shelby2008

Ok, I did a search and I saw a few others mentioned having this problem. My dip stick and tube are rusty! Wtf?!! I have tried cleaning it up and keeping it greased/oiled, and it is not helping. It's weird but oh well, I figured I would replace both the stick and tube with a brand new oem pieces. Well......here's the problem, I tried to remove the tube after soaking with penetrant, and it wouldn't budge. I have done this before on other vehicles, tapping a screwdriver with a hammer on the lip of the dipstick where it enters the block and it usually works, but not this time. I just made a small slice in the tube! So... Now I HAVE TO GET IT OUT! Has anyone changed or removed a tube in the truck? Do I have to drop the pan to tap it out from the bottom? Will heat likely break it free? Any advice is greatly appreciated and I appoligize for the long winded topic!

13Harleyfan

You're probavly going to have to use an extractor or easy-out to get the tube out, you won't need to pull the pan.

shelby2008

Well, I tried the extractor...no dice. I tried heat, penetrant, nothing......now I'm down to dropping the crossmember, swaybar, front differential, and oil pan. All for a damn rusted dipstick. Wtf!!

Especial86

iTrader: (1)

Can you weld to it at all so you can get a good handle tacked on in order to yank it out? How much of it is left sticking out of the pan?

shelby2008

Nothing sticking out, easy out broken off inside of tube.

Nothin' Fancy

On my 4.6 the dipstick ran through the driver side exhaust manifold and it had a bracket below the manifold to where it was physically Impossible to pull it through the manifold. Just a thought. I haven't looked on the 5.4 but it's the same block.. Idk man

powerranger262

Holy **** man. I always had to use a screwdriver and pry my dipstick out of the tube to check my oil....because that's normal, right? Now of course i broke the loop off and have to pick one up for around $20 for a piece of strip metal. Dropping crossmember? Transfercase? Whoa. Love my fords, but this is really making me second guess my faith to these trucks.

shelby2008

I'm going to do it today. It's mostly just making room to get the oil pan out, just to beat the remaining tube out through the hole from the bottom. We heated and sprayed the tube from the top, it would spin but would not move out, till finally we had no more material to grab. The we tried the easy outs, they grabbed but the we tried to tap them out with no movement till one broke off inside the tube. Soo, now it's drop swaybar, crossmember, and maybe front rear, just to make enough room to drop the pan. All of this considering, this is the ONLY issue I have ever had with my truck, I love this truck! I would rather push my ford than drive a Chevy or dodge. After all of the troubles we have had with my wife's gm I know the f150 is the best truck out there, despite its quirks!

lhill58

You more than likely will have to drop the front diff. I attempted removing the oil pan but only removed the front diff bolt holding the differential up and that only gave me about an inch of room and the pan still wasn't coming off. I put everything back because it was getting late but wondered if you could just unbolt the half axle without removing the wheel and all that crap. Good luck

shelby2008

All done. Had to drop the front diff totally, wasn't bad at all. Don't need to pull swaybar, just crossmember. Wasn't bad don't be scared to try it