How does one get a broken dip stick out of the engine? The handle has broken and it’s about eight centimeters in the dip stick holder hole. It’s got part of the plastic dip stick handle (yellow) showing if one looks with a flashlight.
You can try heating up a screw and poke the hot screw into what’s left of the plastic handle. Let everything cool off, and try pulling out the screw along with the dip stick with a pair of pliers. If that doesn’t work, then the dip stick tube will have to be removed from the engine to remove the dip stick.
Tester
Hemostats may help.
If you have tried reaching it with needle nose pliers, and that didn’t work I have a method that will work.
Get a tubing cutter (the kind with a little cutting wheel and rollers, like you use to cut brake line) and cut the dipstick tube below the point where the stick is broken. Once the dipstick is removed from the engine, remove it from the piece you cut off, then get a new dipstick from the dealership or a salvage yard. Use some J-B Weld to reattach the piece of the dipstick tube you cut off, being careful to only apply it to the outside of the tube. Butt the pieces together and fill the stuff around the cut to join the two pieces together. Once the J-B Weld cures then you should be good to go.
Try making a hook with a coat hanger or other stiff wire and try to hook the plastic handle with it.
I’m not sure if it’d work, but they sell kits that are supposed to extract oil from the top of the engine rather than dripping from the oil pan. If you can find one that’ll suck it from the dipstick hole, you may be able to suck it out with that.
personally I would use a skewer and dental floss. Make a loop over the flat end of the skewer. push the loop of floss down the tube below the plastic bit leftover. Try to wrap the floss a couple of times around the lost dip stick below the plastic part. Remove skewer and rotate each end of the floss in opposite directions. then gently pull.
For crying out loud, just listen to tester, just remove the dipstick tube, remove the broken dipstick, put the tube back in, and get a new dipstick. JB Weld indeed!
Removing the dipstick tube to get the broken dipstick out is by far the best way to solve this problem, however, on some cars you have to remove an exhaust manifold or some of the belt driven accessories to get to the bolt or bolts which secure the dipstick to the engine. I’m not one to stick things together with bubble gum or rig things up when there is an obvious solution or it needs to be fixed properly. I was merely trying to provide a solution to this problem which anybody can accomplish with minimal frustration and minimal financial expenditure. Depending on the car and the engine option, removing the dipstick could be a weekend project. My method will take 15 minutes and solve the problem. Removing the dipstick tube would be my first choice, but if I could have the tube out in less than an hour, I would just remove the tube. When I posted my suggestion, removing the dipstick tube did not cross my mind and tester had not updated his post to include that suggestion.
As a side note, I rarely use J-B Weld myself, but when I have, I have found it to be quite good for repairing something in a pinch. The last time I used it, it was to repair a thermostat housing on a mid '80s Cadillac with a 4.4L V8. The owner broke it trying to remove the housing without taking the water pump off, which is impossible to do on this motor. The main reason for using the J-B Weld was that the part could not be found, so I dealt with what I had. It worked and the owner of the car was happy with the results.
Thanks, Yes, you seem to have an answer. I wasn’t sure if the tube comes off and goes back on. That seems reasonable. I’ll try it tomorrow. I’m not sure how to grab it firmly and not put a kink in it. It is a hollow tube. Pliers should do it. If I need to grab it real hard maybe I’ll put a metal bolt on it so I don’t bend it too much when I apply pressure with the pliers.
Comment before 4:00 p.m. CST Monday if you have any other ideas or advise. Thanks
Once the bracket holding the tube onto the engine is removed, it should come out with a little gentle persuasion. If it doesn’t, and all else fails, you can use my suggestion. It really is sort of an ‘if all else fails’ kind of suggestion, but it will work.
Yes, I might cut the tube and just leave it short! Adjusting the new dip stick might be easier. I seems like a lot of work to take off the manifold. Will let you know tomorrow what I try. Thanks again.
For crying out loud, just listen to tester, just remove the dipstick tube, remove the broken dipstick, put the tube back in, and get a new dipstick. JB Weld indeed!
This is one of the few cases where I think JB Weld might be a pretty good answer if removing the dipstick isn’t easy and cutting the tube is. JB Weld is heat resistant and wouldn’t be under a lot of stress. I’d use a “collar” of pipe that has an inside diameter the same as the outside diameter of the dipstick tube and just use the JB Weld to hold the collar in place and prevent oil leakage.
However, I think that I personally would probably try to work a hook into the end of a thin wire to make it into a “pick”. Slip the hook past the dipstick end if that is possible, turn the wire 90 degrees and lift the dipstick out.
Nothing wrong with Tester’s answer either, if there is enough plastic on the end of the dipstick to work with and it is a variety of plastic that melts rather than burning.
I just got the broken dipstick out of the dipstick holder. I took me a few weeks to think about it but today it occurred to me.
I didn’t want to work on getting the manifold cover off and than try to work next to the engine, etc.
Here is what I did.
I took out my vaccuum cleaner with a hose attachment.
Took the hose attachment and held a hose in it and attached this hose to the dipstick holder opening. I was glad the the 3/8th inch 50 psi fuel/emission SE GOODYEAR hose fit snugly on the dipstick holder. I held the other end onto the vaccuum cleaner hose. My son turned on the vaccuum and when I pulled out the 3/8 inch hose off the dipstick holder out came the dipstick. I grabbed the stick before it could go back in!
My son’s friend said it was worth watching just to see me quickly grab the dipstick.
The whole project took about 3 minutes and the vaccuum cleaner was on for about 5 seconds.
A very good ‘handyman’s solution’ you just found. Thanks for posting it.
Thanks for the compliment. My son’s friend said he would definitely tell anyone who had this problem about the method. By the way, this site was very helpful. People were giving solid advice. I decided to just live with the broken dip stick but than this idea came to me and I knew it would probably work.
Glad that worked out for you. I was thinking surgical tubing.
“My son’s friend said it was worth watching just to see me quickly grab the dipstick.”
Priceless.