after what has been a busy christmas, i have managed to sort some of the issues out regarding the fault. removing, checking and cleaning th egr valve seems to of worked although now the smoking isn't as excessive the engine appears to tick over a little on the high side (1000 - 1100rpm) and the temp gauge goes up the the centre whilst stationary but drops right back down to cold when driving, are the engine electronics compensating for what it thinks is a cold engine? how difficult is it to change the thermostat on the 1.8 petrol duratech engine? thanks for your help so far.