i was taking the air filter out of my wifes car today and i noticed that in the housing there is a little puddle of oil sitting in there, any ideas why or how a bunch of oil would be sitting in there? please help, thanks./

What kind of car is it? Year? Paper filter or a K&N type oil filter?

Generally it is from the PCV releasing oil into the air from the vavle covers to get some of the air into the intake. These tend to allow oil to blow into the intake and puddle in low areas and start to gum things up. More info and we might be able to assist a bit more.

Matt

Yes, to the above, but also check for a plugged PCV system or bad PCV vacuum source, mixed up hoses (kind of hard to do) or excessive crank case pressure. And, my favorite--a failed or stuck PCV valve.

its a 2004 pt cruiser turbo. paper filter. there was a bit of oil in the actual filter, but not a bunch. what had me worried was the small puddle sitting in the bottom of the box, wasnt sure how so much would get in there. the sponge inside also was pretty nasty. i guess ill try to change the pcv valve and see if thats the problem first and go from there. just hoping its nothing serious,. thanks for the help!

Indeed.

Don't know what kind of shape your motor is in, but I deal with this a lot when I work on my '84 CJ-7. My rings are packing it in, so compression leaks around them and into the crankcase ("blowby"). I teed in an extra PCV valve to deal with it, but I was just lucky my valve cover had an extra hole for it. Wouldn't think a 2004 would have this problem, but you never know...