What does oil in your air intake mean?

Answer 1

My 2002 GT Sunfire (The 2.2 Ecotec GT, yes, they made one for that year as an option) is surprisingly only 400km away from having its extended warranty finished (and it is May 10th 2010 right now) at 120k or May 29th. Anyways, I took the intake hose off two days ago so I could make more room to work for when I was putting my rust inhibitor in. I saw oil around the metal ring on the inside of the hose that connects just to the engine. (So, it goes, air filter, the hose and then the other part the hose that connects to, like a small black box in front of the engine itself where the oil was). I take a flash light and look inside the black box in front of the engine and I can see where oil has run down from the intake and into the hose only to pool itself at the lowest part of the box where the air hose connects. Took the car in today because my O2 sensor needs replacing after only having it replaced a week ago (covered). Will post on what they find wrong with it. I am hoping it will be a gasket because it would be covered and that means I would have a new gasket on an 8 year old car, lol. And yes, my car is still ironically covered with GM total plus $100 deductable. The best warranty you can get to, lol. Oh, and the car is a standard to if this makes any difference.

I had the car taken into the GM dealership and was told that this is normal operation. Sadly, the design makes this happen I guess. A complete engine tune-up was needed before they would replace the catalatic converter which was the cause of the O2 sensor going again. So new plugs, fuel filter, they said PCV valve (car has a PCV system, but no valve, they even said that before, but I am thinking they said it for billing purposes), engine filter. Engine cleaner by machine, and even my clutch that had a spring type noise when applied was gone. Car runs a lot better, etc. Anyways, the oil they said was normal operation and I had nothing to worry about, just a dirty PCV system I guess. Hope this helps.