What products can some of us smokers use to eliminate the odor?? I smoke cigarettes vigorously in the car, and on special occasions cigars. I wash the car twice a week (interior & exterior) and use a new air freshener (vanilla) every time I fill up with gas. There has to be a product or trick out there for odor of cigarettes for the people smoking in their cars. I would also like to hear what other smokers do to keep the odor down. The odor in my car is not that bad due to me cleaning it and using alot of air fresheners, but would be interested in what others have to say. Please dont reply with "quit smoking" or "dont smoke in the car".

P.S. I never use the ashtrays in the car--I always ash out the windows or moonroof.

__________________
Agron
1989 300E ("E 300"-Badged)
Monotoned Astral Silver w/ rear lid deck panel
97 Style Replica E420 Rims 205/55/16
Euro Headlights
Clear Corners
94/95 Taillights
Black Grille Insert
Chrome Exhaust Tips
20% Tint
Pioneer Sound system w/ Sub-enclosure and CD-changer

There are small air ionizers that plug into the dash that claim to destroy smoke odor. There are also replacement ashtrays with built in ionizers that claim the same thing "negative ion showers", etc. These devices may cut down the odor some, but also produce ozone (bad for your lungs and the car plastic and rubber parts) and tend to plate out the ionized particles as a soot colored dust in the home units, so I imagine they would do the same thing in a car.

Probably what would work the best is a charcoal/hepa air filter unit in the car. Your 'air fresheners' don't destroy or capture the smoke, just mask it with a different odor. Smoke has both gaseous and particulate components. The activated charcoal and zeolite will help capture the gaseous mode, and the HEPA filter traps the particulates, usually expressed as a capture efficiency for a minimum particle size. You would ideally like an air cleaner/filter that says something like "captures 99.5% of particles down to 0.5 microns" (Better would be '99.9% down to 0.1 microns'). The volume processed by the cleaner is another factor - the greater the volume in cubic feet per minute, the faster the air is being filtered.

If you are really compulsive about this then probably the best filtering you could accomplish is to remove both rear speakers and have one speaker hole ducted to an AustinAir Junior air cleaner ( http://www.austinair.com/specs.htm ), and the other speaker hole accepting the clean air output of the cleaner. Run the whole thing off a power inverter - about 80 watts maximum draw.

Good luck. If you find an inexpensive highly effective answer, let me know, and we will get rich selling it to coal burning electric generating stations! EACH 1000 megawatt coal burning power plant (and the US has lots - they provide 51% of US electricity) pumps out 6,500,000 tons of gaseous waste per year, and 320,000 tons/year of particulates as fly ash, which includes 400 tons of heavy metals, 3 tons of uranium, and 8 tons of thorium! Now THAT is a smoke problem!!!

[Edited by JCE on 04-26-2001 at 11:48 PM]

__________________
John

2003 Firemist Red/grey leather SL 500
2015 Palladium Silver/black mbtex GLK 350
1987 Smoke Silver/burgundy mbtex 300E Sportline (SOLD)

Click to see 87 300E

I think I'd stand by the ionizer. It works very well - and eliminate all kinds of smell including pleasant ones. So - don't bother slapping too much of that expensive cologne when driving.

__________________
... Kerry

126 tailed by a 203, 129 leading the pack.

If you use a ionizer which, I have done on a different car. Any fumes,smoke,dust, and/or dirt will stick to the sides of wall, ceiling, floor, and seat itself. You'll have to clean up the car twice as hard and will eventually make the car more smelly and more dirty (possibly staining). It is not a good idea. Try to find a true air filter and steam clean the floor and back of car (speaker area), wipe down everything with Armor All and Castrol Super Clean (non-cloth areas), and leave a bowl of vinegar in the center dash pocket overnight. Do the steam cleaning seasonally. They have these at the car washes that are coin operated Wipe down everything on a monthly basis, and leave vinegar everytime you have excessive fumes and/or smoke. I've had experience in this area with other cars I've owned from the previous owners. One had a baby and did not take car of the car too well. Well, you could imagine how that smelled. Also, the air cleaneers will mask the smell but, they do help. I have Citrus in mine and replace it everytime I have a car wash. Also, since you smoke. You should consider emptying and cleaning the ashtray everytime you smoke in the car. Also, leave all windows wide open and sunroof also overnight if, you put your car in a garage. Hope this helps. Oh, forgot I went to a Japanese tuner shop recently. They have little colored pebbles that acts like a air freshner that you put in the ashtray for smokers. It was kind of expensive but comes in a big bottle and is disposable everytime you empty the ashtray.

