smoke smell??

[cameronp29]

i recently was offered a 99 4runner in excellent condition with 100000 miles on it. after test driving and some other check outs i purchased this vehicle with only 1 downside, the previous owner was a smoker. i got this truck for 4800 thats why the smokeing didnt matter. i was just wondering if anyone else has ran into this and what do you reccomend for getting the smell out? It is leather so a wipe down should clean the seats. Wat to do with everything else?

thanks in advance

 

[The Dude]

Start smoking? That's what I do. With the cigarette smell coming from my clothes and hair, I can't hardly smell anything from my seats and carpet anymore.


SURGEON GENERAL'S WARNING: SMOKING CAUSES LUNG CANCER, HEART DISEASE, AND EMPHYSEMA, AND MAY COMPLICATE PREGNANCY

 

[trd_style]

i believe the smell would come from the dust from the cigerette. so try to vacuum your carpet or any carpet material very well to get all those dust out. then, buy lysol and spray it to clean the air. after that, buy an air freshner and your probably good to go.

 

[broncosi]

lets focus on how you got a 99' in excellent condition for $4,800


they make sprays for the smells, find an oust scent that you like or drop it by the detailer.

 

[fireteacher]

take 200 bucks and have it detailed with most of the attention in the carpet and seats, headliner too..thats a big one!

 

[animator]

The headliner will be the biggest problem. I spray air freshener on my headliner from time to time and now, after a month of owning a used smoked-in runner, you can't tell. I also drive with the windows down more often than not, which I'm sure also helps.


Another thing to do is take off the front dash/cd player panel and remove the ashtray. Look behind it for ash that has fallen out and clean that up.

When I got my runner from the dealer, the interior was completely detailed, but after removing the dash, I noticed a bit of ash behind the ashtray and cleaned it all up while I had everything apart.

 

[MARSHALLMAY]

When I worked at a used car dealer, we got cars in all the time that smelled like smoke. We had this little box with a cigarette light adapter. It looked like a power inverter, but it was actually an ozone generator.
Like this one
I know it's expensive, but you can use it over and over, and if you don't want it, sell it on ebay.
Just run it for a couple of hours.
the ozone is a molecule of 3 oxygen atoms and is highly oxidizing. Ozone molecules oxidize odor molecules in fabric and destroy them. Just dont breathe the ozone, enough of it will cause your lungs to bleed.
To reduce speculation and confusion, CLICK HERE

 

[NCarolina4Runner]

I was in the same boat you are in a few months ago when I bought my 99 Runner. I read all the posts about using this cleaner and that cleaner...but I found alot of people saying they tried this and that and it didn't really work. So, I decided I would find a solution to the problem, and this is what I did...

I took all seats out, all plastics out, carpet out, headliner out. This left me with essentially bare metal interior. I steam cleaned the seats. I cleaned the inside of the truck, which was now all metal, with warm soapy solution. Then I went back over it with a 10% clorox solution. I replaced the headliner fabric with new fabric which only cost about 30 bucks. I cleaned the windows very well. I cleaned all the plastics with warm soapy solution. I pulled out the blower motor behind glove box and seperated the white plastic fan part and cleansed it thoroughly with dawn dish detergent...it was FILTHY and smelled like a 20 year old ashtray! Since I bought this truck to keep for the next ten years, I ordered new carpet from http://www.stockinteriors.com with mass backing option (which actually ended up being much nicer than the original OEM carpet). Then I had the stealership do the AC foam cleaning service.

I pretty much cleaned the inside top to bottom add did a few replacements like the headliner fabric and new carpeting. I am NOT a smoker and neither is anyone in my family. I have a fairly sensitive sense of smell. I can tell you that my truck no longer smells of smoke at all. When I get in my truck now, it smells completely smoke free. Yes, I incurred a little expense doing this, but there is NO smell of smoke now and I enjoy driving my truck.

It may be a bit more than you're looking to do...but that's how I fixed my problem.

Hope this is some help for you.