Hi guys (and/or gals). Just came across this place and since we may be picking up a "new" to us 2004 545i I thought I'd introduce myself.

My in-law has a black '04 545i with about a year left on the lease. She's been trying to get rid of the car with no success...CarMax offered $35,000 and Irvine BMW offered $32,000. She still owes $47,000 on the lease. :'(

Anyway, after some long talk with my wife we decided to help out and pay what we can. Car appears to have been fairly well equipped (black on black, nav, sports, premium, HUD, rear sunshade...etc) but the prior "driver" was a heavy chain smoker and smoked in the car.

My mechanic has a few suggestions, he said there are these "bombs" he could use to neutralize the smell of cigarette but it's never going to be 100% gone. Neither I nor my wife smoke so both times I drove the car the first thing I noticed was the rancid smell. I've done some quick search on the intarweb, advice ranges from "replace the entire interior" to "leave a few orange peels in the car to dry out".

Has anyone tried and successfuly eliminate a good majority of prior cigarette odor? I'm willing to "live" with a small hint of the odor since this is such a kick @ss car, and my wife will be the primary driver (I've got my MZ4 Coupe and E30 318is to play with), but the current amount of odor is unacceptible.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time and patience.

 

I dont know what to do personally. BUT I once staied at a Motel 8 in a room that had A HUGE stentch of Cig smell it was a smoking room. I tried to get another room but they were all booked out of non-smoking rooms.

The owner used some mixture spray in a bottle and sprayed the room and after 10-15 mins of venting a lot of the smoke smell was gone. It did leave behind some of the spray smell though.

So maybe try calling a motel and ask if they know of a way to get rid of smoke smell...

Just a thought.

WELCOME ABOARD THO!!!!

YOU GOT A ///M Z4 Coupe???? I'm so jealous!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Lots of reputable company provides odor eliminator, I had the same smell with a previous LX 470, I had the interior cleaned out to make sure there's no smell on the seats and carpets, then I use an odor neutralizer which just made it worst, after that my dad's driver said to just put a lot of "pineapple skin", you know the part where you cut out but have some meat stuck on them, in the car and all will be well. Amazingly enough it worked, shut your windows tight and put some pineapple skin there, it'll remove all the smell, but I gotta admit the pineapple smell isn't much better either, but it'll go away after a few days, its still much better than cigarette smell. Hope I help, my method may seem useless but hey, if you got nothing better to do, give it a try, it might just work for you too. cheers...

 

I dunno if it will work on leather, but I have heard that febreze works on furniture

 

Getting. It's on the train right now to Port Hueneme. Expected delivery date September 18th.

 

That's actually one of the more common fixes I've found online, except substitute orange or citrus peel. Some of the sites also mentioned leaving the peels in until it dries out.

I will try and report back once we have the car.

 

This must be the worst lease terms in history. This car is an '04 so it's at least 2 years old if not 3 and she has only 1 year left on the lease. And she owes HOW much on the lease????

Good grief. She could have bought the thing easily.

 

Ooo where you located? Can I test drive?

Bring it to the San Diego Meet!

 

I use an "ionizer" to clean the cigarette smell in all my cars. It's a tiny device which you plug into the 12v outlet and it usually cleans up the smell within 12 hours. I'm the kind of driver who light up a cigarette everytime I get into my car. But every morning when I enter the car all the smell are gone.

I don't know if it's available for sale in the US. I bought mine in Hong Kong and I think Japan also sells them too.

 

since you be geting the car.. i suggest u send it to a good cleaning shop and have them clean the interior... that might, or might not get the smell out imediately but it should be gone in a few days, and your car will be good as new for its new users..

congrats on your new z4m, and good luck with your e60...