smoky petrol

[no2lurch]

my partners car i have noticed is kicking out a bit of smoke at high revs and under load.

it lets out a puff of blue smoke on start up when its been left over night but clears pretty quickly. the car uses a bit of oil.

when the car is sitting on the drive and revved up, it doesnt smoke though. i'm not sure what colour as it only really shows up in the dark when followed by a car with their lights on.

any suggestions? if the rings were worn, it would smoke all the time wouldnt it? i mean even when revved in neutral?

[Welly]

Sounds like the valve stem oil seals - what car is it?

[no2lurch]

focus st170.

just out of interest, i replaced the valve stem seasl on my old capri, and mk4 escort as they seems to be 'weak points' of both the cars, does my 2.2 sri have them?

[Gary406]

ye sounds like stem oil seals
my vectra had same problem thats why i got shut of it
they wanted about £500 to change them. all labour stripping engine down

[Gary406]

focus st170.

just out of interest, i replaced the valve stem seasl on my old capri, and mk4 escort as they seems to be 'weak points' of both the cars, does my 2.2 sri have them?

yes your 2.2 will have them is it 16 valve ?

so there will be 16 valve stem oil seals

[sirwiggum]

Is is a petrol turbo? What's the oil level like?

[no2lurch]

Is is a petrol turbo? What's the oil level like?

non turbo. oil level is alwyas kept above minimum

[no2lurch]

yes your 2.2 will have them is it 16 valve ?

so there will be 16 valve stem oil seals

yeah 16 valve. can they be changed without taking the the head off?

[Gary406]

garage told me its a full engine strip down .

reason for it being 500 quid

[steve_earwig]

The only experience of valve stem oil seals was on old carburettor cars but the symptoms were usually a puff of smoke on starting and puffs of smoke every time you change gear. Not sure about full power, I know when I floored my mate's 323i which did need new rings, there was a cloud of smoke following us down the road (and him screaming "I told you not to do that!" ) I don't think it smoked on idle but it was a very long time ago.

I think you really want to know what that smoke is. Compression test will tell you how the rings are anyway.

[Welly]

A Focus ST170 should not be suffering valve stem seal wear (it's been overcome on modern engines with better seals) unless it has been allowed to get *really* hot at some point.

Piston ring wear is rare unless it has been horribly abused with little oil in there.

I'd be thinking about the breathing system I think, maybe the PCV valve (positive crankcase ventilation) is blocked and forcing oil to be burnt. The PCV valve fits into the rocker cover with a recirc tube going back to the inlet manifold.

Might be worth registering to one of the owners clubs and ask around?.......

*shudders*

[sirwiggum]

My Ford Orion drank oil and put out blue smoke. Turned out to be seals.
Didn't fix, ended up running on 3 cylinders.
Must be a Ford thing. That was an early Zetec (Zeta I think?)

[FarmerPug]

my suzuki 1.3 was quite a smokey bastid when it wanted to be, smoke one day engulfed the whole car, it bakfired and spluttered, off with the spark plugs, and a new distributor cap and no more smoke.

[steve_earwig]

That's the answer! If it smokes, remove the spark plugs!

Might be worth registering to one of the owners clubs and ask around?.......

*shudders*

im srue if u use teh word "innit" al teh tiem an right in txt spaek yourl fitt write inn.

[FarmerPug]

perhaps i should have said, put them back in, either cleaned if your saving money, or put in a set of new plugs which is better.