HELP something went down my dipstick hole

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YOU got yourself into this mess, YOU are going to have to get yourself out. Let's cut out the drama and focus on the problem.

1. Do you think the PVC is loose enough to fall through the dipstick tube, or was the fit tight enough to get stuck in the dipstick tube?

2. What tools do you have?

3. What tool stores do you have access to?

4. Can you post some pictures?

IMO, you have to get the dipstick tube out. I'm guessing that requires removing the air box, maybe battery. It helps to have a set of extensions (imo, the best special tool for all diyers).

I don't like the drive as is approach. My mind pictures pieces of PVC clogging screens and tiny passages. If the alternative requires removing the transmission, then I guess it's all you can do.
 
Originally Posted by brages


IMO, you have to get the dipstick tube out. ...
I don't like the drive as is approach. My mind pictures pieces of PVC clogging screens and tiny passages. If the alternative requires removing the transmission, then I guess it's all you can do.


I agree with this. Wish I had some knowledge about your specific trans but I don't. I'd sure start with removing the dipstick tube.
 
Originally Posted by brages
YOU got yourself into this mess, YOU are going to have to get yourself out. Let's cut out the drama and focus on the problem.

1. Do you think the PVC is loose enough to fall through the dipstick tube, or was the fit tight enough to get stuck in the dipstick tube?

2. What tools do you have?

3. What tool stores do you have access to?

4. Can you post some pictures?

IMO, you have to get the dipstick tube out. I'm guessing that requires removing the air box, maybe battery. It helps to have a set of extensions (imo, the best special tool for all diyers).

I don't like the drive as is approach. My mind pictures pieces of PVC clogging screens and tiny passages. If the alternative requires removing the transmission, then I guess it's all you can do.


^ This. I wasn't going to post in this thread because while I empathize with the OP he has not treated good guys just trying to help well, more like like crap.
I have had a few apart (not as many as Clinebarger for sure) but IIRC the tube runs downs the left side and does not come near the drums or gear sets, I believe it would remain below the internal filter and not get into the internals.
I might be totally wrong its been over 10 years since I looked at one so try to confirm this before starting it.

OP. These are good folks here they only want to help you, they get nothing whatsoever in return. They didn't break your car, their advise didn't break your car. While everyone can empathize with you at the end of the day you own this, take the help for what its worth and man the ef up and show some respect..
 
Why don't you put the vaccum cleaner end to the hole and pull it out, don't keep pushing it further down
 
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I remember one time a bug flew into the oil fill hole when I was filling up my car with oil after an oil change and I totally freaked out! Haha
laugh.gif
 
Originally Posted by Trav
I often find bits of foil in places under the valve covers.
lol.gif


I understand why oil packagers do it, but it's always concerned me that a piece of the sealing foil will fall in. I remove as much of it as I can before pouring oil in.
 
Originally Posted by MaximaGuy
I meant a shop vac not vacuum cleaner


Why so? Is a vacuum cleaner too girly?

OP may have a vacuum cleaner. He may not have a shop vac.

I'd think, though that plonking a vac hose on the dipstick hole is unlikely to shift it. You'd probably need to rig a narrow vac line (with a reducer on the hose) and hope to suck the target on to the end.

IF you're doing this with oil in the transmission (I believe some of these things can't be drained, deplorable though that seems) you'd need to rig an oil trap or your girly vacuum cleaner is going to get quite dirty.
 
That is why I said a shop vac and not your carpet vac, the oil could well be sucked up while trying to dislodge it.
The shop vac can collect the oil in the event ATF comes up
 
I think this is your transmission. The photographs show how the tube is attached. It looks like it must be right next to or behind the starter? The dipstick tube goes straight down into the case, suggesting that the piece could have fallen straight down if it was small enough.

The bolt is next to the dipstick tube, and goes straight down through a bracket. A wiring harness is attached to the other side of the bracket, so you'll need to unclip that first. The bracket might also have other wiring or hoses attached facing the front of the car.

