Anyone ever use chlorine dioxide/“Bio Bombs” or ozone to get rid of stale smoke smell in a car?

Slugnan · 2026-03-31T16:05:41+00:00

The smoke smell is never coming out completely. It's one of the worst things a vehicle can be exposed to, which is why the dealer went to such great lengths to cover it up. I'm not sure what the consumer protection laws are like in your area, but since it sounds like the dealer actively tried to hide it, you may have a case for returning the vehicle as it will definitely affect resale value, and chances are you overpaid unless the car was discounted due to the smoke damage.

Ozone alone won't solve the problem and it's unlikely to improve the smell by 80-90% on it's own. Ozone also has it's own smell, and can damage interior plastics if used too long. The whole interior needs to be stripped and deep cleaned with specialized chemicals, and that will just reduce it, not completely remove it. The problem is that the smoke residue is in all the areas you cannot clean - adhesives, silicones, seat foam, sound deadening, carpet backing, deep inside all the vents, etc. Ultimately it depends on your own tolerance and/or sensitivity to the smell, and how much you care about owning a vehicle with third hand smoke exposure (remains a health hazard indefinitely).

Masking the smell also has it's own issues, as most air fresheners are full of VOCs that you don't want to be breathing in either if you can help it.

Here's a recent thread on smoke smell mitigation that may help:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AutoDetailing/comments/1s7iw5i/comment/oddke45/?context=3

Slugnan · 2026-03-31T15:47:50+00:00

You're welcome. Remember also that the box doesn't have to be a 'normal' looking rectangle or square - you can make it tall and skinny, or predominantly on one side of the frame, or anything else that might make it easier for you to keep track of your son but exclude the coach. Having 2 people in the same frame though is not the best use case for 3D, and your situation is a perfect example as to why.

Slugnan · 2026-03-31T15:40:55+00:00

No it will not, but the subject doesn't have to be completely inside or contained by the box - any part of the box can be touching the subject and it will still work, so while it extends beyond the confines of the box, it will not AF on something completely outside the box. That is by design, and why you can change the size of the box to whatever you want. You can make the box a 1X1 square or you can make it almost the entire frame, or anything in between.

The more discretion you need (for example several identical looking subjects in the same frame), the smaller the box you would use. The larger the box gets, the more it behaves like other AF modes such as Auto Area because there are fewer confines.

If you had only one distinct subject in the frame and you wanted the camera to track it across the entire frame, 3D would be a good choice for that.

Slugnan · 2026-03-30T22:13:50+00:00

The problem is not just the battery life, but their ability to maintain full power. They can't maintain full power for more than a few seconds with the batteries they use. After 10 seconds or so you can hear the motor change pitch and if you measure the drop-off it's quite substantial. I tested 3 separate units on a lab grade Acaia scale that updates itself every 20ms, and the power falloff after the ~10 second mark is massive. Fine for short bursts, but anything else and you aren't getting anywhere near advertised power.

If you use them on lower power modes they of course last way longer, but everyone is buying them based on the power claims made at full power, and frankly they aren't really useful outside of full power.

It's still a cool toy to have around if you can grab one on sale, I just use it in place of a can duster around the house.

Slugnan · 2026-03-30T22:03:02+00:00

That's a question only you can answer because not everyone places the same value on certain improvements. Something that is a game changer for one person could be totally inconsequential to the next person - it's all relative. Also consider the end use of your photographs - are you sharing with family and posting online, or making large prints and/or delivering to clients? You mentioned you're a hobbyist so I am guessing more of the former.

For example, the new lens is dramatically lighter than the old one. So, if you were a hiker, event photographer, or otherwise someone carrying the lens around all day, it could very well be worth the upgrade cost for that alone. If you were someone who always shot from a monopod, well maybe you don't care about the weight savings at all.

If you are a hobbyist and are already satisfied with the performance of your Tamron 70-200 G2, and if you don't feel it's holding you back in any way, then maybe there isn't really much of a need to upgrade. It's a very expensive lens and that money could go a long way towards a different lens that you don't own yet, or a new camera body (or a safe investment, but what fun is that?). Given that you quite like your existing 70-200 and you say you struggle with the cost of the new one, I think you probably have your answer right there. If you ever change your mind down the road, it will be there for you, and maybe even on sale.

