Best method to clean a smoked-in vehicle? | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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Best method to clean a smoked-in vehicle?

*By smoke, I mean cigarettes, not fire or something of that nature*

Picked up an 06 this past week. Runs and drives beautifully, however needs some cosmetic love. Overall its great, but I want to deep clean the hell out of it.

I plan on stripping the interior (taking seats/console out and removing the carpet to take to the coin wash and soak it and blast it. Did it on my 2000 and it was like brand new carpet afterwards) cleaning will be a fun easy day project, but my problem is the vents. All the vents "appear" clean, there's no nicotine/smoking stains on them, or any gunk, but they are extremely hard to adjust. What would be a good method of cleaning them?

The carpet has a funky feeling as well, will a simple squirt down with soap and cleaner and then a good power wash be sufficient to clean it, or should I use some specific cleaner on it? If it matters, its tan.

Thanks for any suggestions! Will update tomorrow as I gut the interior. Should be a fun project :D
 



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Got the third row out with no problems, then went up to the drivers side 2nd row seat, no problems, then I got to the larger of the two on the passenger side, and one of the bolts that go through the body will NOT come out. Using every bit of strength I had, I could move it maybe 1/8th of a turn, but these are decently long bolts, probably just shy of 2" and my air gun wouldn't even move it. Really wanted to get that back seat out to clean the seats, then work on getting the fronts and console out so I could get the carpet out, but apparently that's not gonna happen for a while. If I had a metal blade, id have cut that bolt already. That's probably what ill end up doing, and drilling it out.

Any tips on removing the center console? All my previous X'es have been straightforward, and had write ups on here, but none of them had floor shifters, which is whats making me hesitate. I still need to be able to drive the thing while the rest of the interior is gutted.
 






I hate smokers.

I think I've seen some vent cleaner stuff in part stores but I've never tried it.

One thing that comes to mind is to put the vents on high and spray some fabreeze into the exterior air intake just below the windshield. I haven't done it but should work.
 






The 99 Sport we have the PO must have smoked in it because it stunk from cigarette smoke. I gutted the interior, replaced the carpet & sprayed the headliner with febreeze & now my wife says she can not smell the cigarette smoke any more.
 






Chlorine dioxide would kill the smell. Just place clorine tablets in cup of water and close all windows and turn off fresh air on a/c control. Let sit 24 hrs. Then remove cup and let air out for 1 hr because I'm sure if you just jumped in it would kill you from lack of oxygen but that's what kills the odors may smell like a swimming pool for a day but the smells will disappear. Their is a brand that used to be called odor shark that used this set up. It's what we use at the dealership to get rid of that chain smoker smell
 






Whoops, should've added that surprisingly there isn't any smoke smell. There are just clues all over the vehicle that tell me they smoked. Thanks for all the suggestions though. That chlorine dioxide one I will have to keep in mind.

So far I've gotten the 3rd row and the smaller of the two in the 2nd row seats out. Just the vacuuming I've done makes a night and day difference.

I also sprayed a good amount of simple green on the vents where the little thing slides, and it fixed the middle and drivers side vents, but the passenger side still needs a good cleaning.

It truly is disgusting. Don't know how you could get in such a nice vehicle and smoke yourself to death in it. Some people really just don't care about their vehicle and it's sad. Then it becomes someone else's chore to clean it up. My 2000 with 200k miles on it was cleaner when I bought it than this 2006 with 80k.

Guess I'm not too mad though, I was gonna gut the interior anyways to run my power and RCA's for my amp.
 






I heard that Dakota Odor Bomb Car Odor Eliminator works great.
 






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