Rust on Your Dipstick How to Diagnose Rust or Debris in Your Oil

Okay, friends, it's time to get started on our oil change. One of the first things we're gonna do is come over to our dipstick, go ahead and grab onto it and remove it from the engine. Oh man, that's a lot of rust.

Hey, friends, it's Len here from 1A Auto. So, there I was, innocent as can be, doing an oil change. Pretty basic, right? I go ahead and pull out the dipstick because it's one of the first things I do, what do I find? Rust. Great. We need to look into this to see what's going on. So let's get into it.

So the engine I'm working on is a Ford V10 engine. This problem is going to be something that's going to be common on a lot of engines that have the dipstick that runs along the engine in between the engine and the manifold itself. Now, what I found was rust on my dipstick as you can see right here. This is horrible. Why would I have that much rust? Well, looking at the outside, you can tell that there's quite a bit of rust. Going like this to the dipstick tube, I can tell that it's pretty weak. So that tells me that I want to check it out. Typically, if I have rust like this on the dipstick, it's due to the dipstick too. So let's get in the wheel well.

So following the dipstick tube down, you can see where there's generally going to be a mounting bracket of some sort, that's going to keep it from wobbling around too much. But this one's very weak. Looking along this area here, you can tell that it's completely rotted out, and even a little bit down along there as well. A common reason why this might happen is, of course, your manifold is going to get very hot as you're driving. As it heats up, it's, of course, gonna heat up the dipstick tube as well. When that happens, any moisture that happens to be sitting on it is going to evaporate. Also, as the engine starts to cool down, the dipstick tube is going to cool down and then reheat up, the same thing with a manifold again. As this continues to keep happening, it's going to weaken the dipstick metal, and, of course, the water can start adhering to the metal and starting to rot it away.

This is going to be very common on a lot of these engines where the dipstick tube runs along the engine in between the manifold and the engine like I said before. So, maybe you're wondering, should I even and replace my dipstick tube? Is it important? Does it matter? Is it going to affect the runability of my engine? The answer to all those questions is yes. It's very important to make sure that you replace the dipstick tube. Is it going to affect your engine's runability? Yes, over time if you think about it, more than likely it will. Why? Well, of course, we've got rust on the dipstick right here, that essentially means that there's more than likely rust making its way down into your oil pan as well. Aside from that, of course, you might have potentially moisture making its way in there. You're driving down the road, you're splashing through puddles, or even a little bit of rain somehow just makes its way up and inside there, maybe even at a car wash of some sort. If it makes its way into the oil stream through that dipstick tube, of course, you can imagine that's gonna be another reason why your engine might have runability issues.

Water mixing with oil inside of your engine, of course, is going to affect the lubricity of the engine. And, of course, you might even find that you have runability issues and even noise coming from the engine. Other than that, maybe if you have moisture inside of the system, you go ahead and you open up that oil cap, take a look at the bottom of it, you might find a little creamy substance inside, and that's due to the fact that there's moisture mixing with the oil and, of course, it's accumulating someplace. So, keep in mind just because you have a little bit of cream underneath your oil cap there, that doesn't necessarily mean that you're having an issue with your oil dipstick tube. It is just something that could potentially happen if you did have an issue with the oil dipstick tube.

There, of course, is other possibilities why you might have that type of foam underneath your oil cap, but that's a video for another day. Let's talk about fixes real quick. To fix this dipstick tube, it's going to be a little bit of a hassle most times, especially if it's rotted out like this one. Part of the job is going to be done right through the wheel well right here. If you come through, you can find the dipstick and you can also find the mounting bolt that holds it to the engine. Aside from that, we're gonna have to get underneath the truck. So let's take a look. So, now looking from underneath here, you can tell where the dipstick comes in between the engine and the manifold, it's gonna come right down here. And on our particular engine, we have the oil filter housing area. It comes right behind there and the engine, and then it leads right into the engine. Now, the dipstick tube doesn't just sit flush up against the engine, it actually goes in quite a bit. The problem with that though is, of course, trying to remove it, that whole area that's inside the engine area, it's surrounded by metal and, of course, anything that made its way inside there, such as moisture or corrosion or anything like that, it's going to be holding that piece of the dipstick in there.

So, typically, you can try to unbolt it up top, wiggle it around, and draw it up and out. But generally, it's going to end up breaking off inside the engine. When that happens, obviously looking at it, it's a little bit of a big job. So, let's just summarize this real quick. You have a rotted dipstick tube, and you're trying to figure out, is it important enough to go ahead and try to fix or should I just leave it and just hope that it's going to be okay? In my opinion, it's something that you're definitely going to want to have fixed. Like I said before, if rust makes its way down and into your engine or even into the oil pan, that's going to be an issue. Of course, your engine has a pickup screen for the oil pump that's going to be getting drawn up into the engine, so that, of course, it's going to screen out some of that rust. Other than that, you have a nice oil filter up there. That's key. The problem with that though is that those two filters are really supposed to filter out small particles of metal such as brass or anything like that. If you have large chunks of metal or even rot or rust like what we have on this one making its way in there, well, you can imagine what type of damage you could potentially happen to your engine. Other than that, moisture in the engine, definitely not good. You get a little bit of foam up along that oil cap or anything like that, you want to make sure you check it out and see what's going on. Because if you have foam up under the oil cap, that means you have moisture getting into the engine somehow.

Okay, friends, so that's what I've got for you on a reason why you might potentially have rust on your dipstick. Obviously, this is a big deal, it's something that I'm going to want to take care of. So I've got a little bit of work to do. I'm going to order myself a dipstick tube, another dipstick because this one's got rust all over it as well. And, of course, I'm going to make sure I do an oil change to this truck once I'm done. That's gonna help make sure that I get out any of the rust that might have potentially fallen into the engine. Now if you liked the video, please feel free to smash on the like button for me. It will mean the world. If you got something to say or maybe even a problem of your own, you've dealt with something like this and you want to talk about it, leave it in the comment section below because I would always love to hear from you. Maybe you got a tip or a trick for me. Aside from that, please feel free to subscribe and ring the bell, that way there you can be kept up with all of our latest content. Thanks