Do you Lube 0-rings on oil cap and dipstick ?

[slacktide_bitog]

You should lube the O-ring on the oil cap if it's a Subaru because that O-ring likes to separate from the cap and get stuck on the tube

 

[TumblrDucks]

My oil cap doesn't have o ring, but I do drop drips of oil in the tread from time to time, otherwise the oil start baking on it and harder to twist the cap off next time. Not sure why.

 

[KrisZ]

I want this thread to go to 10 pages.

 

[kschachn]

Thanks for the reply and for your lack of sarcasm I've seen some older engines pop off the dipsticks as things wore down and changing the oil dipstick 0-rings helped, and on my Honda S2000 oil caps would fall off as the oil cap o-rings wore down , flattened /got brittle.

That’s not due to the presence of oil on the ring. Besides, there is a clamp and bolt holding the tube in place.

 

[Zee09]

I'd get a U.S.A of the seals to see how they are holding up. $35 well spent

 

[Shel_B]

Not at all. There’s probably nowhere else on the interwebs where dipstick o-ring lubing is discussed and considered. It’s what we do.


Better?

I saw a video in which a poor dipstick seal caused a small leak which affected the vacuum in the engine and which caused (contributed to) poor running. A smoke test was done on the engineand one could see smoke eminating from the dipstick tube.

...youtube]GaNdMIs-LjE:1093...

Many years ago, an engineer from an oil company, suggested keeping the dipstick o-ring in good condition, and didn't dismiss keeping it lubed.

 

[barkingspider]

Yes and yes

 

[zeroptzero]

I've had a hard time reading my dipstick oil level, it is so hard to see when the oil is clean. I've heard you can use sandpaper on the dipstick to rough it up. My Subaru also has the distinction of having oil levels shown on the dipstick, one side is always higher than the other, and you are supposed to go with the lower reading. My S2000 had the same issue, I didn't like it but you do get used to it after a while.