Why is my zippo lighter putting off smoke when I close it?

When I blow the fire out or close then open the Zippo, it puts off a lot of smoke... It's also gotten kinda hard to light taking 7-8 strikes to light. What wrong and how can I fix it?|||Trim off some of the wick.|||i think it's burning the surrounding plastics/ metals on the lighter, that would account for the smoke, meaning you are really low on lighter fluid. that, and/ or the flint is going bad.|||It seems the wick is too long. You will have to take out the wadding and pull the wick down.It will need refilling with fuel when you have done this.