My new Fabia got dropped off at my work last Tuesday, without even seeing it or driving it I got my valleter to take it away and give the interior a good going over.

The seats were all removed and wet vaced, then the carpets and door cards.

It then got a new car scent air fresher and put back in my parking space on Wednesday. I went to see it for the first time as I've been busy with other commitments on Friday and as far as I can tell... It stinks! he must have been a smoker, I can smell it over the wet vac scent and air freshener.

I've never been in this position before, so what can I do to get rid of the smell or at least cover it up.

Steam clean it?

New seats/carpets/headliner? :P

I wouldn't buy a car that was owned by a smoker, because it's VERY difficult to rid it of the smell....and I'm very sensitive to that particular pong - actually makes me feel sick!

I've never been in this position before, so what can I do to get rid of the smell or at least cover it up.

Buy a labrador and take it for plenty of walks near water..

 

I get it, I'm doomed.

Just set fire to it now. It will be easer in the long run.

It's fine, I'll just take up smoking, will be good as new then.

You could cook bacon in it.

Or hire this guy?

Why don't you look into one of these? http://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/air-fresheners/dakota-odor-bombs-various-fragrences-/prod_1151.html

 

Not tried it myself but worth a go for £9 I reckon.

 

Just found this as well http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dakota-Smoke-Tobacco-Cigarette-Eliminator/dp/B006ZUVAK8/ref=pd_bxgy_263_text_y

Good find!

Looks good, thank you

Would a Rug Doctor work? I'm having to hire one for the flat but tempted to do the car the same time. How easy are the seats to take out?

Depends what car.

But yeah, I've used a rig doctor before with the small attachment.

Seats are held in place with four multi-spline bolts but can be taken out with torx if your careful enough.

@Hutchysrs50 - may I ask what you used and was it successful?

 

I've had reasonable success with Febreze sprayed regularly on the headlining and carpets.

I also leave an open bottle containing an egg-cupful of Febreze in the door pocket.

Fortunately, my main dealer replaced all the seats before selling the car to me.

Gotta be honest, your pretty goosed. I've bought previous ex taxis, smelly drivers, plus smokers, simply impossible to get rid of smell until you virtually replace most materials. Think bout it, it clings to everything, seats, seat belts, carpets, parcel shelf, headlining, plastics, door seals etc.

Biggest tip would be buy Autosmark G101 & use it neat on all hard plastics and 1:1 on soft plastics etc.

G

The cars still parked up, haven't touched it, booked in to the garage to get the timing chain done before I use it regularly.

I'm going to use the car for a few weeks, then pull the seats out again myself, as well as all the plastics from the doors downover oh and the seat belts as well.

All the material will be wet vaced once more and the floor mats put in the washer, the carpet will be wet vaced front to back as well.

Plastics will be washed in a bucket of soapy water and then wiped and applied with autoglym interior plastic cleaner.

The headlining plastics will get the same but the headcloth will have to just get a wipe over, if that doesn't work it's about £20 and easy enough to replace the full headlining.

Failing that... I'll have to scrap it.

I've had good results with a wet vac, plenty of interior shampoo and frebreeze... All of the interior plastics need a good scrub too I couldn't believe the muck that came off them on a 106gti I had. They looked cleanish black but when wiped the cloths would go a yellowy brown and stank. That eventually smelt pretty fresh but the half leather interior probably helped over a car with velour

Update:

So I removed the seats and wet vaced the full carpet and the seats again.

I didn't remove any of the plastics just gave them a wipe over with soapy water, cleaned the glass inside and out, removed the air freshener.

Went back to the car this morning and it smells fresh as a daisy, going to put my air freshener in tomorrow and see how it goes.

It was just a quick going over so the car was more useable that's all, happy indeed

Get yourself some Autosmart Bio Brisk. It's made for the situation you describe.

If you take the seats out again, whip the carpet out and jetwash it. Makes a hell of a difference and they dry out really quickly on the washing line.

The girlfriend drove the car today, she said how nice it smells so I'm taking this as 100% cured then.

She knows nothing about the cleaning that's been done and wasn't prompted about it

So a wet vac of seats, carpets and door cards... A wet cloth for all the plastics and a new air freshener and its cured

Has the pollen filter been changed?

 

If you haven't used the fans much yet you may get a nasty surprise when you use them next. The A/C smell ok?

 

We used to do the car bomb things to get rid of smoke smells. You run the A/C at max, on recirculate with the pollen filter out. Then put a new filter in.

 

Glad it's smelling better! I hate the smell of a smokers car.

 

Phil

I haven't actually, will put it on the to do list.

The fans have always been on a minimum of 1.