• 5 ways to remove a broken dipstick in your Nissan Sentra (or any car)...

    FYI: To leave a comment, just create an account and the comment field will show up. I would love to hear if these ideas worked for you.

    I should preface this article by saying, first of all, that it has nothing to do with home networks besides the Rockford Fosgate OmniFi we have in the car. Next I should mention that whomever at Nissan decided that putting a plastic topped dipstick between the runners of an exhaust manifold of the Sentra should have their ass kicked.

    Anyway, need to check the oil on Miss HomeNetworkEnabled's car sometime so that dipstick had to come out. A quick check of the internet revelaled several options, all but one of which I tried.


    1) The super glue on a chopstick/pencil trick
    2) Vacuum and ziploc bag
    3) Compressed air in the crankcase breather
    4) Pulling the pressed-in dipstick tube and tapping it back in with a hammer (gently)
    5) Pulling the oil pan


    So here it should be, but it isn't.. the dipstick is deep in the tube...





    Time for the chopstick/pencil and super glue trick. Dab some super glue on the end of the chopstick and run it down the middle of the dipstick tube until it rests on the plastic dipstick pieces that remain. Wait until it dries and then pull it out...


    This would have worked great, except someone before me had tried cranking on the dipstick tube and crushed it one spot... so I got it within a half inch of coming out, but the tube narrowed too much there... time for plan B...

    So I put a rubber band around the dipstick tube and then one around the carwash vacuum with a ziploc bag connecting them... it had great suction, but then the vacuum sucked the ziploc up the tube... so then I crushed the vacuum around the dipstick tube... No dice, again the tube being slightly crushed prevented it from coming out.. time for plan C....




    Here I am corrupting America's youth...


    I thought this one might be fun... put compressed air in the crankcase breather and the o-ring seal of the dipstick launches the dipstick 50 feet in the air, according to reports of others... At this point some explosions and destruction were much needed to keep my sense of humor... Unfortunately, because of the kink in the tube again all it did was make oil come out of the leak in the valve cover gasket.

    So the final plan was to pull the pressed-in dipstick tube and get the dipstick out that way... Beware, find a screwdriver that fits the dipstick tube exactly or you will crush the tube. Put the screwdriver in the tube and then wiggle and pull with a visegrip until it unseats from the block. The tube extends a good two inches in to the block. The dipstick won't come out the bottom because of the taper so now you will have to fix any kinks or narrowing in the tube. When done, gently tap it back in with a hammer, liberal amounts of oil is a good idea.

    Once out, I decided I would make a dipstick insulator to try and prevent this in the future. I might also "kink" the dipstick tube just below the dipstick so if/when it does break again it won't drop far. Below is a DSM spark plug boot... Twist, pull, cut, etc until you get the wire and lead out, then hacksaw a perfect dipstick heat boot...


    Who knows if it will work, but I like the theory....





    Special thanks to this site for the ideas and inspiration.
    Comments 62 Comments
    1. Scott DeLeeuw's Avatar
      Scott DeLeeuw -
      michael said...This is hilarious! Im working on a sentra right now. Thanks for the ideas. I was able to stick a screwdriver in the tube and clamp it with vise grips. Worked like a charm!
      December 2, 2009 8:52 AM
    1. Scott DeLeeuw's Avatar
      Scott DeLeeuw -
      Anonymous said...Everytime a dipstick is purchased, a Nissan cash register rings and a Nissan engineer smiles. Does the possibility exist that these dipsticks were designed to fail and that Nissan was hoping that we wouldn't figure out how the get the broken dipstick out ourselves. The customer would have to take the Sentra to the Nissan dealership, sit in the waiting room for 3 hours, pay the $100-$200 repair fee and everybody wins, EXCEPT THE CUSTOMER. The people on this forum are lucky that we can work on our cars ourselves and research problems like this to save money. Some people don't know what a dipstick is and we should help our fellow Sentra owners with maybe a class action type lawsuit to force a customer driven recall on this poorly designed dipstick.

      This problem has happened to some of us more than once and the replacement dipstick design needs to change or should we just convince our friends, neighbors and relatives to never buy a Nissan product. Too extreme?
      January 1, 2010 6:13 AM
    1. Scott DeLeeuw's Avatar
      Scott DeLeeuw -
      deb said...I had this happen to me yesterday also! Got my oil changed and the guy told me to get a new dipstick - that mine was breaking. Well when I went to buy one it broke and the bottom wedged in the tube. After reading all your excellent suggestions here is what worked for me:
      1. Tried to use long tweezers - no luck - all it did was push it down further.
      2. Tried drilling a hole in top to pull it out - no luck - all it did was mangle the plastic
      3. Put vacuum over tube to suck out all debris
      4. Gap filling gel super glue on pencil - tried this twice - the second time it pulled it to the top but then got stuck there.
      5. Tried the vacuum alone but it would not budge.
      6. Put a plastic tube on the vacuum hose and duck taped it to the tube - no luck - wouldnt budge any further
      7. Took razor blade and tried to jam it in top plastic piece which was now close to the top. It pushed back into the tube
      8. Took vacuum with tube attached to it and used suction to keep the dipstick close to the top while jamming razor blade into side of plastic piece - popped the plastic piece right out of the tube!!! Success! Now just the metal stick is left in tube
      9. Needle nose tweezers - really long ones - got the stick out. Voila!
      Easy as 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9..........
      Deb
      January 6, 2010 6:58 PM
    1. Scott DeLeeuw's Avatar
      Scott DeLeeuw -
      mbucky01 said...same thing just happened...

