Tobacco smoke and other overpowering smells
For smells that are right through the car, like tobacco smoke, or are hard to identify where they are coming from, you need to follow the procedure below. This also applies if you're going to use the ozone shock treatment we talk about later in the article.
- Park in the shade and open all the doors and boot. Remove all rubbish and other items from the car, including boot and floor mats, spare tyre, tools, anything in the door pockets, back seat pockets, glove box, console, ash tray, coin holders, baby seats and capsules, behind the sun visor, compartments under or behind the seats and gear hidden under the carpet in the cars' boot. Inspect and smell everything you pull out to see if they could be the reason for the smell in the car. If they are, you need to either clean them well or have the item thrown out. Clean all items before putting them back in the car (especially the ash tray if it's a tobacco smoke issue).
- Using a crevice tool, vacuum the entire car out, carpets, under the seats, in the boot, all fabric trim, using a nozzle to get in the seat cushions and other hard to reach areas. When vaccuming, you need to get everywhere, especially the seat cracks. Using a small brush like from our Foursome brush set can help to get bits of dust, ash etc out too.
- Clean all surfaces in the car (including the boot, glove box, and other compartments) using Orange Agent for all plastic, dash, vinyl, door trims, doors rubbers, roof pillars, followed by Vinyl Care. All leather surfaces given a good, deep clean with Orange Agent, followed up with Leather Love and Leather Guard, and all fabric trim, including the carpets, seat belts, hoodlining and sun-visors with the Fabra Cadabra. Don't forget to clean the seat belts with Fabra Cadabra - one of the worst areas for holding tobacco smoke.
- With carpets and thicker pile fabric material, gently apply Fabra Cadabra with the Plush Brush, to help get the product right into the fibres. Also use Fabra Cadabra to spot clean any stains in fabric trim seats or carpet.
- Use them one at a time and spray each product into their own separate Square Bear microfibre applicators, applying enough so it's damp. Then wipe the areas down in a gentle side to side motion, wiping off with a dry Dirty Deeds or Plush Daddy cloth straight afterwards. Always check the applicator to make sure it doesn't get too dirty. If it does, hand wash it out in a bucket of fresh water, then wring it out and continue cleaning.
- Then finally, clean all interior glass with Naked Glass, by spraying it into a Big Softie cloth, wiping onto the glass in an overlapping circular motion, then buffing off the residue with a separate, dry Big Softie cloth. It's super important to clean the glass, as smoke particles can linger on it, especially in the windscreen corners.
- After this is done, you hopefully should have the car smelling a little bit better, but to mop up the more lingering smells, spray Pong-Go directly into any fabric areas like seats and carpets that could still potentially hold onto any of the odours, at a distance of about 20cm away from the surface, especially where you think the foul smell is more concentrated (like a drivers seat and seatbelt if it's tobacco smoke). Do this till the areas are slightly damp, but not saturated. Don't forget to spray underneath the seats as well.
- Then, close the doors and boot, wind the windows up and leave it till it's dry so the Pong-Go can slowly penetrate and work its magic at removing the bad odours. If the smell is particularly intense, you may need a second application of the Pong-Go to mop it all up.
Finally, it should go without saying that you don't let anyone smoke in your car any more!
