere, and letting it sit, then vacuum it up. I follow this up with plastic trays with ground coffee in them. also a ag of charcoal will help absorb some of it. Good luck with it.
Fire?
Shotgun?
Seriously, pulling the carpet and other soft materials like seats and cleaning them with a carpet cleaner and solution will go a long way to getting rid of the funk.
While the squishy bits are drying, wash down the interior several times with a bucket of hot soapy water, followed by a baking soda solution.
Once everything is as clean as you can get it and dry. Use an ozone machine (you can rent/buy them) to kill the last bit that you can't wash out (like the stuff hiding in the vents, under the dash, in the seals, etc.)
Rental steam cleaner is a good start.
I had good luck after the steam cleaner with baking soda on the carpets overnight then vacuum.
For the really tough smells a bowl of vinegar left overnight works well too.
After cleaning the surfaces, I’ve found boiling a pot of vinegar, then setting it in the car with the engine on, and the ventilation fan at full blast helps with the smell stuck in the HVAC system quite a bit. Usually takes multiple attempts though.
Set the pot of vinegar on a piece of wood on the floorboards to cut down the chance of damaging the carpet, and after it’s cooled down a bunch, take it back inside again and heat it back up to a boil. I think someone (maybe Ashykun) took it a step further, and used a hot plate inside the vehicle to keep the vinegar hot.
eastsideTim said:After cleaning the surfaces, I’ve found boiling a pot of vinegar, then setting it in the car with the engine on, and the ventilation fan at full blast helps with the smell stuck in the HVAC system quite a bit. Usually takes multiple attempts though.
Set the pot of vinegar on a piece of wood on the floorboards to cut down the chance of damaging the carpet, and after it’s cooled down a bunch, take it back inside again and heat it back up to a boil. I think someone (maybe Ashykun) took it a step further, and used a hot plate inside the vehicle to keep the vinegar hot.
Yup- that's what I did for the Blazer I had a few years ago that was heavily smoked in. I had one of those plug-in induction hot plates, so I picked up a cheap teakettle from Goodwill and filled it up with vinegar and set it on the front seat with the heater on high-recirculate for a while. The good news was that it very definitely neutralized the smoke smell. The bad news was that it was about a month before the vinegar smell totally dissipated...
Don'y gorget to change out the cabin air filter too
Oh man, I might wait on the vinegar for a while. That smell seems to attack my nose something fierce. But I like the other ideas here. Thanks folks!!
I also use fragrant drier sheets in the wife mobile since if I didn't, i'd smell like a locker room. II did that and a few containers of baking soda with a cheese cloth over them to absorb the odors.
Start with a through cleaning and then use this -> Auto Shocker ClO2 Odor Eliminator Quick Release - Biocide Systems.
I've used this before w/ good result
https://www.amazon.com/Star-brite-Auto-Odor-Eliminator/dp/B00J4GHLFI
Did the usual interior cleaning first. Plastic, leather, windows and vac carpet.
I left it in longer (moar is better right?) and ran A/C to circulate through the vents according to directions. There was a slight chemical smell after that I couldn't identify. Left the doors open for the day and it was gone. There was no smoke, plastic or leather smell afterwards, nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Took it in for trade-in and there was no trace whatsoever.
Ozone Generator. Pricey so check out the local Rent-All. Seal up the car, put this in the window and let 'er run with the AC or heat on (gets it out of the vents). I would vinegar-water or Simple Green the rest of the interior anyway, my experience is the steering wheel and everything you touch is gummy.
Ozone generator. Turned my ashtray of an F250 into a very nice vehicle in about 3 hrs. Total cost free.99, borrowed it from a friend who has a duct cleaning business. It was a commercial model for dealing with smoke remidiation, said it was good to 2500 sqft.
Bad Obsession Motorsports can help you get the funk out.
After a solid steamer cleaning setup a container (that doesn’t fall over) of fresh ground coffee. I try under the seat and attach it to the seat frame. Does a reasonable absorption job.
I recently used a turtle wax brand bug bomb type thing with good success. You set it in the cup holder and pop the top with car running and recirc on. It sprays for a few minutes and you leave the car running for 15 to 20. $5 to try and I was happy with no return smell. I was dealing with old milk through perforated leather smell, (yea tottelers) not smoke though.
APEowner said:Start with a through cleaning and then use this -> Auto Shocker ClO2 Odor Eliminator Quick Release - Biocide Systems.
Came to say this as well. Activated chlorine kills a lot of stuff and makes your ride smell like a pool. I ordered some at work for a stinky truck and they worked well.
When we were looking around for a new car, the lot where we bought the QX4 from had an SUV that they'd just gotten in (the salesman/detailer did a horrible job of pitching it to us, basically leading with, "Yeah, we just got this one back because the guy who bought it died before he even made his first payment... not in the car, of course...") had a HORRIBLE smoke smell to it, the worst I'd smelt in a long time such that SWMBO and I basically opened the doors and immediately closed them and backed away. The detailer said, "Oh, I've got a cleaning bomb that will get rid of that in no time." Kind of wish I'd pressed him for details on what they use...
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