I always crank down both side windows on the smoker's side if people will be smoking in it. I never use the ashtray either. The outgassing of the butts in the ashtray is worse than the actual smoke while smoking. IMHO, getting the smoke out of the car right away is the best plan. It only seems to accumulate on the windshield and side windows a bit that way.

__________________
Bob Roe
Lehigh Valley PA USA
1973 Olds 88, 1972 MB 280SE, 1978 Datsun 280Z, 1971 Ford T-Bird, 1972 Olds 88, 1983 Nissan Sentra, 1985 Sentra, 1973 230.6, 1990 Acura Integra, 1991 Volvo 940GLE wagon, 1983 300SD, 1984 300SD, 1995 Subaru Legacy L wagon, 2002 Mountaineer, 1991 300TE wagon, 2008 Murano, 2007 R320CDI 4Matic 52K, some Hyundai, 2008 BMW 535xi wagon, all gone... currently
2007 Honda Odyssey Touring, 2014 E350 4matic

I dont like ionizers. They make a light humming noise, that is my experience with them, I returned the unit. Maybe I got a defective one, but anyway, when driving and listening to the humming for a while, it gets on your nerves, and with MB's the cigarette lighter doesnt work when the keys are not in the ignition so you cant leave it plugged in overnight.

I dont know about the ozone thing, this is the first I have heard of it, when they advertise the units, they say its good for your health, lungs, etc.

Use Meguiars odor elimiator. That will neutrilze the smell in the carpet, etc.

Leaving the window or sunroof cracked overnight really helps.

Personally, I hate smokers. If you don't want to hear about it, then don't read any further. This is a very personal issue for me, and you WILL find my comments to be offensive if you are a smoker.

But this isn't just directed at "Agron80", it's directed at all of the rest of you smokers who share his problems as well! You all seem to think you have some god-given right to pollute the rest of the world while polluting yourselves.

I sat in bumper-to-bumper traffic for two hours today just because of someone who didn't use their ashtray, had set fire to a hillside! There were six fire trucks, and two CHP cars blocking a lane of traffic, and slowing down traffic to 20 MPH on a four-lane freeway for 35 miles!!!

So, if you have a habit that even you can't stand, why expect everyone else to help you compensate for it? Stop allowing tobacco to control your life. Deal with it on your own. I say, roll up the windows, close the sunroof, and use the ashtray that the factory provided to you.

And, I've got another news flash for you!!! Your car isn't the only thing that STINKS! You do too, and I mean all of you! Your clothes, your hair, your house, your drapes, your furniture! Eliminate the odor? Eliminate the source, and you WILL eliminate the odor. Smoke sticks to clothes, hotel rooms, rental cars, bathrooms, second-hand goods like autos and furniture, houses, apartments, and just about anything it comes in contact with. The rest of us can smell that smoke on you everywhere you go.

I am sick and tired of pathetic junkies who cluster outside of markets, office buildings, public places, restaurants, and anywhere else while sucking on a miniature equivalent of an automobile exhaust pipe, only because they need a "fix".

There are also people who have real allergic reactions to tobacco smoke! Get a nicotine patch, and quit! Don't you all know that you are just foolish and willing slaves to a substance that has only one end result - TO KILL YOU?

Honestly, if you did stop being a slave to tobacco, you would be amazed how you will be able to smell, taste, and see the world as you haven't since you started smoking. Then, and only then, you may find that you're not really so incensed by what it is that I am saying as you are right now...

There has got to be people out there who agree with me on this!

[Edited by longston on 05-05-2001 at 01:23 PM]

__________________

Scott Longston
Northern California Wine Country...
"Turbos whistle, grapes wine..."

It's in a spray can I have used it before, I think you can get it at most professional cleaning supplies retailers. and No I am not going to preach to you about smoking, I figure if you are old enough to drive then you know about smoking, plus you asked us not to, but some people on this board have to comment on everything.

