No this is not turning into a car blog but I bought a smoker's Cadillac and have to deal with it. This is my blog, after all. Why did I buy a smoker? Because it was original owner and in nice shape and I lied to myself about how bad the smoke smell really was. I have to eliminate the smoke smell or sell it. I thought 103,000 miles for $6000 was no steal but better than average and I liked the one owner idea. He was a kindly gent from Maine and the car ran great with very good interior needing some cleaning. He spent 7 months each year in Florida so rust should not be an issue. This car should easily go 200,000+ miles with no fuss and some luck. There is something about 6 cents a mile base car cost while driving in luxury that makes my heart flutter. I shoot for 10 cents per mile cost on what I think the car has remaining to it's life. This takes some of the emotion and mystery out of decision making.
A good conservative auto appraisal is
Edmunds.com although it may not make you feel good about what you paid. Input is less of a click fest than Kelly's Blue Book.
I won't mention that the driver's window rolled down and not up (it was raining during the trial run so I neglected to try the windows). Either it was bad luck or Mr. Maine "forgot" to mention it. I would have bought it anyway. Non-working windows don't scare me. He gave me his business card, owned a bull dog and blah, blah so I don't think he was trying to pull anything. I may be too trusting. Possibly buying a car in the rain at night is not a good idea. At least we knew the wipers and lights worked.
Smoke clearing ideas:
White vinegar in a bowl left overnight several nights. (or leave wet vinegar rags in open plastic)
Wipe everything with vinegar (try lightly misting/gently wiping headliner)
Baking soda
Coffee grounds (fresh) (not my Gevalia please)
Can of Fresh Air from NAPA (spray in air intake under dash while running on circulate)
Change filter under hood in front of passenger. (spray with glycerin leather conditioner)
Wet cedar chips in old nylon stocking hanging under dash. (does anyone wear these?)
Ozone
Cut apple
Charcoal (activated)
Vanilla extract on cotton ball
Green Christmas Trees (just kidding) (remember the Grumpy Old Men movie?)
Right now I have a detailer doing his magic and he is giving it an ozone treatment. - Detailing went well for $160. The car is very nice inside and out. They get the major dirt but always miss things so there is work to do. The smell is much better but there is still an aroma journey ahead. Ozone is definitely not a cure all. At least I will be able to stand it enough to apply some of the above magic tricks.
The engine on a DHS is so beautiful it is a shame to leave it dirty. Some citrus cleaner and a few disposable rags from Home Depot does wonders. A steam clean place would be nice but I have not found one and this is good enough and cheaper.
Going for the window fix tomorrow.
Seat belt cleaning: I guess the detailer doesn't do seat belts. The passenger belt was filthy and it stink, stank, stunk big time. I tried my favorite citrus cleaner and Folex carpet spotter but finally a little Oxi Clean in a bowl with a tooth brush takes the prize. It took spots with ease that the others didn't touch. This is tedious but I thought a new belt may be needed. This one is looking pretty darn good. Find something to clip the belts fully extended to keep from fighting with them. You will need this to dry them in the end anyway. I used a vinyl cutting board as a flat base to scrub.
I guess detailers don't do much with head liners either. A damp rag with white vinegar got slightly yellow. The headliner looks great but I know those little ciggy critters are living in there. The vinegar is supposed to break down and deodorize the smoke also. I'm thinking more of these applications will be needed. We can't get the headliner wet or it will separate from the foam backing and sag. Last resort would be to replace as a last ditch effort. I'm really starting to hate cigarette smokers as a class of people!
Window, if both regulator and motor are needed, will run $500, ouch.
Vibration and slight break pulse. Yep, rotor work, a couple pads, balance and align at Tire Kingdom = $453.
6000 car
160 detail
453 breaks, balance, et. al.
237 window regulator
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581 A/C blower
441 read window regulator
68 misc bulbs, etc
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7940 it keeps adding up
44 second key
469 License
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8453 keeps getting worse
250 hail dents removed
185 3rd window fixed (regulator)
372 air intake (200 more because Cadillac)
683 alignment + 2 tires + 2 tie rod ends
Floor mats, even though I extract cleaned and had it detailed they still smelled. They didn't seem to smell directly (nose on the mat) but the car smelled worse with the floor mats installed. Now I am going to soak them in a garbage can for 48 hours with Oxi Clean. Kill or cure. It worked well. This is how I am going to clean floor mats from now on. I used my Little Green Machine to extract the nasty water. I doubt anything will make a ten year old floor mat new again but soaking is effective. It works great for rubber/vinyl also and they lightened by several shades. One small corner was not submerged so I had to leave that mat in for another 24. The shading difference on that small corner was significant but another 24 fixed it.
