I broke my plastic dipstick on my 1999 ( 2000) Mazda Protege 5 speed ZM engine while I was wrestling around changing the timing belt. I left it that way fora few months.

The other day, I tried to retreive the broken dipstick part by sliding a metal dipstick down the tube in an effort to snag it.

I ended up pushing it into the oil pan. I am assuming theres about a 19" to one foot long section of yellow plastic floating around in my pan.

Common sense tells me its nothing to worry about, after its plastic and its not going up the oil pump tube because theres a screen on it.

But 20 years ago, I left a small metal clamp in my valve cover and belive it or not it got lodged in a perfect position to score the camshaft and break it!

So I am thinking , with my luck it'll get sucked up into a connecting rod and jam a piston, though the plastic is not that strong.

Any suggestions?

 

i would expect no problems because of Moore's law: the harder harder material will scratch the softer one. I also expect it to be oil resistant. after all it is a dipstick!

The only potential issue I can think of: if the dip stick gets ground up then there are small floaties in the oil that potentially get past the screen.

There is your excuse if you want to take the pan off. But with your habit of leaving stuff in an open engine.... I hope yo are not a surgeon!

 

and thats why I want to atke it out. I once tore apart a newly rebuilt 4 speedbecause a brass washer got into it, took me two weeks.

Don't worry its coming off..

 

That's what i would do. Now you will sleep better!

 

Remebering when I was 20 years younger and I would pull an nighters rebuilding engines and race cars and a perfectionist. Now i am married with family and job and its a wrestling match just to keep a fleet of five used cars running

 

the dipstick handle just broke off of my cx7..ugh.
It comes thru the middle of the engine, anyone have thoughts on how to get it out?
2010 2.5L

 

Welcome! You might try asking in the CX-7 forum. The would know more about it.