Oil dipstick very hard to remove and insert.

[Mafs]

Hey guys, I have just bought a Yaris 2003 with the 1.3 VVTi engine with 195.000km's or 121.000 miles and I'm pretty satisfied so far!

However soon after I bought it I went to check the oil (should've done it before buying, but it's a Toyota so what the hell eh?) and I found the dipstick was loose in the dipstick tube. So I pulled it out, cleaned it and went back to insert it but it would not go in at all.

So I pushed on it a bit more and it finally went inside, however the amount of force used to push it in and take it out do not seem normal to me. Luckily a co-worker of mine has the same car and his dipstick is very easy to take out and re-insert. I've compared the dipsticks and they look identical, both yellow plastic all the way.

Has anyone else had this problem, and if so how did you remedy it?

Thanks in advance!

[bronsin]

If there is an O-ring on it that might be the problem. There also might be buildup on the inside of the dipstick tube. My daughter recently bought a RAV4 and never check the oil. You need to lube the dipstick Oh ring

[Corben]

Or......its the wrong dipstick.

[Mafs]

Hey there, there is an o-ring on it. As it seems it should have.
Like I mentioned my co-worker has the exact same engine and the dipsticks are both identical to each other including o-ring.

Build-up in the dipstick tube is a possibility I have not looked into yet as the weather has not allowed me to due to loads of rain.

I'll check it out in a couple days, maybe clean out the tube if it's dirty and I'll report back!

[bronsin]

In the meantime I would put oil on the O-ring and see if that helps. Bhyou need several applications.

[komichal]

If you remove the O ring, does it get better? Definitely not advisable to drive it like that but if the clean-up and oil-up does not help you may need to replace the O ring. Some people tend to add various shits to the engine oil and it may have caused the O ring to swell. Just guessing.
You can also try to swap the dipsticks with your co-worker to identify whether the problem is the dipstick or the engine.