A few carpet cleaning ideas I tried that work:
The Little Green Machine is a sad excuse for a carpet extractor, but I use it. Don't count on the liquid sprayer lasting very long and the suction is pathetic. So why? It is small and handy. When using liquid, the seal is so good it does not take monster suction to work and you want to use as little water as possible anyway. If I should want to suck the carpet off the floor I could use my X-Man Rigid from Home Depot but I seldom do. And when I do, I take the liquid wand head off of the Green Machine and attach it to the Ridgid (I needed a reducer).
Buy some professional carpet extraction cleaner from Home Depot and put a table spoon or so in a spray bottle. I've never measured but I don't use very much. Apply it to limited areas of the carpet and brush it around with a nylon brush, don't be timid. Don't suck it up yet. Dip the brush in a bucket of water and shake of the excess water. You do want to add some water to the carpet by doing this. Now brush the area again. Suck that up and repeat with water until satisfactory. You want to get as much cleaner out as possible.
Sometimes the next day or so will reveal small areas that need more work. Those areas may give up their dirt more easily now after having been worked on once already.
303 Fabric and Vinyl Cleaner Home Depot or Target
303 High-Tech Fabric Guard
Vents: I did the "Fresh Air" type product from Advance Auto Parts and it seems to have done wonders. Time will tell. I may be winning the battle.
Be careful with this stuff. It spits out from the vents slightly and some may have gotten behind the temp read plastic window just under the center vents. How am I going to get that out to clean it? Well it's typical for me. I usually wreck something while cleaning.
- The dealership said the HVAC unit is sealed and can't be cleaned so the little fogged window spot was probably not my doing. Found one on
eBay for $29 but I'm leaving it for now. I is a used car for crying out loud.
The leather seats are good but not great. The two front seats and backs have some dark lines on the far left and right panels closest to the driver and passenger doors. These edge panels are the only parts with these lines.
I wouldn't call them cracks so I will decide to call them "character lines" (now I feel much better). I have read that Eagle1 Conditioner is the best and to stay away from glycerin products like Lexol. Of course the cleaner I have contains glycerin, wouldn't you know. So the Eagle1 search in on. I've also read that the conditioner is to be applied first and the cleaner is used afterward. As odd as this sounds, the guy was very persuasive. Then again Bernie Madoff was persuasive also (I've heard).
I can't find Eagle1 and Maguires is good so I grabbed it.
I have come to the conclusion that we don't really clean leather. We massage leather with lotion and gently persuade it to give up it's dirt. And leather is hard to convince. I'm not sure I buy this way of doing it. I feel like grabbing a brush, some soap and scrubbing it.
I took the leap and grabbed the bottle of Lexol cleaner that I am not supposed to use because of evil glycerin. A small fingernail brush, a little water and a rag and go for it. Cleaning went faster and it cleans the stitching nicely. I will add some more Maguires later for conditioning.
My Genie Pro garage door was a trip to program into the Home Link of the DHS.
Here are good instructions. He says after pushing the program button on the Genie door opener head, you must push/hold the Home Link button three times. (Not simply push but push in programing fashion.) It seems I only had to do it twice. But you will hear the garage door motor engage or the door move if you have not disengaged it so it doesn't matter except to know one push will not be enough.
I have now added an open plastic bowl of Folgers to my baking soda arrangement. I love the smell of coffee grounds. Even though the duct cleaner improved things greatly we are still not home free. Such large gains in such short time gives me confidence we can beat the cigarette smoke eventually. In a few weeks my snow bird-ness will be over and the coffee/soda will have several months to patiently devour ciggy critters and impregnate the DHS with caffeinated confection .
Cadillacs are quite durable and well made. Electronics are usually the issue with cars these days. And on Cadillacs if something goes wrong, electronics or not, you pay an obscene premium. I am willing to take this risk in fair trade for the comfort. As for engine and drive train, I'm not worried. We do want to support Government Motors - don't we? It has been years since I drove anything but SUV, Pickup or Van so driving in the center lane with my DHS feels like driving in a drainage ditch, but I'll acclimate.
