Stained Dipstick
- Thread starter kevco
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by chance, are you talking about a dodge or Jeep product with a Magnum engine from the mid 90's? I have two trucks (a 95 Jeep GC 5.2 and a 95 Dakota 3.9 ) that both have approx 1/2" of what looks like black paint on the very end of the dipstick. I'm not the original owner, but I have to believe that, in my case, this is done at the factory and not a stain.
Yeah it most likely means at least one too long of an oil change interval, resulting in varnish.
ah. then yes, possibly too long on OCI's.
Big Block Chevy's always have a stain where the dipstick runs past the exhaust manifold. I'd say that ones normal.
Not a big deal. A lot of air flows in and out there and the whole mechanism itself is prone to deposits by design, cooling the oil down without adequate flow.
my 2.5 wrangler has a stain on the bottom of the stick and I beleive it is sludged. PO was bad on maintenance.
This sounds like a good case for seeing your doctor.
I never saw that in my two Fords, the Jeep is still to new. My Caprice had it IIRC, I bought it used from my FIL it saw a lot of short trips. I kept it a short period of time and sold it. I hated that car.
When I pull my dipstick every two or three weeks to check my oil level, I always wipe it off and reinsert it to get the reading. Before I put it back in after reading it, I always wipe it off again. Never have had any sludge or burnt looking oil on my dipstick.
Every new car I have purchased and maintained never ended up with a stained dipstick, most notably a 95 Neon that was still running strong at 185k when I sold it. I saw a few other Neons of that vintage with stained dipsticks and all of those looked to be unmaintained.
My buddy's neglected Toyota 4Runner's 2.7 was stained before I made my acquaintance.
I have seen stained dipsticks on a variety of Saturn S-series cars.
Also, they are common on turbo engines that never get synthetic oil.
Also, they are common on turbo engines that never get synthetic oil.
it depends on where the dipstick is. some engines will stain no matter what.
My 2009 elantra touring has the dipstick off the front of engine.
in the winter it stays very cold making deposits on dipstick even with good syn oil.
a light to medium varnish doesnt mean much.. if it looks like someone dipped it in tar on the tip.. that could mean bad maintence habits of course.
My 2009 elantra touring has the dipstick off the front of engine.
in the winter it stays very cold making deposits on dipstick even with good syn oil.
a light to medium varnish doesnt mean much.. if it looks like someone dipped it in tar on the tip.. that could mean bad maintence habits of course.
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I finally got a nice day today to change oil and thought id grab a picture for reference. Mine has the same black spot too, 5.2 magnum engine. I think it's paint, i don't think it's caused by bad maintenance because this trucks always had 3K oci's.
Probably a bit of varnish, valvetrains will stain a little too. Nothing to worry about.
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Pop the oil cap and see what you find.
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