Stinky Seats

Picked up a set of pristine heated leather seats at the junkyard. Turns out they reek to high heaven of tobacco smell. Likely some brand of little cigar.
They're in my garage now and the stink is powerful if I walk by em. How can I drop the smell down to bearable?

John

Since they are leather about your only option is to try some different leather cleaners. Not sure that will even work as the smoke smell may be permeated into the leather or maybe even into the seat cushion foam.

Good luck,
dweisel

As a last resort an ion generator should solve the problem, but they are not cheap.

Ugh, tobacco is the worst, maybe even worse than dogs.

Strip the seats down, and soak them in a mild lemon juice and/or vinegar solution.

Coffee grounds sometimes are good, as are dryer sheets or charcoal. But those are usually for smell absorbing, not necessarily ridding the offending order from the item altogether.

oilhammer said:

Ugh, tobacco is the worst, maybe even worse than dogs.
Strip the seats down, and soak them in a mild lemon juice and/or vinegar solution.
Coffee grounds sometimes are good, as are dryer sheets or charcoal. But those are usually for smell absorbing, not necessarily ridding the offending order from the item altogether.

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LOL on the dog hair. While it doesn't smell. They sure can get behind trim and dash pieces.

My B5 wagon's previous owner had a dog, and despite her having it professionally detailed before she sold it to me (she felt bad, although the car was still pretty "clean"), and despite me using just about every trick in the book over the years up to calling a priest to purge the dog smell, it still creeps back.

If it sits for a few days, especially in sunny humid weather, that stench reactivates and comes back to life, LOL. I hate dog smell.

Since the car is not driven regularly, I place a tray of ground charcoal (the stuff used for aquarium filters) in the back. That seems to help at least keep the canine cologne from becoming over powering.

I think dog owners really become immune to it, just like cigarette addicts have no idea just how awful they smell.

But, the car was cheap, and is otherwise fine, so I deal with it. And I will be the first to admit, I am pretty picky about that sort of thing.

Have you thought about purchasing an inexpensive ion generator there oilhammer? I have had great success with using them to permanently remove offensive odors.

Yep, we have one. It helps (I did that first) but unless I do it monthly overnight I am not sure it will make it go away forever.

You could try an ozone generator, is normally really good with strong odours including smoke damage.

I'm in the same boat on the dog standpoint. It'll be two years in Feb and on a hot day I definitely leave the door open for a few moments before hopping in. It was way worse when I got the car, but I've gone over it 4x now with one of these carpet cleaners

https://www.walmart.com/ip/BISSELL-...er&wpa_tax=4044_90548_4047_133184&wpa_bucket=


Worth every single penny, there's cheaper options too I think I paid 180 cad for it. With leather... good luck.

I've gotten a few items (smallish diecast collectibles) off eBay from heavy smokers in years past. (Has not been an issue in recent years though.) I left the items in the enclosed screened back porch for a few weeks or months to air out including the original boxes product came in as they were of the collectible type and the smell was totally gone.

So the OP may want to put the seats outside on a clear day to help air them out since they are not installed in a car yet. Being the seats are much larger then the little collectible items I used as an example it may take many months to air them out.

Perhaps consider swapping cushions out with the existing seats so only the leather covers are reused? That would speed up the "de-smelling" process a bit I'd imagine.

As an last resort open up a case of air fresheners and leave them in the car - just make sure it's an aroma you like!

Hope this advice helps someone!

I hate tobacco smoke smell. And dog smell, well, I have a dog, so it's just a fact of life. NOTHING, however, can match the stench from a dead mouse*! (my farm truck is pretty much hopeless- have to drive it, in most every weather condition, with the windows rolled down!)

* OK, I think that I've heard that dead human smell is also not something one wants, but I don't think that one runs across something like this very often! I suppose dead fish would also be bad, but how in the heck would that happen? (flood damage likely to be present- ha ha!)

I was going to suggest farting, but...

UhOh said:

... I suppose dead fish would also be bad, but how in the heck would that happen? (flood damage likely to be present- ha ha!)

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Not all that useful to the OP, but a fish left somewhere out of the way and out of sight was a popular option for some petty revenge when I was in the Army, a number of years ago.

I don't know how often it may have actually been done, but it was discussed fairly regularly.
The "best" solution I remember involved a folded up tin-foil tray placed on top of the radiator heater in someone's barracks room, under the sheet metal cover...

Natural citrus oil has always worked for me. Used it successfully on lots of used cars/trucks over the years. I get a pack of 6 and spray the upholstery every 2-3 days till the odor is gone.

