akbrian

Ozone generator and a deep clean will help. Vinegar in a spray bottle for the vents. Honestly one the best/cheapest ways is dryer sheets. Wipe all the cloth and leather areas down with dryers sheets then take about 10 spread them out on the carpet under the seats floor mats etc. swap them out every week or so for about a month should be gone. Not a smoker but I usually use two under the back seat and swap them out monthly or whenever I remember. Don't knock it till you tried it.

Joe F

Good luck. I once bought a used car that had obviously been owned by a smoker. The used car dealership had done a pretty good job of disguising it with whatever technique they'd used. Eventually it resurfaced. Everything I tried including ozone generators only resulted in varying degrees of temporary ranging from a couple of weeks to a month or two. All that nicotine and crud coats every part of the interior including the interior of the ductwork and permeates any and all fabric and carpet. Air fresheners only add their own mixture of odor that attempts to overpower the smoke odor. Never again. Some of my co-workers smoke and when I ride in their cars it amazes me how totally oblivious to it they are and often have no idea how bad it is even if their car literally smells like an ash tray. Sensory Adaption (Nose Blindness) I think it's called.

BrianSomething

Ozone generators work great, but I wouldn't take it in and pay someone for the service. I picked one up for $70 on Amazon. Works great, but the ozone smell takes a few days to air out with the windows down. I probably run it twice/year to keep the old lingering smoke smell away. Even running the ozone generators, the smell will slowly show back up again, but they do wonders for sure!

Jeepcritter

If you're trying home remedies first, I'd put trays of charcoal all around the cab. Charcoal absorbs odor. Takes days so don't expect miracles. I think used cars should be separated on the lot into the smoking and non-smoking section.

eyecandynsx

You need to scrub the headliner, and wipe down entire interior, seat belts etc. Run an ozone machine and replace the cabin filter. Air sprays and the like will not do a damn thing besides mask the odor for a day or two.

Drix

Best product I have used, spray the hell out of it close the doors and seal it in that smoke smell will be gone.

Steve83

Ozone won't remove the ash of the burned cellulose (wood fiber), which is the part of the smell like a wet campfire; or the tar; or most of the other chemicals that stink. All it does is slowly oxidize (burn) things, like a weak acid would. That's why vinegar is also slowly effective on some odor sources. But the only way to actually & permanently reduce the smell is to disassemble & WASH the whole interior. Most of it is pretty easy: carpet, cab sheet metal, glass, interior plastic trim, seat belts... It just takes some time & a willingness to remove all those parts. I do it to every vehicle I buy.


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Most of the smaller fabric parts are safe to throw in the washing machine - even the seat belts, when separated from their mechanisms:


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Or you can do them by hand in a utility sink:


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The hardest part to clean is the dash, because it's like a sponge, with all its internal surfaces coated by all that crap. But if you remove it & the registers from the ends of the ducts, you can blast wet air through the ducts - sort of the reverse of this:


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Let the registers soak in a sink, and wipe down as much of the backside of the dash as possible without getting water in any of the electronics. While it's apart, wash the heater & evaporator cores with a hose, and dry them the way that last pic above shows. Finally, spray everything down with Lysol Disinfectant Spray, & Auto/Pet Febreeze during reassembly. After that, you probably won't ever detect any old odors - only the new ones YOU put in the truck.

The headliner & visors probably can't be cleaned without destroying their delicate fabrics - plan on replacing the headliner, but there are mobile services that will come to you & replace that fabric while-you-wait (or while you're inside your office working).

mcr1911

I've used this also, and it worked great. The effectiveness of any of the methods mentioned in this thread will depend on how severe the smell is.

Newport

I had a good friend who was a used car buyer for about a dozen of the dealers in the South Bay Area of
Los Angeles. He showed me the best way to permanently get rid of smoke odor. First, was the ashtray used? If so, throw it out and buy a new one. Second, remove the cabin filter if equipped. Third, spray the carpet and floor mats with Fabreeze until wet. Fourth, start the car and turn the A/C on full blast with all the interior vents open, the windows up and recirculation OFF. Spray a large amount of Fabreeze into the cowl area as near to the heater and ac inlet as possible. Shut everything down, leave the windows up and walk away from the car for a minimum of 24 hours. Reinstall a new cabin filter and enjoy. The smell will be gone. More proof of Fabreeze and it’s ability to get rid of tobacco smell is a friend who did vinyl graphics and embroidery. He and his wife were heavy smokers and they started getting complaints from t-shirt and cap purchasers. The last thing they would do before taping up a box for shipping was one or two spritzes of Fabreeze. The customer complaints stopped.

Chainsaw.

This is exactly what I have done on a couple of what I called "lightly smoked in cars" meaning the person wasn't a sloppy smoker, no ash burns in the seats, no heaps of cig butts on the floor etc. it worked surprisingly well. Might compliment with a scrubby brush and soapy water to carpets, don't soak em, just enough to get some suds, shop vac any subs off, leave in the sun on a hot day with the windows cracked to let the water bake off.