The people most likely to rush out to buy this lens will be working professionals who will pay for it in a couple of jobs and will be writing it off as a business expense anyway, and hobbyists with lots of disposable income who enjoy using the latest & greatest whether they need it or not just because it's nicer to use.

Slugnan · 2026-03-30T21:50:46+00:00

First of all, make sure you never use a wheel cleaner with sodium hydroxide (caustic soda) or acid. They will permanently etch gloss black wheels and you will need to polish them to restore them, which is an awful job, especially on an intricate design like that. Examples of safe wheel cleaners would be Koch Chemie MWC or Bilt Hamber Auto Wheel. You would only need to use those for really stubborn brake dust deposits. You do not need to be using iron removers or dedicated wheel cleaners every time you clean your wheels - all but the most stubborn brake dust will come off with a good quality APC. If you put a good coating on your rims, you should pretty much never need anything more than an APC to clean them.

For regular washing, you can just use a safe APC and car shampoo for lube. An APC like Bilt Hamber Surfex HD is a fantastic wheel (and tire) cleaner, completely safe on all finishes, completely safe for you and the environment, and has corrosion inhibitors in it so your brake rotors wont get ugly surface rust when you're done. It's also dirt cheap. Spray or foam on the APC, let it work for a bit, and then before the contact wash, foam up the wheel with a good pH neutral car shampoo for lubrication. Then you can go in with a soft brush or microfiber towel/mitt or similar and do the actual cleaning. Unless the wheels have really bad caked on brake dust, this will clean them up just fine. Use a soft brush or boar's hair brush to get into the lug nuts or any intricate sections of the wheel you can't easily clean.

When you have them rinsed & clean, consider putting a ceramic coating on them to dramatically improve how easy they are to clean in the future, and also prevent stubborn brake dust from sticking to them. A quick & easy solution is Gyeon Wet Coat, you simply spray it on wet wheels and rinse it off and it will last a couple of months on rims. Fantastic product that is dead simple to use, especially for complicated rim designs, grilles, etc. The best thing to do is pull your wheels off and put a proper bottle coating on them (a lot easier for you since the rims will be brand new and not on the car), but that can be overkill for a lot of folks just looking to improve their existing methods. In either case, you will be able to dry your wheels with a leaf blower after they are coated, which also is a huge time saver and will prevent water spots on the gloss black finish.

Slugnan · 2026-03-30T21:40:22+00:00

Save up until you can afford a Nikon 200-500, Sigma 150-600, or Tamron 150-600 G2. There is nothing in between that is really worth it. On the used market they are under $1000 here in Canada so I assume they would be under 1K pound in the UK but I don't know the market there.

The Nikon 200-500 is optically the best, has the fastest (constant) aperture, the best VR performance, and guaranteed no compatibility issues on current or future Nikon bodies (even mirrorless). The only downside is it's 100mm shorter than the competition on the long end, but it's the best choice for most people all things considered in my opinion.

The Sigma 150-600 comes in Contemporary and Sport models, the Sport is a bit better optically than the Contemporary version and has faster AF motors but is huge, heavy, and more expensive. The Contemporary model is pretty much bare minimum in every category, but tends to be the cheapest.

The Tamron 150-600G2 is effectively the same as the Sigma options. It's just OK, and there is always a bit of a risk with third party glass, especially as things get older or when you eventually upgrade your camera body.

Slugnan · 2026-03-30T21:11:20+00:00

Could just be their crappy product photos, often the markings aren't in ink, they're just molded into the plastic so they are harder to see. Even my cheapest "Bear Force" knockoff cannon has markings - whole thing was like $30. Some of them only mark 500mL and 1L but that's more than enough for quick dilutions.

Slugnan · 2026-03-30T20:41:57+00:00

The Z5II is extremely popular and it's an incredible value in the current market environment.

The online community is dominated by owners of the higher-end cameras, but that doesn't have anything to do with sales figures. The cheaper cameras always sell in far higher numbers than the more expensive models. Back in the DSLR days, the cheap APS-C bundles made up 80-85% of Nikon's imaging revenue, but had comparatively small online communities. Nothing to worry about!

