How to remove a stuck engine oil dipstick in your car

Posted by Felix Okoli on Monday October 17, 2016 at 16:7:55:

Most cars in our world today make use of engine oil to work as it helps to keep the engine well conditioned so that it can work better and last longer. Without the right quantity and quality of engine oil, a car's engine could get damaged kin the short term after doing a bit of work.

One way through which car users like me can check the level ad quality of my engine oil is by using the engine oil dipstick. It's a long piece of iron with a head whose tail end touches the oil reservoir of your car's engine. It allows you to pull it out so that you can know the level of engine oil in the car and it's important to check if regularly so that your car will keep performing as it's meant to.

The use of an engine oil dipstick is important but if it gets damaged or becomes useless, it makes it almost impossible for the car owner to know if there is enough engine oil running in the car's engine oil tank and it may cause problems to your engine. If the engine oil level is low, a car user can easily top it up on his own and if the oil has gone from orange/yellow to black, then he knows it's time to change the oil.

What does a person do when the engine oil dipstick is stuck or can't be removed? Well, I had the same problem with my Toyota Corolla 2006 car and had to find a way to remove it.

The first thing I did was to invite some local mechanics and they tried to pull it out by force using pliers but it was too stiff and didn't bulge. I also tried it on my own but ended up breaking the head from the body and so I was only left with the iron part still stuck in on the engine oil dipstick tube.

Anyway, I finally removed it and I would like to tell you I did it.

I actually did a bit of online research and found out that some people were able to remove theirs by making use of the heat from a hair dryer or heat gun. I tried it with a heat gun but it remained stiff. I was afraid of using more heat since I reasoned that it was an engine and make lead to an explosion.

The next thing I did that really worked was by using a hand drill machine. Well, first of all, I purchased a dipstick replacement from the auto market at Ladipo spare parts market in Mushin Lagos and then used a drilling machine to drill small holes around the stuck dipstick.

I first made use of a drilling machine with a 4 mm drill bit to drill small holes around the iron part to remove the plastic cylinder that was stuck and holding the dipstick and that enabled me to pull out the dipstick with pliers.

However, I noticed that even after pulling out the stuck dipstick, there were still some plastic debris around the dipstick hole and so it didn't readily provide enough space for me to put in a new dipstick. So, the next step was to use a bigger drill bit and I used a 6 mm drill bit and it worked like charm.

Now, I'm able to check and gauge my car's engine oil many weeks after my dipstick had been stuck in the engine oil gauge tube.

There many be many other methods to remove a stuck dipstick from an engine oil dipstick tube but using a drilling machine worked well for me. I used it on slow speed and tried to avoid damage the walls of the tube so that I don't have to replace the entire housing. I used the drill on slow speed and made it rotate clockwise so that it would bring out the plastic debris as it drilled.