I have a leak coming from oil filter housing (shocker). Changed the oil and filter afterwards. Yikes, only the handle and about 4" remained on the dipstick.. Nothing has worked regarding attempts to remove it as you can barely glimpse the tiny end on the curve of tube.. Any solutions for removing.. I know this is not ideal but I quickly ordered a Cravenspeed (thanks to the advice on this amazing forum) and it fits in there along with the broken off piece.. Seemed far more important to monitor oil level.. Next post will be about the Oil housing replacement..

Thanks in advance- k

 

I have a Gen 2 but dropping the oil pan is not that hard. I think it's alot easier on the Gen 1. All you really need to do is pull the axle and remove some parts to get access to the pan. If you are not the type of person that will drop the pan, at least it's not that hard (Not that expensive). Good luck but if you can't get to any other way dropping the pan is a sure bet.

 

Try a stick with something sticky on it?
Or a harbourfreight style little grabber...has a few wires like a hand and a button you push on the end of a flexible stick...made for picking up nuts and bolts from odd places...next step would be drop the pan I guess...
Then buy a new dipstick...
Suggest a craven speed one...all metal...

 

Thanks.. Lol i just got my Craven dipstick yesterday! They're both currently in the tube.. Re grabber, gorilla glue and super cool drill with a frayed wire in order to lasso...tried it all. To far down..
Looks like the pan will be dropped.

 

Can't the dipstick tube come off without dropping the oil pan? If so, seems easier to put the front of the car in service mode (tipped forward for access) to remove the dip stick tube. Once the tube is off, should be able to pull out the broken dip stick. Should replace the tube o-ring. Should also replace the crank position sensor o-ring while working in that area.

From the parts diagram it looks like the tube is held with one bolt and the bottom of the tube seals in the pan with an o-ring.

Hopefully someone on the forum can verify that the tube can be pulled out of the pan once the tube mounting bolt is removed.

 

i believe it should come out once that nut is off.

 

It's not hurting anything by it being in there, it cant' escape the tube and get into the rotating assembly, so no pertinence in removing it.

If you have the disposable time and money, then by all mean, but I would personally wait until your oil pan gasket is leaking and kill two birds with one stone, but with some of these cars oil pans leaked from the factory.

The dipstick tube is held in by two bolts, one on the supercharger and another on the block, it also has 2 wire looms clipped to it. There is also no room to access any of this from the top or bottom of the car without going into a partial service mode.

 

Yes, but if removing the dipstick tube is easier. Then that would be the way to go. I'd drink a couple of beers while looking at the two options and go for what I thought was the easier one. I also would not feel comfortable driving a car with a broken dipstick in it. I can not say that it would not work its way into the pan and interfere with the crank. Even thou the bottom is solid and should just rest on the bottom of the pan and remain in the tube.

 

I have not tried this on a mini, but I have used a piece of tubing with a nobelium magnet inserted in the end to retrieve parts. If you need a magnet, let me know the MM diameter of the inside of the tubing that will fit in the dipstick hole and I will send you one.

 

Same thing happened to me and one Saturday after I ordered the craven speed dip stick I stopped being lazy and just took the front end off aka service mode and took off the dip stick tube. Honesty not too hard but it's a little bit of a pinch since it's kind of tight space