I guess the previous owner was a pretty heavy smoker. I didn't even notice how bad it truly was until today because I was driving the Suburban the past 2 days.

BTW, truck is a '06 Lariat with the leather bucket seats.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Chris

 

Man, that's a tough one. It's probably mostly in the carpet fibers. I've heard steam cleaning combine with baking soda works well. But I'm sure there are dozens of other home remedies.

Fabreeze mainly masks the scent so not really a good solution.

 

I'm so upset over this. The dealer must have just masked up the smell with Lysol or something because if I ever smelled what I'm smelling now I never would have bought the truck.

I'm thinking I need to steam clean the carpet and the headliner, then if need be some spray on/vacuum off carpet cleaner.

 

I forgot about the headliner. But, poke around the internet. There are remedies that involve vinegar and other such things. Smoke resin simply attaches itself to anything.

Any possibility of taking it back to the dealer and talking to them? At the very least, maybe their detailing department can offer some suggestions.

I would be upset too.

 

That is wear I would start, just explain that you couldn't smell it earlier and see if they own up to it or blow you off.

Good Luck

 

I really wish I could but its about a 2 hour drive from my house. With gas prices and traffic its just not worth it.

 

Maybe they would be willing to re-imberse you for a interior cleaning? hey, crazier things have happened I guess.

 

yup my truck was the same.
i sprayed fabreeze every day and shut the doors and let it sit
i also used that carpet cleaning thing.
smell is gone now.

 

As a fairly recently quit smoker...I am happy to report that my truck still does not smell like smoke, and even with non-smoking parents, non smoking GF and non smoking siblings, they all say it never smelled. If you are from Rockland County (I used to go to school up there in Cornwall got a lot of friends from Rockland and go off-roading up there) anyway, you need to make sure you check the HVAC. I know its 5000000 degrees outside, because at the moment my cammies are soaked to the core with sweat just walking 1/2 a mile back to the barracks, BUT You need to run the heat to see if the smell is there too, also the AC. One way to start fixing it is just run it, and put some dryer sheets behind the vents, this will make the truck smell nice as well, keep replacing them. Fabreeze ALL THE TIME, when you get out of the truck just to go to the grocery store, spray the carpet and headliner. The smell will eventually completely reside. Hope this helps!!!
~Phil
"Semper Fi"

 

go get that sucker shampoo'd!!

 

x2!!! on the dryer sheets, hell i keep the whole box under my seat

 

shampoo the carpets and more importantly, the headliner. Smoke goes up so that is where most of it is. Also go to your auto store and get some smoke remover for the a.c. Forgot the name of the one I used, but is says it is to remove smoke smell. You run the AC and spray this stuff at the ac intake outside, infront of the window. It helps clean out the ac system and also helps with the areas that were missed steam cleaning.

You may still get a faint smell if the car sits outside and the interior gets real hot, but that will go away slowly.

Cobey

 

I think the stuff was ozoneium, or something like that. Detail shops have a ozone machine that helps, same concept as the stuff from the auto store.

 

Don't forget to clean the insides of all the windows while you are at it. Smoke resin sticks to windows bad.

 

I had this problem before and as stated shampooing the carpet and the Ozone cleaner at Auto zone helped the other thing I did was take 2 plastic lids and put Baking soda in them and slid them under the front seats. I then changed them out about every 10 days and soon no more smell. I learned the Baking soda trick from putting it in a Refrigerator and absorbing smells.