Well I've been having a lot of fun this evening (not) taking off my mates secondary air pump to replace the rubber bushings, in the process of taking off the metal plate with the N249 etc he managed to snap the dipstick tube so all we're left with is about an inch of the plastic part on top of the metal part. He's stuffed a rag in the hole and is ordering a new plastic tube tomorrow but I was wondering when we come to fit it, does the plastic part just push on/off the metal part or does it need to be screwed on/off?

Also does anyone know offhand the size of the hex bolts holding the pump mount onto the block? We managed to get it off (after 2 hours was not amused ) but when we put it back on we tightened the bottom two bolts first and the top of the bracket was slightly out of line so couldn't get the top bolt back in. I won't be beat though so going to come back to it another day and finish the job but I got the feeling it would be so much easier if I had a hex bit for my socket set instead of trying to do it with god-knows-what we used

Edited 18 August, 201015 yr by chicken_eyebrow

just pulls off use some long nose pliers buddy 2 min job

think its 8mm hex put all three bolts in by hand and then do them up

Edited 19 August, 201015 yr by westallc

Well I've been having a lot of fun this evening (not) taking off my mates secondary air pump to replace the rubber bushings, in the process of taking off the metal plate with the N249 etc he managed to snap the dipstick tube so all we're left with is about an inch of the plastic part on top of the metal part. He's stuffed a rag in the hole and is ordering a new plastic tube tomorrow but I was wondering when we come to fit it, does the plastic part just push on/off the metal part or does it need to be screwed on/off?

Also does anyone know offhand the size of the hex bolts holding the pump mount onto the block? We managed to get it off (after 2 hours was not amused ) but when we put it back on we tightened the bottom two bolts first and the top of the bracket was slightly out of line so couldn't get the top bolt back in. I won't be beat though so going to come back to it another day and finish the job but I got the feeling it would be so much easier if I had a hex bit for my socket set instead of trying to do it with god-knows-what we used

Yep as clive stated. dipstick is just a push fit ( a tight one though) just pull off old leftover one and replace with new one which if you get it right will clip down on the metal tube. Push down until you feel it click.

Common to break the dipstick as they get brittle from the engine heat.

Oh and also the top SAI bolt is a bitch. You can get to it from either above or below with a 8 hex( i think) and a extension with a knuckle joint.

good luck

yup mine was welded on, needed to literally break it off (being careful not to get plastic down the tube)

Definitely an 8mm hex.

I used this to remove the bottom two:

Had to buy a set of bits to get an 8mm one for my socket driver to remove the top bolt.

Thanks guys

We used a hex key with a kind of ball shaped end (so you could fit it at a funny angle) to get the top bolt out and used a little adaptor thing (which wasn't labelled but I now know must have been 8mm) fitted into a 10mm socket on my socket set along with a universal joint and couple of extension bars to get the bottom two bolts out, but I think I'll pop to Halfords tonight and get a proper 8mm hex bit for the socket set so we can finish the job properly.

I'll pass the info on to Simon about the dipstick tube - Luca maybe you could pop round and give him a hand when he gets the new tube? I was a bit afraid to try pulling it off last night as was worried I might snap the metal part of the tube and I guess thats an engine out job to replace that :(

Make sure the dipstick tube is fully home in the pipe otherwise the reading will be way out and you'll over fill the engine with in the future.

As said above it's a click to lock it down fully. It does require a fair bit of force though.

HTH

Thanks Dave

Sounds like everyone on here has had to replace their dipstick tube!