I recently had cause to seriously deep clean a very nice car (not a Range Rover) that had been regularly used to transport a dog and the car had also been smoked in (I don't mean windows up, use of the ashtray smoked in but obviously a window down, flick ash out of the window smoker). You could clearly smell the stale smell of cigarette smoke but the smell of stale [wet] dog and ingrained dog hair was most prevalent. I had doubts as to whether or not these smells could be banished.

I did a lot of research on the best way to eradicate dog and smoke smells including a process often referred to as "smoke bombing" cars. CarPlan is one company that does such a product but it was ineffective on this particular vehicle, partly because the dealership cleaning process beforehand was not detailed enough.

My own deep cleaning process was painstaking and done over a period of days but proved that anything can be revived and "brought back" to its original glory.

The deep cleaning process was building up to using a serious piece of kit which I sourced via research on the Detailing World UK forum;
“ Odor Rescue Interior Deodorizing Kit Vehicle Interior Deodorizer ”

The Odor Rescue interior deodorizing kit is chlorine Dioxide based and is designed to be used to deodorize cars, boats, trucks and any unoccupied enclosed space.

The product needs to be used with care, caution and strictly as per the supplied instructions. It is designed and claims to "control the growth of mold and mildew, kills odor causing bacteria and neutralizes all organic and chemicals odors caused by: cigarettes, pets, urine, vomit, food, mould, mildew, petrol, fish, fire, flooding, sweat, sour milk and all other types of severe stubborn odors"

Odor Neutralisation Guide:

1. A good deep clean and vacuum is essential (this means *all* interior hard surfaces, interior glass, roof lining, seats, under the front and rear seats, headrests, parcel shelf, air vents, carpets, all cubby holes and remove spair wheel from boot and clean that wheel well).

2. An All Purpose Cleaner is fine for hard surfaces and a good glass cleaner for the glass (I used Autoglym glass polish).

3. For carpet and upholstery cleaning, you can use a product like Autosmart Bio Brisk specialist biological cleaner and deodoriser. Bio Brisk digests soiling such as grease, oil, protein, fat, etc. Ideal for fabrics or carpets. Safely and effectively removes biological soilings and odours including milk, animal smells, blood, urine and vomit. Very effective against nicotine.

3A. I didn't use Bio Brisk, I vacuumed intensively and on the carpets/ headlining I then used a very good hand held steam cleaner which I bought at £9.99 from Aldi. You should let any steam cleaning process dry and air before proceeding to the next step.

3A. Additionally, on dark coloured headlining, on black carpets and on black leather, I used a combination of water based baby wipes, Aldi's green coloured apple smelling spray gun APC rubbed with a clean microfibre cloth and I also finally used the excellent and very fresh/new smelling Autoglym interior upholstery shampoo cleaner.

4. It is advisable to change the pollen filter which some say is essential to make it all work. I didn't feel a need to change that as it had only been changed 4 months earlier.

5. Only after you have properly deep cleaned as above, should you use the “ Odor Rescue Interior Deodorizing Kit Vehicle Interior Deodorizer ”. Cost £18.95 plus postage. I bought from this well known detailing company:
http://www.i4detailing.co.uk/shop/odor-res...e-kit.html

6. The car will smell like a swimming pool for a couple of days after use of the Odor Rescue Kit but that chlorine smell will definitely go away, provided you have followed the instructions supplied with the simple to use kit.

7. I then researched, again via Detailing World UK, for a popular in car air freshener and products by "California Scents" repeatedly received favourable reviews. In particular, an air freshener called "Coronado Cherry Car Air Freshener". So that's what I bought. It smells very nice, the output can be controlled by the small tin it sits in and people say that they last for many months. I bought mine from Halfords for £3.99 although they can be bought cheaper via the internet.

The above process was 100% effective and the results were incredible. Nobody would ever know the vehicle was used to transport a dog or was smoked in.

Here are 2 images to assist:

Odor Rescue Interior Deodorizing Kit -




California Scents Coronado Cherry Car Air Freshener -

That's fairly comprehensive and a decent process which will work on most things. The Odour Rescue product is especially good at killing off micro-nasties which create stale smells. I really like this and I also like the chlorine based Air-Con foggers which do the same thing to the guts of the heating system.

All I would add to that is that where you've had dogs there will be deep down mud in the carpets which is best removed with a wet-vac. I have one of these and you would be rather surprised how much muck it removes from thoroughly vacuumed carpets. You certainly wouldn't drink the used water it collects that's for sure.

Excellent write up though.

Click image to enlarge

Good point. The boot floor carpet and parcel shelf in this vehicle were actually replaced with OE at my request.

The worst affected "carpets" were those that line the rest of the boot space area around the rear arches and the rear seat back. With those - as I didn't have a wet vac - I first OCD vacuumed, then steam cleaned carpets, then thoroughly vacuumed, then AG shampooed (hand cleaning) and vacuumed again.

As a non smoking person with no pets, I'm very sensitive to such smells and the process has been completely effective. The Odor Rescue kit is said to be the cost effective/ best value kit of choice for those prepared to put the work into the beforehand deep clean.

Cut an apple into pieces , let it stay inside the car over night. Inexpensive and works most of the times  Range Rover TdV8 Autobiography MY2010
Defender 110stw Td5 MY2006