Im in a dilemma. The previous owner of my car smoked in it. Problem is that there was no AC filter in the car when i got it. Also there was like what seemed to be a hardened type foam coming out the vents when i would run the AC. Well i tried everything i could think of to remove that nasty odor, we used products such as lysol to mask it, simplegreen to remove any bacteria or other things that were causing the problem, and it just doesnt seem to have any effect on the system. I told my dad tha i think we should take the interior apart and clean it piece by piece, because i think there are more ashes and nicotine stains in places we cant see. Anyway what do you guys suggest I do? Are there any products at the top of your heads that you can come up with that will help to alleviate my problem? Also im not looking for short term temporary fixes, more on the basis of long term to permenant. Thank you.

 

What I would do is first get a new A/C filter.....then purchase some Fabreeze that is made for your car and spray the heck out of the interior.......then stick some damp little pieces of cloth in the a/c vents and run the air conditioning on recirc. for a while. Those damps little pieces of cloth will be dirty after about a week.

Give those a try and see what you think.

Good luck

 

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...ght=smoke+smel

 

a few things -

1. spray lysol into both the exterior a/c vent (under the windsheild), and the recirc vent (passenger's side footspace). replace all ac filters. if you want to get crazy, take apart the ac system and clean everything out. the amount of stuff you'll probably find in there will be crazy.

2. wipe down all interior surfaces including seats, dash, etc (except for wood trim) with cleaner and a mr clean magic eraser. that really gets off a lot of dirt, grime, smoke, etc. thorougly vaccum the interior of the car (ie rip out rear seats and vaccum underneath, etc).

3. go to advance auto or any other auto parts store and pick up a can of upholstery cleaner with an odor eliminator in it. I think i used prestone brand cleaner last time i did this. spray the stuff on, let the foam sit for 3-5 minutes, scrub thorougly, let sit for another few minutes, and then blot up with towels. do this on everything (including roof and sun visors, speaker grills, rear speaker shelf, etc). Repeat if necessary, especially for stains on the carpet and roof. turn the heater on, dry everything out for 15-20 minutes, and then spray down everything (including roof) with febreze auto. let dry for at least a few hours.

this should get rid of almost everything. the trick is to make sure you are cleaning everything as much as possible. If you can still smell stuff, there is an auto deodorizer made my meguiars (i think) that works pretty well, so you can try that if necessary.

 

Thanks guys...i'll try out some more cleaning of the interior maybe even steaming some of the carpets

 

Follow mustafa's suggestions. It will also help to just run the heater on HIGH for a long long time. Go for a long drive with windows wide open (so you don't die in the heat). All the suggestions above with high heat will help in getting ris of all the mold, mildew, odors in the vent system.

My car got a real bad case of the mold/mildew before. I ended up throwing out the old cabin filters, drenching the interior and exterior vents with lysol, drove for a long time with high heat, put in new filters. After some sweat soaked shorts and a bottle of lysol, all better.

 

Problem with mine i dont think its a Mildew problem, i think its a nicotine buildup problem. The previous owner was a smoker, and the car didnt have an internal AC filter. So im figuring that its just a major buildup of nicotine throughout the AC system. We cleaned out the interior, at least all we could get to and it still smells. Especially when its damp and hot.