__________________
2000 Ford 7.3 Powerstroke 4x4
2006 Mazda Tribute
1983 Black 300 D (donated to charity)
1993 Teal 300 D (160K) Sold
"I love the smell of burnt diesel fuel in the morning, it smells like ....VICTORY"

Semper Fidelis
USMC 1973-1976

I agree with most people to a point; at least I can see someone else's point of view in most cases. However, the notion that smoking outdoors, in a moving car, significantly pollutes the air for other people, in my opinion, is a bit extreme. Sure a cigarette is like a "miniature exhaust pipe," and most companies, and restaurants in California, have banned indoor smoking. This is a good thing, for non-smokers' rights to clean air, etc, etc. I myself have not smoked in my own home in five years, respecting my non-smoking wife's right to clean air, as well as not wanting my 1996 paint job to get all yellowed from smoke residue.

Outdoors? I don't really think that cigarette smoke, 20' away from a smoker, is any worse than the exhaust of an M617 diesel engine. There are Californians who want to ban diesels due to the same hysteric fear of cancer from the evil (visible) diesel smoke.

I think there is a balance, between individual rights, and the right of society, and that smokers should have rights too. Too many individual freedoms are being chipped away bit by bit. If we don't recognize the importance of the rights of the individual, our country could find itself without a free press, without the right to bear arms, and with tobacco outlawed. Just my $.02...

__________________
Bob Roe
Lehigh Valley PA USA
1973 Olds 88, 1972 MB 280SE, 1978 Datsun 280Z, 1971 Ford T-Bird, 1972 Olds 88, 1983 Nissan Sentra, 1985 Sentra, 1973 230.6, 1990 Acura Integra, 1991 Volvo 940GLE wagon, 1983 300SD, 1984 300SD, 1995 Subaru Legacy L wagon, 2002 Mountaineer, 1991 300TE wagon, 2008 Murano, 2007 R320CDI 4Matic 52K, some Hyundai, 2008 BMW 535xi wagon, all gone... currently
2007 Honda Odyssey Touring, 2014 E350 4matic

Personally, if the issue of flicking ash out of one's car hadn't been mentioned, I would never have commented on the issue at all, except to maybe suggest trying Febreze, or Ozium.

Sorry, I saw that my original posting was way too harsh and too insulting. I had just got home from fighting traffic almost all the way because someone wasn't using their ashtray. That was my way of dealing with my road rage...

I see people all of the time who are too inconsiderate of others to keep their cigarette ash in their cars. It has become a very major annoyance to me. The embers from that ash are what started that fire, and part of what gets flicked into other people's cars and faces while smokers are using the world as their ashtray.

Just the other day, I saw a smoker flick ash out of their car right into the face of a bicyclist who was passing the car at a stoplight that had just turned green. I see smokers flip cigarette butts out of their cars all of the time with no regard for anyone else. And I see cigarette butts all over the sidewalks of public places even parks and playgrounds. I think smokers should be fined for this kind of behavior.

This is not a matter of rights. This is a matter of courtesy. What we are slowly losing in this country isn't individual rights, it's common courtesy. Smoking isn't a "right" it's an addiction. Second-hand smoke does cause illness, and even death, and I don't like having to walk through a cloud of cigarette smoke with my wife and young son when I want to go to a public building like a supermarket just because smokers want to have the "right" to satisfy their addicted cravings.

If you do something that you know is annoying and discourteous to others, produces an odor that requires chemical agents to eliminate/mask, and is harmful to your own body as well as expensive, (and very difficult and even more expensive to stop doing) why continue doing it? Because you think you have a "right" to all of these enjoyable benefits?

__________________

Scott Longston
Northern California Wine Country...
"Turbos whistle, grapes wine..."

longston,

I didnt really want to turn this topic into a political matter. I am a smoker, and I know what the side affects of smoking is--I dont need you preaching ethics to me because your pissed off you just sat in traffic. For your information, I live in New York City where traffic is not even a word to describe congestion. I'm stuck in my car every single friggen day for about 2 hours commuting from school. If I took your "wife-beater" attitude approach when coming home from traffic, I'd probably be locked up in prison right now. This forum is called "detailing" which ecompasses information about maintaining the cleansiness of your automobile. I asked a legitimate question about eliminating odor in my vehicle whether it be cigarette smoke or me passing gas constantly. Some of the members here gave me good tips on their free will without the mumbo-jumbo, which I'm thankful for. I can understand the non-smokers point of view, and they have their non-smoking sections in restaurants, movie theaters, etc which I respect ethically and lawfully. Because i'm smoking in my car or in front of a supermarket, you think you have the "right" to tell me I cant smoke or get pissed off??--you gotta be kidding me pal. I don't smoke in your car or your home, I smoke in MY car and MY home. My suggestion for you would be to leave the car home and take public transportation, this way, you will not be anal retentive when you get home. Or maybe just smoke a cigarette while stuck in traffic to relax--try it.

