Kinked dipstick tube

[Cubieman]

I rushed into bending my dipstick late last night. I knew it was time to stop but I pressed ahead without taking the necessary precautions to ensure I didn't do what I just did.
I put a small kink in the dipstick tube, the dipstick definitely does contact this kink as you can feel it when you press it down the tube. It isn't a lot of interference but I still don't like the possibility it may be taking oil off the end making for inaccurate oil level readings.

What are some ways I could try and repair this?

Thought about filling with water, capping it off and letting ice expansion do it's thing. Although I worry the freezing water may break the tube elsewhere or bulge it out enough to where it won't go back into the sump. Thanks for any help!

[repoman89]

I’d give you mine if you were local .. it’s just laying around in my garage because I made my life difficult and installed the short one.

[Cubieman]

How bad is it to take out the airbox half each time to check the oil? I'll have the snorkel on as well.
I may just buy a CSL tube.

[jbfrancis3]

Great idea freezing but I think it'll expand out either end and will be tough to cap the ends in an effective way. You could try a piece of round bar stock that fits in the tube, grinding a ball point on one end, and with the rod in the tube, hammering lightly to work it out. Or something similar you had laying around, the gist the same.

[repoman89]

How bad is it to take out the airbox half each time to check the oil? I'll have the snorkel on as well.
I may just buy a CSL tube.

I coded the CSL oil level indicator so I don’t check it. Haven’t changed oil yet either since I installed the airbox. I’ll probably just pour the same 5.5L I always do and let the dash tell me if I slightly over or underfilled, just like a modern BMW

[jbfrancis3]

How bad is it to take out the airbox half each time to check the oil? I'll have the snorkel on as well.
I may just buy a CSL tube.

I wouldn't want to do it. I reshaped mine to come up just behind the factory front strut brace.

Alternatively, in the Tuning subforum there are instructions for activating the oil level readout in the cluster which was a CSL feature. If you get comfort matching the reading from the purchased CSL tube to the readout a couple times, you could use the readout on a go forward basis.

[Arith2]

I have one and a friend that works at UPS I'm hanging out with today. Let me see what I can do. I have an extra from my old engine. I'd clean it really well because that engine blew up, but it's in perfectly good condition. PM me

[Bigfoot]

I’d replace it for a new or used one when you can.

The dipstick tube is approximately 15mm in diameter so will fit into a 15mm plumbing pipe bender tool.

Getting the bends just right so the dipstick sits behind the brace takes time.

To prevent oil from weeping past the dipstick o ring I made a bracket to secure the dipstick tube to the engine and not the bodywork.

[ethan]

How bad is it to take out the airbox half each time to check the oil? I'll have the snorkel on as well.
I may just buy a CSL tube.

Depends on your setup. I use a Karbonius box with matching snorkel and am able to access the CSL dipstick by removing just the filter cover portion. So that's strut brace, cabin air filter tray, and the 4 screws on the box itself joining the two halves and then it's out (snorkel comes with). Still better to have the real thing, but it only takes me about 5 minutes to get to it.

[Da Jemster]

A trick in bending fuel line/tubes without kinking it is with filling it with sand. I don't know if it work in this situation on trying to get your kink out.