Hey all. Just got back from a 3 week road trip out west. (Toronto to all over Alberta) and had an interesting time just outside Thunder Bay (middle of nowhere, basically).

I installed a K&N air filter in my 2008 LS and everything seemed fine. We left Toronto, stopped in Sudbury for a few days, then drove on to Thunder Bay (about 16 hours of total driving). I stayed in Thunder Bay for a couple of days. About an hour and a half outside Thunder Bay, in the middle of nowhere, my check engine light came on and "Engine Power Reduced" appeared. To make matters worse, my ignition cylinder wasn't able to move to the Start position, just run and everything between, so when I stopped my car, I couldn't restart it. Had to have the truck towed to the clostest dealership (in Thunder Bay) and they said they found water, ice, and oil in the throttle body with an error code of P2101. They cleaned the throttle body and said I will be fine (they replaced the ignition cylinder as well).

About an hour outside Thunder Bay, same problem. Stopped at the nearest town with a garage, and they couldn't help. Started my car and the check engine light was on, but the reduced power issue was gone. Drove on and the engine light went out. About 6 hours later of driving (had 2 hours of driving still to do), problem occurred again, but this time, it disabled my engine. 2 minutes later, I was able to drive off again. When I arrived in Winnipeg, I changed the K&N air filter to a standard air filter and the problem hasn't reoccurred, and I have driven for 2 more weeks of long distance driving, even back through the same or worse conditions.

When I changed the air filter, I noticed oil, but no water or ice, in the throttle, and I was down about a half a litre of oil. After changing the air filter, I haven't lost any significant level of oil. Just had my oil changed and everything seemed ok.

My question is, why? Why would it suck oil into my throttle body? PCV valve, frozen air filter, etc? What would you recommend I do? Lost the K&N air filter along the way (it looked fine, according to the mechanics that looked at it). Don't know if I ever will get another one after all of that.

Thanks all!

 

The oil came from the K & N Air Filter. That as the way they are made. The oil that is in their air filters collects fine dirt particles. You may want to clean the Mass Air Flow sensor. Use only Mass Air Flow sensor cleaner (available at most auto part stores), do not use brake cleaner or any type of throttle body cleaner or fuel injector cleaner. Just follow the directions on the can of cleaner.

 

Because the car ran fine for 16 hours, you had throttle body icing and it seems the engine is ingesting oil from the PCV system, this problem might not be the K&N filter.

It is true that "over-oiling" an oiled cotton filter element can cause problems with the MAF sensor, but if that's going to happen, it usually causes trouble shortly after the filter is changed.

I've had a lot of positive experience with oiled cotton air filters both Green Filter, which I had in my HHR's stock filter assembly for two years and now a K&N which came in the K&N Fuel Injection Performance kit I put on the engine last Fall.

I have never had trouble with too much oil on the MAF.

 

The oil didn't appear to be comming from the air filter. The only oil present was seemed to be from the air hose comming from the rocker cover down, so it looks like engine oil.

 

If you think it may be motor oil, I would suggest having a dealer look at it to find out where the oil is coming from. Should not have that much pressure in the crankcase to put oil in the intake.

 

I looked at it this morning and it is definately from the line comming from the engine to the air intake. For some reason, it was worse with the K&N air filter. I was going to check the PCV valve but I have no idea where it is. Anyone have any idea where it is?

Thanks again.

 

Isn't 2101 a throttle position error for the electronic throttle? That's not going to be caused by oil from the K&N .

DTC P2101
Circuit Description
The commanded throttle position is compared to the actual throttle position based on accelerator pedal position (APP) and possibly other limiting factors. Both values should be within a calibrated range of each other. The engine control module (ECM) continuously monitors the commanded and actual throttle positions. This DTC sets if the values are greater than the calibrated range.

A TPS error *will* reduce power. I haven't looked close at the ventilation routing on the new engines but I would expect the PCV to feed the intake after the mass and then one line from the valve cover might go to the intake box but I wouldn't expect any oil to be in there since it's at atmospheric pressure and not under a vacuum.

 

You are right. The oil wasn't comming from the filter. It was engine oil. The oil was gumming up the throttle or sensor inside the throttle, but only briefly. GM said as long as I can stop and wait for a few minutes, I should be fine. But they suggested I stop using the K&N filter and just use a FRAM or other quality air filter. One of the mechanics I spoke to told me that, while they will fix a car that has a K&N air filter in it, they will cause problems, and absolutely hate them. If you fix your own car, pretty much, do whatever you want, but he wished that K&N and other oil-based filters would void warantees.

I didn't feel oil when touching the filter in my case. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to put in an oil-based filter again. I just want to find out what is going on with the oil in my throttle body. There is still a little bit of oil, but not like it was.

 

Time to find a new dealership if this is the kind of answers they are going to give you. They are looking to place blame and not fix the actual problem.

Mines been in the HHR for almost 40k miles. I've been running them in every vehicle I've had over the past 15+ years.

 

They were a dealership approximately 1700kms away. I just want the oil to stop entering my throttle body (and hopefully get my fuel economy back). Maybe I'll put one in again in the future, but not right now.