Hi everyone,... This subject of broken "fiberglass" dipsticks isn't new around here I know. Well mine broke just the other day.... [luckily mine didn't leave one end down the tube ] ..... anyway, I was due for an oil change anyway so I scheduled the car for the oil change and ordered a new dipstick. I asked at the time if Mini/BMW had redesigned the dipstick to fix what seemed to be a long term problem for the "older" models, or was my replacement going to be the same fiberglass, piece of crap. ?? He told me "YES same old thing,...there's been no change". As you can imagine I wasn't impressed but I needed a new dipstick,... what are ya gonna do"". So today I went in for the oil change and the dipstick as planned, and just happened to see the tech pick up the dipstick from the parts dept.. I asked him if it was the same old fiberglass dipstick... well to my surprise he said "No ! It's metal ".
It looks as though Mini finally listened and made a change. So great news for those of you out there that have broken or fractured dipsticks !! They are now made from metal. I live in Vancouver Canada and that's the case here anyways. I'm not sure where the main distribution warehouse is.
I haven't pulled the new dipstick out and looked at it as of yet,...seeing as it was only "installed" today when the oil change was done, but I'm sure this one should last a while. :big_grin: Just thought I'd pass this along to the rest of you.
Happy motoring !!
I imported 10 of them for club members and no complaints from anyone. The Manf was also very easy to deal with and gave an exceptional price for a bulk purchase and very good postage rate to Australia.
Hi again,.... glad they're out there for everyone...
I went back and had a word with the tech at Mini and had him check my new metal dip stick.
Probably from a little heat and the fact it has sat in the tube for a few days, the dip stick seems to "flow" in and out easier than what it did the first day . So I'm happy with it and the fact that is one less thing I have to concern myself with. Now the sun should be showing it's self more as we get closer to spring.... and we'll have the top down soon. Next post is "Where can I buy a wind screen" for my 2007
Cooper S.
Happy motoring
As the stomach turns !! . Well I didn't expect to be back here talking about this subject again ...
More has happened since the last post ..... Yesterday I noticed what looked like an oil leak on the Cooper S ...If you'll remember I had an oil changed along with a new dip stick after mine had snapped..... Yahoo a metal dip stick !! But back to the leak I noticed... I popped the "bonnet" to check just how much oil I might have lost from this possible leak, only to find not a drop of oil on the stick .... so off I go to Mini to see what they have to say. They had a quick look [finding nothing] before putting it up on the hoist where they did find that the tech didn't wipe the oil filter area off completely. No cracked filter housing or anything bad. Then,... the BIG NEWS ... "they" check the length of the "new" metal dip stick with a fiberglass dip stick, only to find that the metal dip stick is about 1-2 inches shorter than the OEM fiberglass stick. So the reason there was no oil on the new dip stick when I checked it was because it wasn't long enough to reach the oil pan, AND upon further checking, found there is in fact, no new and improved, replacement, metal dip stick like earlier reported by myself. Anyway they double checked the oil level with the new OEM fiberglass dip stick and found that the correct mount of oil was in the car. ....Problem solved. ....... Except for the fact that now I am back to an unreliable OEM fiberglass dip stick.
Before leaving Mini, I discussed my concern with the service rep. about now having this heat sensitive fiberglass dip stick. I asked if he would take this metal stick [ since he probably wasn't going to be able to sell it ] and cut it off so I could use it to "plug" the dip stick tube and keep the fiberglass one in the "boot" to use just when checking the oil. Thereby keeping it away from the every day heat of the motor. Which he agrees to, adding that, that would be a good idea and would probably keep me from replacing the dip stick again. ...... and that's where it's been left,.... at least for now.
But there is more to say ..... and what's going to give me a reason to do more checking on issues with "the Mini".... I started to go home after all this dip stick stuff.... and when I started the car the fuel gauge said I was on empty. But I had just filled up a day or so ago and knew I couldn't possibly be out of fuel. ... I shut the car down and restarted, expecting to find the fuel gauge had returned to the full mark. ...Nope ... empty... then again I tried,... with the same result. So I stopped in at my local Chevron for nothing but the best/94 Octane gas. But all I could get in the tank was about $8.00 worth. I started the car up again and NOW had the gauge read FULL. so if you have any ideas or news on faulty gas gauges, look for my upcoming thread on that subject...... Geeze I sound like some newbee author or columnist, for Gods sake.
Happy motoring. ::wink::
sounds to me that you were given the R50 dipstick (I can check the length of the R50 to the R53 after work) by mistake. I would recommend you by the Ebay one that is a steel cable and 99.9% identical to the fiberglass one. I use it and have no issue with it for the lastn9 months.
btw. its a lot cheaper than the craven one, does the same job and the handle is the same as the OEM so you wont burn your fingers when the engine is hot.
Anyone ever compared the length of dipstick on the ORIGINAL MINI's to the GEN 1 + 2 ??? (just my one braincell ticking over):nerd: aned on the E/BAY "NEVER SNAP" is the little yellow tip/end in the pic just for packing or is it the MARKER tip??
who would put in a new dipstick and not pull it right back out to check it?
Like to have a word with that dips**t mechanic. Probably made a half hour book time for installing it too.
I have a 2007 cabrio cooper s, this is a gen 1 with a super charger R52. They made the gen 1 cabrio until 2008 but they changed the hatch to gen 2 in 2006 i think
The dip stick you can tie in knots is the Craven dipstick, very expensive with an aluminum handle that will get very hot if the engine has been running so you may burn your fingers if you don't use gloves or a cloth. The dipstick JohnnyC and I use is for want of a better description is a very thick bicycle brake cable with an almost identical tip and handle to the OEM one. If it ever frays, your certainly going to have a lot of warning. It does tend to mildly bend to the S shape of the dipstick tube, its reliable and everyone I know using it has had no issues or complaints and its at least 1/2 the price of an OEM one.
So might you have a link to where I can purchase one of these dip sticks? Is it in the USA, Britain, or Lol Canada [ I have my doubts on the latter ] Thx
I also have a CravenSpeed dipstick, mine has a plastic handle though
But I stopped using it a long time ago, they overread even though they're the same length as OEM. This is due to the end flopping down into the sump.
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