I am not familiar with this trans, but it doesn't look like there's a removable pan on the bottom. Looking at the photo someone posted of the open trans, my best guess is that the piece would have dropped down the side of the case to the bottom, but not right into the gears. Whether it would get stirred up enough to get caught in something, I couldn't say.

EBAY Link for Trans

Good luck.
 
Well here's the only update so far, some borehole videos down the dipstick tube:

https://youtu.be/Bf9iQMgTQf0
https://youtu.be/2aDhhIceqIc
https://youtu.be/kce0CtzwUGU

First one going down verified there was absolutely nothing in the dipstick tube - it would have had to fall all the way through.

Verifies there are NO gears or anything immediately there.

But since i'm looking INSIDE the transmission afterwards, i'm not seeing something on the bottom. This is confusing me. I can't see how it could have gone much of anywhere else.

I was wondering whether I was seeing the top of dirty but reflective fluid so tried the thing with the coathanger to verify and show yes I was poking the bottom of the internal pan, it wasn't the surface of fluid reflecting back the light - it's the slick pan surface.

I was considering trying to pull the starter next but i'm confused not being able to see the PVC tube inside where it should have dropped straight down. I would need to pull the starter to remove the oil dipstick by the look of it, I can't really angle the borehole viewer in any direction it sorta only goes up and down it's not steerable down the hole. I'm also not sure if pulling the starter will actually give me any better access - either to pull something out, or reach somewhere with the camera that is useful.
 
Originally Posted by brages
Maybe the PVC just fell off somewhere else and is stuck in some tiny crevice in or around the engine.


This seems rather likely.

Inanimate objects in or around an engine enter a field of evil, and become possessed of infinite cunning.

Its sort of like the Mordor of little things.
 
Originally Posted by brages
Maybe the PVC just fell off somewhere else and is stuck in some tiny crevice in or around the engine.

Originally Posted by Ducked
Originally Posted by brages
Maybe the PVC just fell off somewhere else and is stuck in some tiny crevice in or around the engine.


This seems rather likely.

Inanimate objects in or around an engine enter a field of evil, and become possessed of infinite cunning.

Its sort of like the Mordor of little things.


I thought about that when originally looking around for hours with light everywhere, and did again with the battery tray off, but I can't see how. It was sticky and covered in trans fluid, there's only so many things it could fall on right next to the dipstick tube, and i'm working over a white cement driveway so it's not hidden in the grass or anything.

Originally Posted by brages
YOU got yourself into this mess, YOU are going to have to get yourself out. Let's cut out the drama and focus on the problem.

1. Do you think the PVC is loose enough to fall through the dipstick tube, or was the fit tight enough to get stuck in the dipstick tube?

2. What tools do you have?

3. What tool stores do you have access to?

4. Can you post some pictures?

IMO, you have to get the dipstick tube out. I'm guessing that requires removing the air box, maybe battery. It helps to have a set of extensions (imo, the best special tool for all diyers).

I don't like the drive as is approach. My mind pictures pieces of PVC clogging screens and tiny passages. If the alternative requires removing the transmission, then I guess it's all you can do.


I'm aware, I was trying to avoid the topic drifting to unrelated things to just focus on solutions as it was. I'm also sorry to people who thought I was being ungrateful but some suggestions didn't even sound to me like real suggestions, at least not based on a bit more analysis or commentary.

#1 was verified, the diameter and such was just thin enough and verified by the camera its not stuck in there at least.

#2 is a bit disorganized, i'd brought alot of tools to a friends place 250 miles away for work on a timing belt I was hoping to originally do this last weekend but obviously went nowhere. I thought this would be the quickest job in the universe (ha ha), I have various backup tools but theyre a bit scattered. I don't have whats needed to pull a subframe or transmission though.

#3 the common autozone, oriellys and such, i'm not deep in a rural area but i'm not within range of bus routes or walking either and due to physical injuries i'm dependant on getting a ride. I'm trying to fix a different vehicle for limping around town but that's having it's own problems so give it a few days to see if I can.

#4 I posted borehole videos down the dipstick tube. I didn't post a borehole video from the transmission drain hole (it cant record, I have to use a cell to re-record it. I'm hoping to pull starter next, and then the dipstick tube, hopefully getting some better angles and looking around in there maybe by late today.
 
