i have been told that my car is putting some blue smoke from the exhaust not too sure what could be causing this any ideas it is a 1.6 zetec s

thanks sam

Check your oil - how much oil is it consuming? Is it excessive? How often do you have to add oil?

Thin blue smoke from the exhaust is nearly always one or more leaking piston rings allowing the engine to burn oil, the engine has to be rebuilt to fix that.

On a diesel, it could also be a failed turbocharger causing the diesel to run naturally aspirated - if this is the case, it won't smoke at all at idle, but will put out quite a bit of smoke as you accelerate. Also, you won't hear the whine of the turbocharger spooling up. I am betting on the piston rings, though, because I am almost sure that Ford put a sensor in that would tell you if the turbo charger had stopped boosting.

The 1.6 zetec engines as fitted to the mk1 focus seem to have problems with burning oil. I also had this problem and didn't get round to sorting it (sold the car) but it is reckoned to be cracked/broken piston rings.