Hello, I recently purchased a used LC500 about six months ago. The previous owner smoked cigars, but the dealer masked it with a nearly insufferable cologne smell. Albeit the smell has has gotten better, I haven’t been able to get rid of it. I’ve tried (in order):
- steam cleaning/interior detail
- two car bombs
- wiping surfaces with white vinegar
- dryer sheets
- AC drain plug cleaning
- AC intake cleaning (in interior vents and exterior intake vents)
- spraying lysol thru AC intake
- spraying ozium thru AC intake
- Ozone treatment
Notably the interior is full of suede, specifically on the seats and headliner. The only thing(s) I haven’t tried yet are a bowl of charcoal or white vinegar. Is there anything else I should try?
I bought a smokers car that made me nauseous driving it. It’s like the owner smoked with all the windows up. I did tons of cleaning - like vacuuming with a Dyson stick with the little rotating brush, spraying and wiping everything. I’ve done the bombs like ozium and meguiars, and bought an ozone machine off Amazon. The smell is so much better and have even gotten comments that it smells like a new car which to me is still slightly smokey. I want to use my upholstery cleaner on the carpet but I’ve been too lazy since the smell is mostly gone and doesn’t bother me anymore. Repeated two hour ozone treatments I think work the best out of any other methods I tried. People suck oziums ass but I think that shit sucks and only masks the smell and it smells terrible.
i actually recommend you go the other way, smoke one up inside the car and enjoy it the way it is.
your car is a lounge on wheels, it’s the cigar type of car for the cigar type of people, wood paneled studies, fine scotch, cigar to smoke, lc500 to drive.
fine scotch
Yes, hard liquor and operating a motor vehicle - my favorite combination also.
I’ve had to get rid of cigarette smoke but never cigar. Cigarette smoke is disgusting enough. Can’t imagine how bad the cigar was.
I did multiple ozone treatments of 30 minutes each. I think I did an ozone treatment with the ac running too. Make sure the sun visor is down and any place else that could trap the smoke and not get exposed to the ozone. Replaced the floor mats and cabin air filter.
Took out the seats to clean underneath. Scrubbed the plastic interior pieces with all purpose cleaner. Make sure to use a brush to get the cleaner into any crevices that could trap the odor. Spent extra time cleaning the driver’s area where the smoke would likely go. Seats were leather and used leather cleaner/conditioner on those.
I was afraid I was going to have to replace the carpet and seat foam/covers, but I eventually got the smell out. It just took a lot of work. Probably spent at least 20-25 hours disinfecting the car of that odor.
I think you did everything you could. Arm and Hammer baking soda? The ones that you use for the refrigerator.
Keep windows open during the cold of the winter. That usually kills strong odors.
There’s suede cleaner for shoes but if you don’t want to use chemicals like that you could use baking soda. Scrub it in, leave it for an hour then vacuum it all up but I’d do some homework on what it will do to the suede itself. It might damage it when scrubbing the baking soda in there as I have no prior experience with deodorizing/cleaning suede.
Try opening the doors and allowing fresh air to flow through the car for a few days. You could even put a box fan inside to boost airflow.
With the windows closed, we have put activated carbon in a bowl for several days. We have done the same with baking soda. We had surprisingly good luck with special volcanic rocks which absorb odours.
There are industrial ozone cleaners that detailers use. They are more powerful than household units. Maybe you can rent one; read the instructions for safety.
Did you spray coil cleaner into the evaporator? On some cars one can spray that up the AC drain but the process varies by car. Some auto makers sell a kit.
After the coil cleaner “dries”, put in a new cabin air filter. There are activated carbon air filters, although the carbon is only good for a few months IME. Buy a premium brand.
Several auto chemical companies make odour eliminating sprays and cleaners. The Griot’s Garage lists hydrogen peroxide as the active odor ingredient, although that might be a problem for suedes and leathers I suppose. Maybe a local leather shop or shoe repair shop can recommend a gentle cleaner.
You could try removing the front seats so you get better access to the carpet for steam cleaning.
You could remove the carpet and wash that outside the car. We put the carpet of a GTI in a commercial laundrymat; it lost some colour, lost some shape, and shrunk a bit. The patrons did not appreciate that either.
I suppose you already washed all the inside windows but just in case, cleaning can eliminate odours.
AMMO NYC has some good interior cleaning videos on YouTube.
- I bought the car in June, windows were down basically every day. Haven’t used a big fan but at this point probably not that effective
- Not familiar with activated carbon, recommendations?
- I had it professionally by a guy who only does ozone’s, highly recommended. To be fair I don’t know what equipment he used, but can only assume
- If you’re referring to the direct method of cleaning I did not. I only used the air intake and drain plug(s)
- Cabin air filter was one of the first things I did, but been thinking of replacing it with a nice one. Was thinking maybe the filter had captured some of the smell, but I removed it and there wasn’t a scent. Any manufacturer recommendations?
- Good to know
- On the to-do list now
- lol
- Detailed by a guy who did my last car (trusted), and I’ve gone through it a couple times myself. The only thing I haven’t touched is the suede since it’s delicate. Had my window re-tinted by a random shop after a recent break-in, and the guy left his bottle of soapy/water on the seat. Left a big water stain after it dried, so apprehensive there. Probably need to steam them again
- I’ll check them out
I really appreciate the long list of information and resources, thank you
- Agreed
- For activated carbon, we just went to the local pet store. The package will have some fine silt which typically settles to the bottom I suppose, you can try to avoid. Outdoors, we scooped up carbon and put the bits into 2 wide bowls. Then moved the bowls into the car.
