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?

  • cretek3@alien.topOPBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago
    1. 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
    2. Not familiar with activated carbon, recommendations?
    3. 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
    4. If you’re referring to the direct method of cleaning I did not. I only used the air intake and drain plug(s)
    5. 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?
    6. Good to know
    7. On the to-do list now
    8. lol
    9. 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
    10. I’ll check them out

    I really appreciate the long list of information and resources, thank you

    • Meister1888@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago
      1. Agreed
      2. 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.
      3. I would assume the recommended ozone pro had all the equipment.
      4. 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.
      5. 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.

      • cretek3@alien.topOPBEnglish
        0·
        10 months ago

        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

        • Meister1888@alien.topBEnglish
          1·
          10 months ago

          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.

        • S_Sto@alien.topBEnglish
          1·
          10 months ago

          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.