*Aw crap can someone please move this to appropriate section, I got stupid and posted in electrical. me being a newb.*

I bought a 97 4runner a few months back and I didnt really notice it at first cuz it had been nicely detailed, but the previous owner was clearly a smoker. Then I went on a heinous road trip with a smelly friend and a dog and some vanilla-rama air fresheners and it just smelled really weird. Then I tried using Meguairs anti-scent spray and NOW it just smells like all that crap, plus play-doh.

I was hoping someone knows of a product or method that will actually get rid of the smell in this rig, ie not "buy a different 4runner..."

 

Moved.

As for the odor, just follow Cubuff4Runer's lead:



Bingo... no more odor.

 

i think arm and hammer makes something that absorbs smells....you could also carpet clean the carpets and steam the seats, but if all else fails take the doors off

 

I bought my 4 runner from a smoker I pulled the cover off of the ac coil and heater core and used a pump sprayer and some cascade soap to clean both coils then washed them off with hot water.

I pulled my seats and carpet and power washed the carpet the guy at the junk yard told me people used to buy bloody seats and spray them down with a cleaner like greasedlightning then power wash them.

I used simple green and a shop vac to clean off the sweat stains and mud on my seat in the truck then left a dehumidifier in the truck over night with the hose going out one of the floor plugs.

 

sweet, thanks for the help guys!

Cymon, you are thorough! how did you get the carpet out and back in?

 

Those things called "odor sponges" seem to work wonders as well. Put one of those in after you clean the interior.

 

Take it to a company that does fire damage remediation and have it ozoned. Other companies may have ozone generators as well, like detail shops.

 

Bingo!!!

If you don't feel like taking your carpets all out, which may or may not completely rid the car of the smell, which many times it is more than just the carpets(IE, seats, A/C ducting, door panels, etc) get it ozoned.

The ozone process usually takes from 3 hours to overnight. Then about 2 hours to air out the ozone. The end result is more or less, a blank slate that doesn't have any smell to it. Detail shops can do this, and if you are located anywhere near Sacramento, CA, my dad's shop can do it for you for an extremely reasonable price.

 

My father's a landlord in a large apartment building. When we get a tenant that's moved out and clearly used a lot of cologne, scented candles, etc. we open all the cabinets and drawers, shut the windows and doors, and let the ozone generator run for about 2 hours.

The generator's actually a pretty small device, you can carry it under your arm. If you can find a place that has one, ask if you can borrow/rent it for a few hours.

Basically what you want to do is seal the cabin from the outside, but at the same time make sure everything in the cabin is open to the air inside the cabin. So take off seat covers and open the glove box and the air vents. Throw the ozone generator in and let her rip. Come back a couple hours later, open the doors and let the ozone escape for a minute and you're good to go.

 

www.febreze.com

Try something simple first. I bought an expedition from a cigar smoker about 6 years ago and the first thing I did was to spray it down with fabreze. You can spray headliners, carpet, seats...just check the warnings on the bottle. I ended up using it 2 or 3 times before the cigar smell was gone. Very easy and cheap.

 

What about getting all your buddies in the ride for a "greenhouse" session...

at least it wont smell like cigarette smoke anymore

 

Best idea yet.

 

Ive never heard of "ozone" treatment, sounds promissing! Does it actually create o3 or something?

 

yes it creates ozone...i have one of the commercial ones and it works great...you just can't be in the same room when you use it because it can damage your lungs

 

The machine is a ionizer.It is used in detail shops.It works. Try ferbreeze for autos.Odor Bgone works,but you have to order it,and spry all of the surfaces.
Try a detail shop,they did a car for me for 24.00.It has to stay on in the truck,closed up for overnight to do it right.

 

air ionizers creates negative ions which remove microscopic particles from the air...they also typically dont have moving parts.... ozone generators use a discharge tube...totally different aminals

 

When I used to work for a carpet cleaning/flood and fire damage restoration company, we had large ozone generators about 3'x3'x2' to use for treating the entire smoke damaged home. we also had smaller microwave-size generators for single rooms or automobiles. we typically charged $50/day for the small ones.

 

start smoking

 

So is does ozone perminently remove the old smell? If so im sold!

 

x2