car valetting

midlifecrisis

midlifecrisis

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been looking at a second hand car, and it's fine apart from the smell - stinks of cigarette smoke, to which I have a huge sensitivity bordering on allergy. in anyone's direct experience, will car valetting really be able to get rid of it or will there always be a residual odour ?
 
mr current car (also second hand) hasd a whiff of dog about it...I used fabreze and that eventually worked...

haven't tried a valet - but I can recomend fabreze - only cost a few quid too... ;)
 
it'd take more than fabreze for me (wonderful product though it is - I now get away with washing my sweat soaked karate suit once a week rather than three times ;) ). basically I can't stand the faintest trace of cigarettes - if someone has had a fag a couple of hours ago I can still smell it on them from ten feet away. I'd need the car to be steam cleaned or something (if you can steam clean leather and alcantara).
 
I think if you are that sensitive, then you are very unlikely to remove the smell to your satisfaction. If the car has been owned by a heavy smoker who doesn't like opening the window :-), then it will be near impossible to clean completely. The smoke gets into places that cleaners will not.

I'm sure someone else could probably suggest something might work though.
 
A can of petrol and a match might work, but then you would have a different kind of smoke to worry about...
 
No chance I'm afraid. You'll always be aware of the smell, no matter how well it's scrubbed up.
 
You will never get rid of the smell. My house had a thin microscopic layer of cigarette smoke 'residue' over every square inch of it when i bought it. I junked every piece of fabric inside the house when i moved then washed and cleaned every single hard surface , painted everything and replaced all of the yellow elctrical fittings (light switches, plug sockets, light fittings , etc ) for new white ones , despite having lived here for 6 years, and despite the fact that to my knowledge nobody has ever smoked in my house whilst i've owned it, i still get the odd whiff of cigarette smell if i look into some nook or cranny that hasn't been disturbed for a while.
Basically there are plenty of s/h cars out there , you don't need to buy this one regardless of its price and you'll never be totally happy with it....
 
You would have to take all the carpets and the headlining out, remove all the dashboard trim panels, door cards, etc and clean out from behind them and clean the shell of the car. Leather won't be too hard to get sorted, but alcantara probably will.

If you're as sensitive to it as you say (not doubting you btw) then it's probably not the best idea.
 
yeah, you're probably right. shame, as this car was offered in part ex for mine, and otherwise fitted the bill well.
 
It is possible to remove the smell from cigarette smoke but it is hard work. In simple terms, everything needs to be washed from the carpets to the seats and in particular the headliner.

The problem with the smoke is that it gets everywhere and therefore everything needs to be cleaned.

Once everything has been throughly cleaned baking soda can be sprinkled on the (dry) carpets and seats to remove the last of the smells.

Given the late response to the original question I appreciate the original car you were looking at might have gone but just in case you look at another 'smokers' car, dont be put off.

If you have access to a Vax or similar to remove the shampoo mixture it is an easy but time consuming task to clean the interior yourself
 

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