I was wondering if anyone has just simply filed or sanded down the plastic peice at the bottom of the dipstick, so it makes it past the tight sections of the tube with no resistance ? Is this just an easy fix or am I missing something?

 

ive heard horror stories of the janky oem dipstick breaking off inside the engine. best advice, spend the $70 (yes, yikes) on the metal one made by cravenspeed.

 

That's the easy way out! I will probably end up going
with the Cravenspeed dipstick, but I was just wondering (technically) if a little sanding would do
the trick.

 

not sure but it might work. before i replace mine with a craven speed mine broke and i put heat shrink around it to keep it together until the craven speed one came in.

 

I ordered the cravenspeed the other day. I don't even want to find out what happens if my stock one breaks. Lol

 

The stock will break ( mine did ) but it will not fall into the pan or interfer with the crank shaft.

You will need to spend several hours ( 3 - 8 hrs depending ) removing your oil pan to pull the remaining part of the dipstick out of the tube. What a useless design but understandable given the lack of space in the engine bay.

I purchased another stock dipstick ( $25 from Pelican Parts ) and keep it in my trunk. The top of my broken one sits in the tube so I remove it and check the oil with the one from the trunk.

 

I know I'm asking the same question again, but any of you longtime r53 owners or anyone else filed or sanded down the end of the dipstick ( before the Cravenspeed dipstick) ? I think it needs to be reduced in diameter to make it through the bends in the tube,but won't affect the reading on the stick and
possibly pick up less oil when you pull it out of the
tube. Any help,comments, and thoughts ?




tube. I would li

 

Making it smaller in diameter sounds reasonable to me. But, is it "tight" because it is too large in diameter or because of its length, or both?

 

It's the damn twisted, turning, twisty tube !

You don't need our approval to sand down a $25 replacement part. Try it out and let us know what happens.

 

Think your thinking on WHY the dipstick fails is kinda simplistic....
the shaft is kinda like a fiberglass (or other fiber reinforced plastic)...the tip is molded plastic...not flexible...
they seem to fail where the bond is between the two materials.....
I changed mine before it failed...
Got a CravenSpeed in a local group buy...
Nice (like everything made by craven)..almost amazing how flexible it is...all metal. Pretty slick.

 

Mine broke in the middle of the fiberglass shaft, nowhere near the interface with the plastic tip.

 

Tube and shaft are a poor design. The fibrous shaft develops hair line cracks over time and one day it tears in half while trying to extract it from the contorted tube. Mine broke at 140K so I had to drop the oil pan and pull it through.

The inexpensive solution might be to sand down the tip and report back with the results.

 

sand it man. if it sucks, ill send you my oem one if yours craps up.

 

Thanks for the motivation, I will try it on Saturday,
I dread pulling that dipstick out !!!

 

I'll have an oem one tomorrow lol, the cravenspeed shows up tomorrow.

 

This happened to me and i actually put the mini into service mode and was able to take out the dipstick tube..this was a pain but i was able to do it!!! hurt my hands a bit

 

I had this happen to me a few weeks ago. I was a nightmare, I did however find a faster way to remove it. I ended up taking the front bumper off. You have to pretty much take off your radiator and airconditon heat exchanger. With all that loose i was able to pull it back and get to the mounting brackets on the dipstick tube. I will warn you though make sure you do not bend it getting it out. I did and ended up having to take a file and take some metal off. It was a good 3 hour job, but a lot better than dropping the oil pan. I would buy the metal one though.

 

DONT SAND IT. youre just going to make it weaker.

you can take the chance if youd like, but i dont see any good in thinning out an already brittle and trouble prone piece.

craven is over priced (like everything on a bmw product), but you only have to buy it once and will never have to fish it out of your oil.

 

Well I sanded down the 4 vanes at the tip of the dipstick ( not the shaft) and it definitely slides in better, but if everyone says the shaft breaks , the heat might make them brittle after a while, I will begetting the Cravenspeed dipstick !

 

I just got my cravenspeed in the mail a few days ago. My car is at the dealer having a few things done, but I can't wait to test it out.