^^ It pulls straight out, but you have to yank a little harder than most cars--doesn't just slide out easily.

 

Updating my plan to paint the dipstick. I painted the check range with Ultra High Temp Metal Tint in bright red, thinking the contrast will make it easier to see the oil. No such luck. The best way still is: Pull, wipe stick, reinsert. Then pull out until you see the end point in the tube. Then, keeping that in the tube, the stick mostly vertical, look down the stick and you can see the oil collected in the rings. Alternatively, blot a paper towel against it and match up the line of oil on the paper towel with the stick. The min and max bulbs show on the paper towel as oil blobs, so the line-up is easy. This is all for the R56. I don't know if the R53 is the same.

 

The best advice I've ever received about reading the god awful dipstick was to lay it on a piece of paper towel which will absorb the "virtually unseeable oil' on the stick and leave a mark on the towel. Thus, you can measure the mark on the towel to the level on the stick. Clever, and done with a tool (the paper towel) you were probably already going to use to wipe off the stick

 

 

I can't believe I'm responding to a thread that originated 48-hours after my '04 R53 rolled out of the factory (D.O.B. 10/31/2003), but here goes...

I don't particularly have quarrel with the design/function of the OE MINI dipstick, nor is it much of a chore to read it, but since I had two of them, I 'modded' one by sanding opposing edges of the tip flat, leaving just enough of the scale portion to gauge oil level.

Works for me.

 

I have never have problem with the OE dipstick. Once you realize it has to negotiate tight bends like the Mini you will appreciate it much more.

It reads just fine but may be I am not one that troubled by blackish oil. I seldom change my oil anything near 3000 miles as that seem to be what the web has educate us to do.

I took this photo to show the two tight bends the dipstick rigid 3/4" plastic tip has to negotiate. It is this way for the supercharger plus the drivetrain to fit into the tiny engine bay. The bends are to work around the supercharger which is right about the oil pan outlet for the dipstick tube.