      It broke right at the top of the tube that goes down.

      I tried the shopvac by it's self at first, not enough suction.

      Then i thought about it.... and thought..... i adapted my shopvac idea.

      I took the lid off of a spray paint can.. drilled a hole just big enough for the dipstick tube to slip into, and over towards the side of the lid.

      I slipped the lid over the dipstick tube with the cup side facing up towards me. then i used the shopvac hose that fit nicely into the spray paint lid and turned the vac on. i let it run about 15 seconds... and there it was, the broken dipstick.
      January 10, 2010 11:42 PM
    1. Scott DeLeeuw's Avatar
      Scott DeLeeuw -
      Anonymous said...My dip stick broke off yesturday and I was wondering if it would hurt anything if I dont get it out?
      January 11, 2010 2:42 PM
    1. Scott DeLeeuw's Avatar
      Scott DeLeeuw -
      lacarriao said...The first thing I tried was using the superglue and a pencil, didn't work. So next I decide to pull the tube (because the superglue built up on the side of the tube nothing else would work). I stuck an Allen wrench down the tube so it wouldn't crush the tube. then used "vise grips" to pull it out the tube came out fairly easy. Next I had to drill the super glue out and honed the tube( it was out of round from the vise grips). Then I tapped the tube back in using a little bit of lube and a soft tip hammer. Overall it took about 20 minutes for that procedure.
      January 12, 2010 2:33 AM
    1. Scott DeLeeuw's Avatar
      Scott DeLeeuw -
      Sue L. said...Dipstick top broke off & everything I tried (including superglue) failed to get it out...only made the problem worse--puched dipstick farther own. My mechanic said it would take 5 hours labor to get it out....for a dipstick????
      Last resort: got a very long drill bit and drilled into tube/dipstick & removed it...A bit of debris, metal scapings taken care of my changing oil & filter
      March 13, 2010 6:08 PM
    1. Scott DeLeeuw's Avatar
      Scott DeLeeuw -
      hragan4759 said...1st of all just want to say thanks for this site. My daughter broke the oil dipstick handle off in her 99 Ford Contour 2.0L engine. The 1st attempt before finding this site was trying to pull it out with a pair of needle nose pliers. FAILED, pushed further down. Next day went at with the complete arsenal, super glue, shop vac, air compressor, the whole 9 yards.
      1. shop vac with hole in spray can lid pulled it up a bit but stopped.
      2. super glue might have worked if I was more patient and could have given it an hour or so to dry firmly
      3. was going to use a fine tip drill bit but forgot to bring the, Oh yea,,, drill bits (#*^%@!*)
      4. This one I should have done from the start, worked like a charm
      Propane touch and a small narrow blade screw driver. Heated the tip of the screw driver and melted it into the broke off plastic part of the dip stick. Did take a couple tries of heating and the screw driver tip. That was my fault. Don't try to push the heated screw driver into the center part, there is the metal part of the dip stick in the center. 3rd attempt and the hot tip of the screw driver just melted its way right down the side of the metal part of the dip stick. Let it set up for about 5 min. and tada!!! Pulled right out. Had to actually break the plastic off of the screw driver.
      Should have done this from the beginning.
      Note: Also noticed that if one attempts the shop vac method 1st & it doesn't work, it will contaminate the plastic part left in the tube with oil that it will suck up and then the super glue method won't work at all as a further attempt.
      Also the new dip stick, just the dip stick and no tube from Ford cost me $36 bucks. Did try a couple junk yards but no luck. I agree, stupid design to put plastic parts right down the middle of the exhaust manifold
      March 21, 2010 7:21 AM
    1. Scott DeLeeuw's Avatar
      Scott DeLeeuw -
      Anonymous said...The super glue and the pencil works! I have a 2001 Sentra. I read the comments about the super glue and pencil. Last night I put glue on the pencil and carefully placed it in the tube. My dipstck was approximately 3 inches down. I let the pencil and glue dry overnight. This morning, I was able to pull the dipstick right out! Thanks for the great comments!
      April 10, 2010 5:38 AM
    1. Scott DeLeeuw's Avatar
      Scott DeLeeuw -
      Anonymous said...Compressed air in the valve cover inlet ... don't need much 20psi or so ... and the stick pops out.
      This only worked because the little yellow nubbin was still attached to the top of the stick.
      June 13, 2010 9:51 AM
    1. Scott DeLeeuw's Avatar
      Scott DeLeeuw -
      Joey said...My dipstick has broken at least three times. All previous times I was able to keep the stick out. However this last time the oil change place broke and STUCK THE BROKEN STICK BACK IN! How absurd! Needless to say they lost my business. Anyway I tried tons upon tons of things. The one that worked...I put superglue on the end of a 1/4" screw (the wider the more space to glue) let it sit for 10 minutes and boom out she came. Thanks to the posts here i just modified it and I'm broken-sip-stick free.
      July 19, 2010 8:14 AM
    1. Scott DeLeeuw's Avatar
      Scott DeLeeuw -
      Anonymous said...Thanks a lot for posting your solution to this. My '01 Sentra dipstick broke today and I had to pull the tube out. You saved me a lot of time and effort!
      July 25, 2010 4:44 PM
    1. Scott DeLeeuw's Avatar
      Scott DeLeeuw -
      David said...Some good ideas but all efforts in trying to get the dipstick out of my daugter's Toyota Yaris (has been garaged for the last 6 years) has been futile. Stands with a screw-in eye screwd into the plastic end using a suitable lever so far still hasn't budged, almost starting to lift the front of the car. I'll try again when the engine has really heated up. Last thought a slide hammer, but that may have to wait till I get back to work.
      August 5, 2010 1:46 PM
    1. Scott DeLeeuw's Avatar
      Scott DeLeeuw -
      Bob said...Thanks to this blog I got the broken dipstick out of my wife's '02 Nissan Sentra GXE yesterday! It had been in the tube for a while, since the last oil change at Grease Monkey (The kid there said it was my problem etc etc; we just drove the car "as is" until now the time has come for next oil change). First I tried pulling it up w/ screwdriver, wire, these didn't work. It was down about 3 inches in the tube. Next I tried the vacuum cleaner and it worked instantly! In my case this worked I believe because the plastic had broken *below* the black rubber O-ring (i.e. the O-ring was not down in the tube but on the broken pull-ring piece). For those whose O-rings are still in the tube, I doubt suction would be able to pull it out, so the pressure trick likely would work better (~use caution!). FWIW, I paid $14 for a replacement dipstick at the Nissan dealer. It is the same POS design. Also I noted the O-ring is fairly tight in the tube - does anyone know if this O-ring is really necessary? It's tightness could lead to the next failure once the plastic becomes brittle once again after more years and miles of being cooked on the manifold.
      September 26, 2010 6:51 AM
    1. Scott DeLeeuw's Avatar
      Scott DeLeeuw -
      Anonymous said...Same thing just happened with my 2000 Sentra GXE; bent dipstick tube and everything.