- I would assume the recommended ozone pro had all the equipment.
- Directly cleaning the evaporator with a specialised foam can work very well indeed. Thing is the coils get wet so are great places to collect dust, mold, odours. We used Toyota’s evaporator foamy spray by crawling under the car, spraying into the AC drain hose, and whatever else Toyota instructed us to do. I don’t know if that is the same procedure for the LC500 but the concept is the same. Some coil sprays require rinsing so avoid those IMHO (without rinsing, they may corrode the evaporator and I suppose they would leave a more dirty residue). There are some good YouTube videos showing how dirty AC coils get and tricks for cleaning car evaporators; it usually is pretty easy.
- Toyota makes good filters IME. Wix is also a good brand; they have different lines (e.g. regular, heavy duty, carbon).
The ceiling has a lot of surface area and seems to be a popular collector of smoking odours in cars. I don’t know how one would clean that robustly. Some headlines seem to loose adhesion and the cloth droops over time, so hard scrubbing or steam might not be fantastic, I suppose. If you try to clean the headliner, I suppose you want to cover the seats and rug with a plastic tarp to prevent transferring odour. Removing some headliners seems “difficult” but I don’t know on your car. New ones are expensive so one option is to have local auto upholstery shop advise (e.g. cleaning or applying new material). Everything is so expensive these days. There are adhesive sprays if you want to replace the material but getting a perfect unwrinkled fit looks difficult for the DIYer.
--> I can’t imagine how frustrating this is. Especially as this is a premium car, the issue was hidden, and you have done so much work to remediate.
We test drove some cars that smelled of smoke and some with a perfume smell. The car we picked up had a musty smell that we didn’t notice for a few weeks and couldn’t locate. After all the cleaning research & execution, the car just smelled like must and several commercial cleaning scents lol. Eventually we found the culprit! Driver’s door had collected water inside (probably entered via broken outside mirror housing) and the drain holes were clogged. We removed the door panel, drained the water, scrubbed inside bottom of door, cleared the drains, replaced the mirror housing. Car still smells totally neutral and is extra clean too.
Good information. My current to do list is to remove the seats and scrub the carpets, buy a new nice cabin air filter, spot clean the headliner (replacing does not seem realistic in terms of pricing) and look into cleaning the evaporator again. I understand the best method is to unplug one of the AC lines and foam directly into the evaporator to clean it, I just have no idea how to do it
Do NOT disconnect the AC coolant lines! That requires specialised equipment and generally a license.
The Lexus forums might have a simplified way to clean the evaporator.
Before you do all this, please try makeup removing wipes. Mother is a smoker and have left my car in her garage with window down while she smoked in there.
Got makeup wipes and wiped every fabric surface, including whole headliner. Dont scrub just fold the wipe into 4’s and gently sweep the surface.
Immediately after the smell was 90% gone. Next day couldn’t even smell it anymore.
It’s probably still on the carpets, especially if they used scent pads like you described. They may have thrown some under the seats, and even if you removed them, the smell is still sticking where they were sitting. I would remove the seats and do another steam clean. Good luck, dealers like that are the worst.
Thanks, right? Brief story of the experience. The day of sale, I brought up a detail service to the salesman, and he called over some guy and said “this guy right here, he does all the detailing for all of our cars. He does an amazing job, I don’t recommend anyone else” lmao, and it was some grungy dude who sprayed shine everywhere
Hahah. that’s hilarious and so typical.
I’m surprised Ozium spray didn’t handle it. I can’t stand the smoke smell either. People who are non-smokers don’t realize. Glad I quit 25 years ago. Have two ex GFs and an exwife who smoked.
Bought an '86 CRX quite a few years ago for $100. The carpet and seats were full of cigarette holes. Only way I was able to get rid of the smell in that car was to yank the carpet out and reupholster the seats. Thankfully I have the skills and tools for that but the smell in that thing wasn’t coming out otherwise.
Ozone treatment… you mean you used one of those electric O3 generators? I’ve had to do two 30 minute sessions with the AC on full, recycle and the AC air filter removed just to finish off smoking odors. Does the headliner smell?
Smelling different parts of the headliner, it doesn’t smell. The AC definitely has the cologne smell in it still, but I’d be surprised if that was making the entire car smell all the time. My best guess is around and underneath the seats, or deep in the suede of the seats themselves
Crank up the heat and turn on recirculation with all windows and doors closed, Crack one window, empty an entire can of Ozium into cracked open window to literally fog the inside of car, close window and let it sit with AC heat recirculating in the cabin for 10min and then air out.
You could try sprinkling the carpet with baking soda and brushing it in, and then vacuuming it out. it also sounds like you didn’t change the cabin air filter which should help as well.
Also if it’s a nice day out or you have a garage just leave all the windows down for as long as possible. If it’s in the garage maybe run a fan to help.
Note to everyone here, never use any car scent products that stay in the air for any length of time. They contain VOCs that are harmful to health and will likely be banned in the near future.
Ozone generator