Smoking focus

[Jimmytno1]

Evening all, my old dear is just about to take her driving test and has been looking for a cheap run around to get her first years driving under her belt before getting something nicer, anyway, she settled on a 1.4 petrol ford focus 1998 with just about 100k on the clock, the service history isn't great but the car is tidy enough and was being used daily by the guy we bought from. I did the usual checks before buying it and gave it a long test drive and all was fine. I took it to work to service it today and one of the guys replaced the spark plugs first then started the engine to find lots of grey/blue smoke pouring out of the exhaust, I wasn't to bothered at first, I've had this happen on these engines before with some oil dropping into the chambers and burning off after 5 mins or so. We carried on with the rest of the service and took the car for a really long run to see if the smoke would clear but it didn't, the engine runs and sounds sweet as a nut, it just leaves a trail of stinking smoke everywhere it goes! It doesn't appear to be losing oil but it definately smells like it is being burned off if you see what I mean?
Anyone else had similar problems? It's been a long while since the car last had an oil change so I'm wondering if now there is fresh in it the car doesn't like it and had dislodged a few years of crap from the valve stem etc

[blaineuk]

Have you checked the oil level?

[Jimmytno1]

Yeah we changed the oil and the level hasn't budged since, probably driven about 10 miles in it so far

[Alias218]

What colour is the smoke?

White: water
Black: fuelling/ignition issue
Blue: oil

[Jimmytno1]

It's definately burning oil but it's not losing oil and it's not breathing heavy so I'm sure the motor isn't knackered, it's just a situation I've never encountered before! I'm thinking a can of stop smoke might be the next port of call