Took my 2001 outback into the dealer for the "free" oil change, when changing the airfilter, noticed that it had oil all over the intake side of it and the inside of the filter case had oil in it. looks like it was coming from the engine breather hose? Looks like they over filled the oil when they cahnged it.

what else could cause this???

So by intake side what do you mean? Technically I would say the intake side of the air filter would be the side the air first hits when traveling through it. If you mean on the engine side then it could be a bad PCV Valve (Positive Crank Ventilation) which prevents pressure from building up in the engine block. It is basically connected between the engine and the intake just after the filter. If that goes bad you can get oil residue on the engine side of the air filter.

 

Keith

Sorry about the description, but it was on the intake side, where the air first hits the filter. Thought that may have been very odd for it to be on that side of the filter. but it may have been just the dirt and dust hitting the filter on that side, sticking to the oil soaked areas making it look worse.

 

Thanks for the info!!!

 

 

 

So by intake side what do you mean? Technically I would say the intake side of the air filter would be the side the air first hits when traveling through it. If you mean on the engine side then it could be a bad PCV Valve (Positive Crank Ventilation) which prevents pressure from building up in the engine block. It is basically connected between the engine and the intake just after the filter. If that goes bad you can get oil residue on the engine side of the air filter.

 

Keith