Broke ATF dipstick tube.

combhua · Post by **combhua** » 19 Mar 2011, 11:35

My wife's 1999 V70 has been pretty much ignored for many years in her family. For the last 9 months no one had been driving it. When I went to check its fluids after finally fixing its exhaust, the dipstick for the automatic transmission fluid was stuck. Strangely, I could rotate it, but not pull it out. I grabbed a wrench and put it through the loop and tugged. Something gave.

I looked down and the dipstick is still in the tube, but the tube had moved. About a foot down from the top of the dipstick, it seems the tube has snapped completely from whatever it was attached to. The whole tube was rather rusted.

A bit of quick, panic'd searching didn't reveal anything I could buy to replace it. How screwed am I?

combhua · Post by **combhua** » 19 Mar 2011, 14:03

Also, if I take it somewhere for someone to look at it, will I mess things up further?

Post by **jtp** » 19 Mar 2011, 14:13

Could you drain out the fluid, take out the transmission (or whatever piece that dipstick tube connects to), and then take it somewhere to be welded back on (after you research the proper angle for them to attach it)?

If they're giving you a hard time don't forget to remind your wife that if her family was regularly maintaining the vehicle it's doubtful the the ATF dipstick would have become more attached to the car than it's holding tube

combhua · Post by **combhua** » 19 Mar 2011, 14:47

Yeah, I've been giving them a hard time about it.

Turns out the dipstick tube is attached with a rubber o-ring of some sort. I removed the bolts that held the tube in place and figured this out. It simply required me to push the tube back into the transmission.

I called the dealership and they have two parts:
- dipstick (#3502973) ~$5
- dipstick tube (#9183900) ~$11

Post by **jtp** » 19 Mar 2011, 20:03

Wow. That's about as good as something like that can go, congrats.