Stink in vehicle licence reduced with phenol (8)
I believe the answer is:
carbolic
'phenol' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'stink in vehicle licence' is the wordplay.
'stink' becomes 'BO' (body odour).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'vehicle' becomes 'car' (car is a kind of vehicle).
'licence' becomes 'lic' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'car'+'lic'='carlic'
'bo' placed within 'carlic' is 'CARBOLIC'.
'reduced with' is the link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for carbolic that I've seen before include "Acid used as disinfectant" , "(Soap) containing phenol" , "type of soap" , "Disinfectant used in soap" , "Croc bail out for the disinfectant and antiseptic" .)