      What I did was purchase a 3/8" x 18" plated steel rod from the local True Value, tap-hammer it down until seating against the dipstick plastic, and then using padded Channel-loks twisting the tube from the engine block.

      In addition to stabilizing the dipstick tube, the steel rod also straightened the tube perfectly, all for $7 and change.

      Then after extracting the dipstick, I reversed the process and used the steel rod lining the tube to hammer the tube back into the engine block.

      Somewhat less than the $200-600 estimates I received from shops. Now I have to fashion an all-metal dipstick because I won't ever use plastic again. Come to think of it, I don't think I'll ever buy a Nissan again either, considering the cost-benefit analysis that went into this part.
      October 14, 2010 3:48 PM
    1. Scott DeLeeuw's Avatar
      Scott DeLeeuw -
      Anonymous said...Thanks to everyone for all the helpful methods of removing the broken dipstick. We used superglue to embed the loop of a straightened large fishhook into a pencil eraser. We then heated the fishhook tip red hot with a log lighter. Then quickly inserted the heated fishhook point into the tube at which time it melted the top of the plastic broken off piece and embedded into it. Let it cool and then slowly pull the entire dipstick out. Ours hung up at the top so we sprayed lubricant into the tube and worked it on out. The fishhook must be red hot or it will not work. As a safety precaution we tied fishing line onto the hook so that if anything came apart the fishhook could be retrieved from the tube. Took several tries, but once we got the fishhook in while still hot, it worked like a charm! Just be patient.
      October 16, 2010 7:43 AM
    1. Scott DeLeeuw's Avatar
      Scott DeLeeuw -
      Anonymous said...Could someone tell me if it is ok to pull the oil pan to get the dip stick part out? This is what my garage wants to do for $185.00. I cannot do what all you guys did as am not good at stuff like this and yes I am a female.
      October 22, 2010 7:02 PM
    1. Scott DeLeeuw's Avatar
      Scott DeLeeuw -
      Scott said...You definitely could, but it's way not necessary.. where are you?
      October 22, 2010 7:32 PM
    1. Scott DeLeeuw's Avatar
      Scott DeLeeuw -
      Anonymous said...Scott, I am in West Palm Beach, FL and is $185.00 a lot for pulling the oil pan? It appears the Sentra sure has a problem with their dip sticks and I would hate to have it happen again.
      October 23, 2010 10:03 AM
    1. Scott DeLeeuw's Avatar
      Scott DeLeeuw -
      Scott said...To pull the oil pan that's a fair price, but it's not needed by any means... Have them look at this thread if nothing else. Pulling the oil pan runs the risk of nice leaks in the future too...
      October 23, 2010 12:59 PM
    + Post Comment