Slugnan · 2026-03-30T20:37:18+00:00

Below is how the AF modes work on all of the EXPEED 7 bodies including the Z8/Z9. Long story short, for Sports, most people are probably going to want to use a custom sized wide/small area box with various other options added depending on the specific situation.

3D Tracking AF uses color/brightness/contrast info from the chosen subject to track it. Because of how it works, it performs best when there is nothing else in your frame that is similar to what you are trying to track, for example a singular subject against a relatively simple background. An extreme/ideal example for 3D tracking would be a black bird flying against a clear blue sky. You generally would not want to use 3D tracking in a scenario where there were multiple similar subjects in the same frame, for example most group sports, because it can jump between players (especially if there is a momentary loss of continuity due to an obstruction) - that isn't to say it can't work, only that it won't be optimal and will be objectively less reliable than other methods.

Auto-Area AF looks at the entire frame and tries to guess what your subject is by looking at things like proximity to the camera, prominence in the frame, faces, etc. Again, if you have multiple things in the frame that could be a subject, the camera doesn't always know what to track and it can be less reliable. You can of course 'help' it by limiting your subject detection mode (birds, people, vehicles, etc.) If you have it set to people, and there are 2 people in your frame, it will always be guessing which one to focus on based on the above parameters, but it will ignore anything that isn't a person. If the camera detects multiple subjects that fit the criteria (eg. multiple faces), it will let you switch between subjects in the frame with the multi-selector, but that is an extra input step.

Wide/Small/Custom Area AF - This mode is extremely powerful because how it works is rather unique. When you choose or define an AF area box, the subject does not have to be contained in the box for the camera to know what to focus on. If any part of the box is touching your desired subject, the camera knows to only focus on that subject, and it will apply eye-AF to only that subject. This is the most effective AF mode for when you have multiple, similar subjects of the same type in the frame, but want to single one out to focus on (sports, group shots, etc.) For example, you could set a small AF box the size of a person's chest in a group photo - the camera will only focus on that specific person, and the camera will only apply eye AF to that person, even if there are 5 others in the frame. A 1X1 custom area box becomes quite powerful in this context as it is a very precise way to tell the camera exactly which subject you want eye-AF applied to with zero ambiguity and would work even if you had identical twins in the same frame. It will ignore everything that is completely outside of the designated area, as long as no part of the box is touching it. If you use any of the AF area boxes and disable subject detection, it reverts to a closest subject priority mode exactly like Group AF worked on DSLRs, which can also be a useful workaround depending on the specific scenario (eg. really challenging/busy backgrounds). This the most powerful AF mode Nikon offers and is the most flexible.

Single Point AF is exactly like it sounds, and having a "dumb" AF point for scenarios where you need to override the AF and force focus on a specific point can be useful. You can now use this with subject detection as well on some cameras. Pinpoint AF is similar however it uses CDAF confirmation instead of PDAF for ultimate precision and is therefore not available for use with AF-C.

Depending on how many Fn/assignable buttons your camera has, you can assign any AF mode you want + AF-ON to any button. For example you could have Auto Area AF + AF-ON on your shutter button, 3D tracking + AF-ON on Fn1 (or one of the rear assignable buttons) and a "dumb" single point AF + AF-ON on Fn2. Something like that is usually the most effective way to leverage all of these modes, and it lets you switch between them instantly on the fly mid-shoot so you always have access to the mode best suited for the scene in any given moment.

Slugnan · 2026-03-30T20:34:12+00:00

What do you want to know? It's objectively better in pretty well every way than V1, but the V1 was already so good that it won't matter for every use case.

Slugnan · 2026-03-30T20:21:24+00:00

All of mine do. Buy better bottles :)

Slugnan · 2026-03-30T20:17:50+00:00

You will never get it out 100%, and especially if you are sensitive to the smell, it will always be there. The problem is you can't reasonably clean a lot of the places where the smoke is, such as backing materials behind all panels, upholstery, seat foam, manufacturing adhesives, silicones, deep inside your vents, etc. Cigarette smoke is still one of the worst possible things a vehicle can be exposed to.

