Ford Focus Knocking Noise and Smoke , This Sounds bad.

[Apex]

My little baby is very poorly at the moment and googling the issue turns up quiet a few opinions on the matter.

Back Story, remember the cold snap that we had ? well it killed the car (granted it had been left for 3 / 4 days with out running) At first we thought water pump ect ect but anyway, few days later i get it towed from where it was back home and to local garage (friend).

£375 quid later and i have my car back, running if a little "lumpy" (Starter motor and a electronic valve that goes into the injection pump (that it's self was what cost the most money) - replaced and working)

Anyway, I got the car last Friday and it has been to Manchester and back and potter round to mums ect ect and it all seemed fine (i don't remember the hearing the knock nor did any one say they heard it) - Yesterday i started it and well Knock and Smoke

The car allways smoked a little on start up even when i got it but this went away in like 5 mins or less of running - now on start up it takes a good 10 to 15mins for it to stop smoking when on idel (it's not black smoke or blue smoke more a white smoke)

The knock it's making is louder in 1st to 3rd gear between 10 and 40mph (going to 4th reduces it but i think thats down to the fact that the load on the engine is less)

It doesn't seem to be burning oil (checked level and it does not apear to be going down), there are no warning lights on the dash.

I've had it back to the friends to get his opinion on it again - he mention that while it was "lumpy" it didn't make the knock it is now.

We had a good listen to it and it seems to be coming from cylinder 1 - screwdriver on the injector for each of the cylinders - number one sounding well off (look head long and it's the left hand one - nearest the cambelt ect ect)

He sugested but didn't say that it would be whats casuing it but thinks that if a injector has gone faulty it could be casuing the engine to not fire correctly (ie dump too much fuel into the system and it not burn correctly so when it gets to the hot exhasut it turns to smoke) - doesn't explain the knocking to me but meh it's a simple enough thing to test and cheap enough to replace if it is.

It's needing a oil change anyway so we are going to drop that and see if theres any metal in the oil (tbh if there is i think it's scrap time )

I am reluctent to spend any more money on this and am just thinking about cutting my losses

Do any of you lot have any opinion on this before i commit any more money and time ?

[Tumble]

The knocking could be mis-timed firing - does it sound like old fashioned pinking? Ours did that for a while before it packed up completely. Turns out it was the coil pack had popped - it's a single unit for all 4 pots, and we were only getting number 3 firing in the end, which pretty much destroyed the catalytic converter, as all the unburnt fuel from 1, 2 & 4 was going into the exhaust and seeing as that was getting warm, detonating in there doing all sorts of mischief. Luckily, we have no MOT/emissions testing over here, so it got the old broom handle down the exhaust to knock the broken bits of cat out New coil pack later and it as like a new car - better power, better on fuel and smoother running.

[Jasp]

Could be any number of problems, coil pack could of gone on that cylinder, head gasket might be leaking into that cylinder, timing could be off though this normally throws them all out, stuck injector is also another option, sticking valves in that cylinder also...

Have you had the spark plug out to see what colour it is and if theirs any water in their? white smoke is typically water though in this weather its hard to tell.

[Apex]

Should have said this is a 1.8TDi / TDDi Diesel based Focus not the Petrol one.

[Tumble]

ahhh... then pass my van puts out white smoke, but that's just water in the exhaust going through the cat... could just be that there's a bit more condensation in there than usual after the cold snap?

[Apex]

Am starting to suspect a piston ring has gone, started it uptoday and let it idel and still after 15mins was still putting large ammounts of smoke out, once i turned it off and had a look at the road surface it looked like it had a coat of oil on it.

hmmmm