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[CONT FROM ABOVE] #4 I posted a borehole video from the dipstick tube, I didnt post from the trans draining hole, but I didn't see anything looking like a tube there either despite moving it all around inside wherever I could reach. So it's not on the very bottom bottom. Note I dont know where the pan from the top I saw going down the dipstick tube is... relative to the bottom of the trans where the drain tube is.


Originally Posted by Trav
^ This. I wasn't going to post in this thread because while I empathize with the OP he has not treated good guys just trying to help well, more like like crap.
I have had a few apart (not as many as Clinebarger for sure) but IIRC the tube runs downs the left side and does not come near the drums or gear sets, I believe it would remain below the internal filter and not get into the internals.
I might be totally wrong its been over 10 years since I looked at one so try to confirm this before starting it.

OP. These are good folks here they only want to help you, they get nothing whatsoever in return. They didn't break your car, their advise didn't break your car. While everyone can empathize with you at the end of the day you own this, take the help for what its worth and man the ef up and show some respect..


This gave me genuine pause and reason to feel bad... before things get any further I better issue a blanket apology for misunderstanding things. I had to take a time out to figure out what had gone wrong.

I'm so used to posting on most online boards and basically having just as many people trying to 'have fun' or distract the conversation into irrelevant side topics that I assumed thats what was happening and was getting frustrated. It did not seem like a realistic answer for people to suggest to just leave foreign objects in there, at least without some qualification (ie like I could say now "i've used a borescope... it falls directly down into a pan under it, there's no gears in the way" and the video is posted so others can say it too) that it seemed like they were not really meant as helpful responses.

So i'll say i'm sorry to anyone who was intending it seriously, whom I snapped at, not realizing you were trying to help because I was blinded by frustration.



On the other side of things, I now have all the time in the world to fix the car because not making it all last week and this monday were the straw that broke the camels back of the classes I had and the work I had to show up. There's no longer a rush because there's nothing that rushing will save, the damage is done, so I can stop time-panicking.

My next step is to like I said above pull the starter and dipstick tube and try to get better video inside the transmission from both. I'd appreciate feedback from someone who has had a transmission apart - can I even see anything useful from the starter position do you think? I'll postpone my own speculations about what to do if I still don't see the tube anywhere obviously one option is just drive the car because the amount of work required to pull a trans might as well swap a trans at which point it's drive it til it breaks, park it inside the garage hopefully nose out, then attempt to swap transmissions in the spring or something way before I originally planned if that's even feasible. (I mean i've successfully done a clutch on another car which I figure is about 65% of the work)

Also to answer one other question - the PVC that slipped down definately sinks and doesn't float in the fluid. I threw a piece of it into my drained trans fluid to sit for a few days to see if there's any chance it starts to degrade or break down, just to test the possibility it somehow dissolved into the fluid before I drained it in the trans, since it was in there multiple days before I could even borescope it.
 
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At this point, I'd fill it up again and hope for the best. Your borescope video looked pretty clear to me, so if you looked down the dipstick hole and in the drain hole and you can't see it, I see only two options:

1. The PVC tube fell out somewhere else around the engine

2. The PVC tube slipped down somewhere deep, deep into this transmission's guts

So either it's nothing, or it's so deep down that you would have to basically rebuild/replace the transmission (which it is probably in need of anyway, since it's acting up) to fix it. (This transmission doesn't have a "pan" as such; it must be split.)

So I say, cross your fingers, fill it up, and start saving up for a new transmission or a different car. You may want to replace the transmission filter after driving it awhile, just on the odd chance that pieces of the tube are getting stuck in it.
 
bet you it's an open cavity 6" below the dipstick hole and it's laying there on it's side on the bottom of the pan.

plastic will barely scar the gears IF it were to tangle.

it won't get into the hydraulics due to the pickup screen.

the moving parts are not submerged in the oil.

If it made it to the pan, drive it.

If it didn't, how will you know? rock it back and forth 2" in gear, then drive it.

I've opened ATs and found metal parts in the pans and you'd never know it by how it drove.
 
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