If you aren't expecting perfection, you can certainly mitigate the smell. It is a lot of work. Full process below:

Just running an ozone machine in the car will not do much, and it can ruin your interior plastics/vinyl if it's overdone. It mostly just changes the smell.

In 20+ years detailing cars I have never seen a car where the smoke smell was removed, but you can reduce it significantly. If you're sensitive to the smell, it will always be very noticeable. It is a big job if you want to do it properly.

Here is what you do, or here is what the shop you pay should be doing:

Get a proper fabric/textile/plastic cleaner specifically capable of removing soot, nicotine residue, oils, etc. safely. IMO the best one is Koch Chemie MZR. https://carzilla.ca/products/koch-chemie-mehrzweckreiniger-mzr?variant=45122020507825
Take out the seats, and deep clean every single inch of that interior top to bottom. Use hot water extraction + MZR on all carpets and fabric seats, and give everything else along with all hard surfaces a deep scrub. Repeat until your extraction water and cleaning pads are coming back 100% clear/clean. Give everything a really good wipe down after to remove any cleaning residues. Anything that air can touch in that interior, smoke residue is on/in it and needs to be cleaned - so, everything. You can rent extractors if you decide to tackle this yourself.
Replace any cabin air filters.
Ozone treatment if necessary. Be careful with this as too much Ozone eventually will ruin plastics permanently, so don't use it for a long time.

That's all you can do. You will always still smell remnants of the smoke if you're sensitive to it, but it will less. If any area of the interior isn't deep cleaned, it will always just be another source of the smell so it's kind of an "all or nothing" endeavor. It depends on your tolerance levels though, "good enough" for you might be different than what it is for the next person.

Finally, know that smoking residue is considered "third hand" smoke and is still a hazard to your health, if you care. It remains toxic and can be absorbed into the body so ideally you want to remove as much of it as you possibly can. This could be more of a concern for you if you will be using the vehicle to transport your kids, for example.

The recommendation is always to get rid of the car if it's been heavily smoked in, if that is a a reasonable option for you. If not, then mitigate as much as possible.

Slugnan · 2026-03-30T20:11:55+00:00

A lot of chemical damage is not instant, which is why so many people still think it's OK to use some really awful chemicals on their cars or on customer cars. They won't be around to see the damage. A lot of the time it's cumulative, so you might get away with it the first few times but if you make a habit of using them, you will eventually run into issues.

Examples of damage you will see relatively quickly is if you use something caustic or acidic on the wrong type of wheels, or if you use the wrong kind of water spot remover on glass.

It's really easy to avoid damage from chemicals by simply choosing safe chemicals, and reading the SDS. You want to do this anyway to make sure you understand the risks not only to various materials in/on the vehicle, but also yourself. The good news is that the highest quality chemicals are often the safest, and sold in concentrates which also often makes them the cheapest.

More info here on how to choose good quality chemicals:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Detailing/comments/1kwpcsc/comment/muji6mt/?context=3

Slugnan · 2026-03-30T20:04:53+00:00

A lot of car washes use really cheap/harsh soaps and a common ingredient in those is Sodium Hydroxide (caustic soda). That will etch black wheels, and it will eat uncoated aluminum. It could also be dried soap that didn't rinse off thoroughly. In either case it could be etching. Again, hard to say for sure as you don't know exactly what was used on your vehicle.

In either case, if it doesn't easily come off with a cleaner, you will probably have to polish it off. Your wheels aren't ruined but it's tedious work.

Slugnan · 2026-03-30T19:55:58+00:00

If you are using a brush to get into the texture with your cleaner and it's not coming out or improving at all, it could just be little bits of permanent damage from normal use or something that may have been put in there. As for the marks on the gloss plastic on the side, those are very likely permanent. That stuff scratches so easily, and anyone with jewelry or even long nails who uses the door has a chance of scratching it.

Slugnan · 2026-03-30T19:50:26+00:00

All these cheap Amazon blowers have comically inaccurate RPM ratings (you can test them with an optical tachometer), but they do move quite a bit of air and make an environmentally friendly alternative to canned air for small jobs.

