What do you use to wipe your dipstick?
- Thread starter TallPaul
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I got hold of a roller and raided the household supply of toilet paper. Now I have a roll of Angel Soft hanging in the garage. Besides wiping the dipstick, you never know when you are out working on the car and suddenly you just have to ..... uh oh, where's that bucket?
i read a book about about a guy running the dakar race in a race prepped mercedes gelendewagon. he was told by mercedes auto-tranny builder to only wipe the dipstick with his fingers to keep lint contamination out. maybe they all read the smae book? i don't buy into it but i still remember it. i just use whatever rag i have laying around that is clean.
here is another question to add. do you wipe the stick twice or only once?
you know the drill;
pull stick out wipe it,
stick it back in,
pull it out and check level.
now here is where the question is
do you wipe it again before putting it in for good? there is no reason to but most do it out of habit.
Patman
Staff member
moving this to mechanical section
paper towel, shop towel, tissue, my shirt
With my new toilet paper/dipstick wipe dispenser I'm checking the oil so much I'm afraid the level is going down. Now I won't know if the engine is using oil or not. What to do?????
Been using the toilet papar for over a year now and it is working nicely. But the other day I discovered some premium toilet paper in our closet and got excited. Then the kids complained that I should not take the "good" toilet paper for wiping the dipstick. Who'd of ever thought you could get a family squabble over wiping a dipstick.
If a friend is close and has a pre-washed lint free cotton shirt on I use him. Funny that not many people I know come around when I'm under the hood.
I use the back of my pant leg.
1.. place dipstick behind knee.
2.. raise foot to fold pant leg around dipstick.
3.. pull dipstick out and replace in dipstick tube.
-- what I get from my wife when I pick the wrong pants to wear when I check the oil.......
JD
1.. place dipstick behind knee.
2.. raise foot to fold pant leg around dipstick.
3.. pull dipstick out and replace in dipstick tube.
-- what I get from my wife when I pick the wrong pants to wear when I check the oil.......
JD
Now that she (the wife) found that i used the tail of my shirt, she pitched a fit. I now take one of her new pads and use it. They are supposed to be medically sound and safe, So I figured they good enough for they oil checks too.
I guess I'm a cheap ba$tard. I always grap a couple of the paper towels in the dispenser at the gasoline pump when I'm filling up and save them for my use at home.
An old friend taught me the trick of tucking a paper towel in the engine compartment soimewhere so you always have something half decent anywhere.
I use a proper shop rag in the raditional 'brick red' color. It should be kept clean and not contaminated with sand or grit. For example, don't wedge the shop rag in a crevice in the underhood area so it will be handy the next time. Keep it in a plastic bag in the trunk with the tool box. On my '94 Chev Impala SS with an LT1 engine there is a rubber tip on the end of the oil dip stick tube. This rubber tip has two functions. One is to seal the dip stick from the grit. The other is to allow you to wipe the dip stick as you pull it out of the tube. I don't recommend this practice. Why? The constant squeezing of the seal causes the tube seal to crack. In my case, you must replace the entire dip stick, not just the rubber seal.
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