How the flip do I get the smell of smoke out of a car?

[SaveTheEmpire]

Dh has recently bought a car and the inside smells of cigarettes. When we got it, the dealer had put an air freshening treatment in. After a while, this wore off and the smell of cigarettes became quite strong.

Neither of us smoke and, although it's not a smell that ever used to bother me, since I got pregnant with dd, I seem to be extra sensitive to it.

The seats are a sort of plasticky fabric and the head lining is also fabric. My best idea is to get my hands on a steam cleaner and clean all the upholstery.

Will this work or has anyone got any easier other suggestions?

Tia!

Hi, Try putting a towel on the seat and then put a bowl of hot water in it with a lemon cut in two in the hot water. Leave it for about 30 mins with the doors shut. The acid in the lemon should bring out the smell and the hot water will steam any out of the seats. It worked when I dropped a carton of milk on my seat. Hope it helps.

put bowls of white vinegar in the footwells front and back. leave overnight - the car will smell like a chippy in the morning but this goes once you open the windows. if particularly bad then repeat for a few days.

you could also use a 50:50 water and vinegar solution to wipe the upholstery.

i used to smoke in my car and used this method, it is amazing how well it works.

DH is motor trade, nothing they have found works. They even have special "bombs" that they put in cars that are meant to get rid of the smells but they dont.

We bought a secondhand car that had a mould smell from a previous damp problem that we only noticed when the cardealer air freshener wore off. I tried everything for 2 years to get rid of it but nothing worked. I recently hired an industrial carpet cleaner for the house & decided to use the small nozzle attachment on the car and it has worked wonders (& you would not believe the colour of the water after cleaning the seats!! & we clean our car regularly!!). We cleaned everything with it, seats, footwells, fabric sides of the doors, you name it, we cleaned it!

As an alternative, I hate car air fresheners but I used to hang a small bit of fabric with 10 - 15 drops of lemon (or whatever else I had to hand!) essential oils on it from the mirror & that masked the smell without all the nasty chemicals you get in the air fresheners.

Thank you. I'll try all of your suggestions. Something's bound to work!

Shake and Vac!

Bicarbonate of soda absorbs smells. I also found this tutorial