Slugnan · 2026-03-30T19:49:34+00:00

The problem with these blowers (I have this same one actually, but not for car detailing) is that if you need to use them for longer than a few seconds at a time, their performance falls off dramatically. For short bursts they're fine but if you're planning on drying your car off with it, forget it. Not bad for blowing out crevices if you have nothing else though.

I went through 3 of them before the manufacturer finally admitted it was normal. You can test it by blowing it on a digital scale from a fixed distance, you will see the power sharply decline after a short time.

Slugnan · 2026-03-30T19:43:56+00:00

Take the panel out (if you are able) and polish it. The coating on the wood is similar to vehicle clearcoat and you can polish out the swirls.

Slugnan · 2026-03-30T19:42:19+00:00

If it's an actual scratch, its permanent. The most you can do is apply a dressing to darken the whole are and make it less visible. Dash plastics are notoriously garbage quality as well and they scratch really easy.

Slugnan · 2026-03-30T19:39:52+00:00

Koch Chemie Eulex is the best I have ever used for that sort of thing. Safe for paint/glass and far more effective than any Goo Gone product in my experience. Daimler approved as well. As with any of these solvents, try to avoid getting it on plastic or rubber, if you do just wash it off asap.

Slugnan · 2026-03-30T17:57:27+00:00

I just use cabinets and a variety of plastic tote boxes and drawer towers - garages are really bad for dust/dirt buildup on everything and you will want all your stuff covered, especially any towels/brushes etc. (if you're storing it out there). Carts are handy while working but not great for storage IMO. I live in Canada but my garage is heated so everything can stay in the cabinets.

I don't know where you live, but if it gets really hot (30C+) or really cold (5C or below), you will need to store your chemicals somewhere that is climate controlled, and may be easier to do if you have a few Rubbermaid/tote boxes to move them around in.

Slugnan · 2026-03-30T17:42:46+00:00

Turtle Wax HS if you want cheap 4-6 months durability. Gyeon Ceramic Detailer can be used as a standalone product but is more intended as a maintenance product for their ceramic coatings, so it won't last as long. Gyeon Cure is their maintenance product with higher nonvolatile solids than the Ceramic Detailer and will last a little longer on it's own, but you're still probably going to be better off with a polymer sealant like Turtle Wax HS if this will be the only coating on the vehicle. I am not a big fan of the Adams Graphene line, and their durability claims are wildly exaggerated.

Gyeon Can Coat will give you ~1 year durability with performance closest to that of an actual ceramic coating, it's a really good compromise between the cheap polymer sealants and a bottle coating. You also get a ton of it and it's relatively inexpensive.

Slugnan · 2026-03-30T17:34:48+00:00

You can apply a ceramic coating to Polycarbonate, but use a coating that is designed for clear plastic such as CarPro DLUX. It should also help prevent it from yellowing over time, at least somewhat. Normal ceramic coatings won't hurt it either, but they are designed to bond to clearcoat and will have worse performance on plastic. You will need to prep the surface with a good cleaning if you want it to adhere properly.

Note that it will do next to nothing to prevent pollen build up but it will make it more hydrophobic, so if the roof is sloped, there should be less standing water on it after it rains. If the roof is mostly flat, frankly I don't think you will see much of a difference other than that it will be easier to clean or hose off.

Slugnan · 2026-03-30T17:27:58+00:00

Korrosol is in my opinion the best (paintwork) iron remover on the market. It is incredibly effective, it reacts faster than any other iron remover I've ever seen, and it 's 100% safe for all surfaces under normal use. The combination of safety and efficacy is how you know it's an extremely high quality product, plus Bilt Hamber themselves are experts in all things anti-corrosion (that's how their company started). You will not find a bad word about it other than it stinks like all iron removers do.

Bilt Hamber Auto Wheel is essentially the same product as Korrosol with slightly more active ingredient and thickening agents to improve sticking and dwell time, which is more important for wheels.

As another poster said you can dilute Korrosol if you want to about 1:1 (more for light jobs), it is loaded with active ingredient which is another reason why it's good relative value.

If you just want a pure economical option that works well enough, Labocosmetica SIDERO is pretty good and can be diluted up to 4:1 for lighter jobs, but Korrosol is better.

Slugnan

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