For the helpful others.....

I have been using Ozium for the past week, which has really helped alot.

__________________
Agron
1989 300E ("E 300"-Badged)
Monotoned Astral Silver w/ rear lid deck panel
97 Style Replica E420 Rims 205/55/16
Euro Headlights
Clear Corners
94/95 Taillights
Black Grille Insert
Chrome Exhaust Tips
20% Tint
Pioneer Sound system w/ Sub-enclosure and CD-changer

I only have one request for smokers. Please don't toss your cigarette butts out the window or moonroof. In one of JS' top ten lists, I posted something about having a cigarette butt flicked into my windshield while driving home one night. Agron, isn't it ironic that the ozium you've been using was Longston's suggestion?

Kuan

Kuan,

Actually, a gentleman at the local car wash suggested using Ozium prior to Longston's post. I've always seen this product laying around car washes and discount auto stores, but never gave it any chance. I've been using it for a couple of days and it seems to neutralize the odor a bit.

Now I need to turn my attention on the climate control, with the summer months coming and the air blowing not so cold.

__________________
Agron
1989 300E ("E 300"-Badged)
Monotoned Astral Silver w/ rear lid deck panel
97 Style Replica E420 Rims 205/55/16
Euro Headlights
Clear Corners
94/95 Taillights
Black Grille Insert
Chrome Exhaust Tips
20% Tint
Pioneer Sound system w/ Sub-enclosure and CD-changer

Agron80,
I smoke in my car and it rarely ever smells like smoke.
I will roll the front window down about 1/2 way and the rear driver's window about 1/3 of the way. Also, the sunroof is open.

But what I think really helps is me having the sunroof open. Not just when I'm smoking, but whenever I drive pretty much. Therefore, the car always has fresh air coming into it.

Now for the most part, my car never smells like smoke, even to the non-smoker. I know this because my dad can smell smoke a mile away and he can't smell it in my car.

I do wipe down the celing (vinyl, not cloth) every other week or so. I always clean inside of my windows. And I wipe down the cloth areas of the A and B pillars (and C) with some mild carpet cleaner. I also have the car steam cleaned once every other month or so. When I wash my car, I spray a light spray of febreeze throughout also.

And for the record, I ALWAYS dispose of my cigarettes in the ashtray. I tell my passengers to do the same. And I rarely ash out the window. (I don't want to be on your hate list, Scott!!)

__________________
2006 E350 w/ 155k miles (Daily Driver)

Previous:
1993 300E 3.2L Sedan w/ close to about 300k miles
2003 E500 Brilliant Silver (Had 217k miles when totalled!)
1989 300E with 289,000 miles (had for <1 yr while in HI)
03 CLK 500 cabrio (Mom's)
2006 C230k (Dad's)
1999 S420 (Mom's/Dad's)
2000 C230k Sport sedans
2001 CLK320 Cabrio (Mom's)
1995 C280 My First Mercedes-Benz... (155k miles. EXCEPTIONAL AUTOMOBILE. Was Very hard to let go of!)

I have a car I just bought and it totally wreaks of cigarette smoke. I'm incapable of driving it because of my allergies to the smoke. I actually have to change lanes on the highway when a smoker is in a car somewhere in front of me... the pain is excruciating...
I have plugged in one of the ozone gadgets in the car. I've added a solar panel to the roof of the car to keep the battery charged and plugged in a 12v fan blowing into a charcoal filter... the smell persists.
I've fabrized several bottles worth... I've scrubbed all surfaces of the car, and vacuumed the carpet ad nauseum... no help.
any pointers to get me in this car?

__________________
John HAUL AWAY, OR CRUSHED CARS!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread
"as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do!

My drivers:
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5-5SPEED!!!

1987 300TD
1987 300TD
1994GMC 2500 6.5Turbo truck... I had to put the ladder somewhere!