The previous owner of my Fit was a smoker. help me!

[JasonG]

Hotels also use the ozone generators with great success.

Warning on using one in a car. The concentrations inside of it will be at toxic levels.
Unplug it, hold your breath, open the doors and walk away.

[Thymeclock]

Originally Posted by JasonG

Hotels also use the ozone generators with great success.

Warning on using one in a car. The concentrations inside of it will be at toxic levels.
Unplug it, hold your breath, open the doors and walk away.

The smoke has deposited airborne residue on all the surfaces of the interior.

The good news is that compared to some other odors, this is relatively easy to remove. Depending on the nature of the surface, if it is hard such as plastic, glass or metal you can use a spray cleaner such as Fantastic, Lysol or any other spray cleaner. If it is fabric, then a fabric cleaner would be best.

After cleaning and the surface is totally dry, put your nose to it to see if the odor remains. If it does, try again with a different cleaner.

And don't forget the ash tray. Remove it and give it a good soak and scrubbing.

[Piwoslaw]

Start smoking.
Then you won't care.
Just kiddin', I wouldn't encourage anyone to do that.

[Backtobasics]

I have great luck with Simple Green and a pressure washer.

I bought a Suburban a while back, and the interior was FILTHY. I gutted the inside, stretched the carpet over saw horses, and presprayed everything in simple green. All door panels, interior plastics, seats, etc. I pressure washed everthing, and while it dried I got to everything I could get to inside including floor, dashboard, etc.

Once it dried, I reassembled. Not only does the interior look like it did in 1994, but the faint smell of simple green is in the air.

[Exalta-STA]

My car got flooded and was full of mud and decaying foliage and rotting vermin.

The best way to get rid of the stench was when I fully stripped the interior..carpet,seats everything! just like when you are stripping of a car when you are going to have it repainted/restored.

The carpet i washed with a mixture of bleach and water then rinse with water with lime juice. I then scrubbed the ceiling and seats with the same and left them to dry in the hot prairie sun for almost 4 days and put them back in when they are bone dry.

[Phantom]

Just start with the simple things first clean all the hard surfaces one or two times if you are still getting brown residue on your rag let it dry and go at it again.

If it took more than 2 times to get the dash and windows clean I would start on the soft surfaces by using a carpet cleaner with upholstery attachment. If you can remove any of the seats easily I would do that to make it easier. Do the first wash with warm water this will remove the looser surface dirt then when finished start over using soap.

I'm not sure what I would do about the head liner other than using fabreze.

Replace the cabin air filter and clean the passages under it, also clean the vents and as far down the vent as you can. I hope that the last owner did not smoke with the air recirculating in the car. If they did you might want to check into how to clean the condenser core. I would try the other steps before trying to clean the air system any further than you can easily get with a rag.

Also on hot days leave the windows popped so it can air out.

[Hubert Farnsworth]

Originally Posted by Phantom

Replace the cabin air filter and clean the passages under it, also clean the vents and as far down the vent as you can. I hope that the last owner did not smoke with the air recirculating in the car.

Just a small technical point, the evaporator core is inside the hvac module and is used to evaporate the refrigerant, pulling the heat out of the air before it enters the cabin, the condenser converts the hot and evaporated refrigerant gas into a liquid and is typically mounted either just in front of, or just behind the radiator behind the grille opening.

[diesel_john]

HVAC techs use a concentrated solution to clean coils. The smoke actually condenses on coils to form a brown layer. I believe it was called Acti-Klean.

[Bill in Houston]

if you think that there is residual smell in the A/C system, google "stop the stank" and read the accord forum post that comes up.

[hondaguy72]

For the lazy, here's the product.
Interdynamics OE1 - Evaporator Odor Eliminator | O'Reilly Auto Parts