Unless there's a direct alteration of the molecules emitting the smell, either through decay or "treatment," anything else operates based on altering YOUR sense of smell; that is, any solution merely coats your nose. But, not sensing the foul odors is the aim.

I bought a truck that has been smoked in that had leather interior. In addition to that the previous owner had two chocolate labs. A double whammy.
I rented a ozone generator for a weekend. It's instructions were to use it for 24 hrs. Since I had it for the weekend and the truck reeked, I had it running for 72hrs. Between the rental and a very thorough cleaning it
made a huge difference. The smell would still creep back on hot humid days but it was nothing like before. After about 3 years of daily use it finally went away completely.

I used Lysol spray in car AC duck work and had fair luck with it getting smoking smell out of the AC. Got this one at a AC Delco AC training course.
Didn't always get all out but usually was better.
I also used the cleaner Tuff Stuff to clean tobacco staining in one Ford I had way back.
Seemed to help with the smell also.

Fabreze works really well on smokers. We spray my wife's Aunt with it every time she visits (when she's not paying attention...)

https://www.febreze.com/en-us

You don't realize how everything a smoker owns gets covered by tar and nicotine until you hit it with a really good cleaning agent. Mild stuff like dish soap usually doesn't cut it. I've had the best luck with Crystal Simple Green because it's fairly mild on the pH compared to many others and doesn't stink like regular Simple Green. Unfortunately, it only helps on hard or vinyl surfaces and with all the cloth and leather in most cars today, that stench and tar permeates deep down to where it's almost impossible to remove without stripping the interior.

The donor vehicle didn't smell noticably at the junk yard. I did see a bunch of little slim cigar buts, smaller than cigarette butts, on the floor of the car. When I drove home with them crammed into my Jetta, I could just about feel a nicotine rush with the windows up.
They're sitting in the garage airing out now for over a week. I've cleaned the leather with a mixture of alcohol, dish soap and water and the smell changes noticably before to after that proceedure. I'll give it some time and a few applications of cleaners before installing. One google search I did suggested saddle soap as a good leather cleaner. I've only used it on a baseball glove waaay in the past. Anyone try that before?

NO to the Saddle Soap. Look to use something like Lexol or, if you have deeper pockets and need some heavy-hitting stuff, Leatherique (I'm likely going to break down and buy some of this- some replacement seats are hard and cracked a bit from the backside of the leather).

Not a suggestion,,,,, but..

Sort of reminds me of a story about someone spilling five gallons of Waste Vegetable Oil in the trunk of their car. The guy started a Thread asking for suggestions about removal... ...... lots of suggestions!...LOL

Someone suggested that he buy some dry dog food and dump on the oil and leave the trunk lid up for the neighborhood dogs ........

I've heard that tomato juice could be used to clean skunk infested clothing and or pets.

JB05 said:

I've heard that tomato juice could be used to clean skunk infested clothing and or pets.

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Skunk smell can be removed. This is another story. I'm determined to use these seats. Taking the skins off and soaking in something seems like a bit too much work. I'll continue to clean the leather to see how much of the smell I can get out. Once it's tolerable I'll try installing them and see what happens. Where can you rent an ozone generator?

JT

Why rent?

https://www.amazon.com/Clevr-Commer...rd_wg=j3ZAR&psc=1&refRID=YKVBNBZ45JGPB0NTJ1P1

I'm not recommending this particular product, I've never used it.

I've sprinlked the seats with baking soda for 5 days or so, and then cleaned with a powerful ammonia based de-greaser we got from the disaster cleanup folks who came to clean up the smell from our house when we had a fire here a few years ago. The seats still smell, but it's much more subtle than when I first brought them home.
Geting there.....
JT

Installed the rears and driver's seat yesterday afternoon. The smell is almost not there at all. The seats are manual, and heated, and also have the lumbar support, which is a big improvement. Very happy that things have turned out well so far. Air bag light is on, as the passenger seat is currently out of the car. I call it a success. Will post a link to photos of the seats and the cleaning product used to do the cleaning. YES!!

I would try baking soda in several large trays on the back seat floor when not needed for passengers. We use it in the refrigerator when winterize the house in either NE in winter or summerizing in the spring in FL . It's an amazing and cheap product you can buy in bulk at a big box store. Worth a try before a big expense.

Fight fire with fire

Just a thought. I recently purchased a 2000 Beetle with a distinct odor. Lots and lots of interior cleaning. Odor still persisted. Finally hit on using a scented candle. Seemed to work so far. I'll give it a few more cranberry smoke treatments and report back.