Advice on removing smoke odor in a used vehicle

Thanks for the tips! So far I’ve done baking soda on all the upholstery and let it sit for 36 hours then vacuumed it up. I also rented a rug doctor and shampooed everything I could get to with the nozzle. Last thing I tried was one of those air freshening / deodorizing bombs. It helped for a few days but the smell is still there. I talked to a detail shop and they quoted me $200 including an ozone treatment. I’ll probably try some of these things on my own before going that route.

 

Febreze spray, and then air out your vehicle as much as weather allows. Try this before you spend all that money. Wife and I rented a house temporarily on an out of town job and had smoke orders. Sprayed down all the curtains and furniture, opened windows and let it air out. Repeated once more and it did the trick.

 

I forgot to mention I did try Febreze a couple times. I’ve been leaving the windows open and the truck in the driveway as much as possible. I left the windows open in the garage but the smell started to take over the garage. It’s crazy how it’s not that overwhelming of a smell but it’s strong enough to be persistent. I’m going to do a thorough cleaning of the headliner today. That is the spot that I don’t think has been touched really.

 

For sure spray that headliner down, couple of times over a week or so. That’s likely where most of the smoke accumulated.
Also would be good to leave an open container of baking soda in the truck and replace periodically.

 

A sad update to this post. I had leather installed to help get rid of the smell and because the upholstery had cigarette burns in the seats. 2 weeks after putting the leather in someone turned in front of me and the truck was totaled. Now I am waiting for a new one but at least it won't have any smoke smell!

 

Wow I was curiously reading thru this thread hoping for a success story at the end, and that's not the ending I was expecting haha! Good luck in your replacement truck search!

 

Well that is one way to get rid of the smell permanently
Sorry for your loss. Hope you find a nice replacement.

 

Charcoal filters on Amazon.

 

@716cummins it definitely wasn’t my preferred solution! Are you dealing with smoke smell in a car or truck too? I can tell you all the things I did but none of them had a long lasting effect. When I had leather installed I also had the door panels covered and the adhesive they used had a pretty strong smell that stuck around and was about the only thing I could smell for the 2 weeks I had it before the accident. I did talk to a detailer and they said they could try some things and the place the smell was probably hiding was the headliner. I was almost to the point of having a quote to replace the headliner if I thought that would actually do the trick.

 

Leave a bowl of vinegar in the truck overnights for a month. Remember to remove before you drive about. Worked well for me a few used cars back

 

Not my truck, but my sisters Super duty has a slight smoke odor. And hers is all leather interior and hard plastic. Really the only thing that I think could be trapping it is the headliner as there is really no other fabric in her interior! And I am hesitant about messing with her headliner, don’t want to end up making it a saggy one

 

I completely agree about being cautious with it. From the research I did seems like detailers were steam cleaning it but making sure to not get it too wet. It might be worth talking to a detail shop about it.

 

Put baking soda on paper plates throughout the interior. Roll up the windows and let it sit for a couple weeks. See what happens.

 

I made the mistake of putting baking soda directly onto the carpet because I assumed that was where the smell was coming from. It was really hard to vacuum it all out. Putting it on paper plates is a much better plan.

 

And don't cheap out use many boxes and many plates sit them on the seats the floor anywhere you can spread that stuff out see what happens. I'd put one on the dash as well. Don't forget those windows probably hava nicotine glaze on them as well you need to clean those bad boys. Wipe down all the plastic too.

 

Good idea, easy and cheap enough to test out thanks! Definitely right about wiping that film off the windows and everything else

 

I had a Camry that was owned by a smoker. I had success using simple green and wiping the headliner and all surfaces multiple times. It probably was the headliner. Sorry your truck got whacked.

 

I know this is an older post but go to Bass pro or some hunting place and get the scent out, hunters use it for their clothes for hunting, I can swear this stuff works. You may need more than a few spray with it but it's def cheaper than some stuff out there. Or pull all the carpet out and use the stuff while rinsing out that interior, that's worked for me pretty well or knocks it down enough it will be tolerable.
There's others but this is cheapest.

Hunters Specialties Scent-A-Way MAX Field Odorless Spray | Hunting Scent Eliminator - Cover Scent for Deer Hunting

https://www.amazon.com/Hunters-Specialties-Scent-A-Way-Spray-Odorless/dp/B06X9PC78V