I tried to check the oil on my 2003 VW Golf this evening. The dipstick was stuck tight, I pulled hard, and along with the dipstick pulled up a 6-8" plastic tube that guides the dipstick from the upper plastic shroud area into the engine itself.
After getting the dipstick unstuck from the tube, while trying to get the tube back in place I broke a chunk off the upper end of it (it was quite brittle).
I now have both the tube and dipstick more or less in place, and am wondering if it’s OK to drive the car for an hour or so in the morning to go to work, pick up my laptop, and get it to a mechanic back near home…is there any worry about oil leaking from the opening in the engine where the dipstick enters, which is no longer sealed tight by the plastic tube as it presumably was before? Or, since you normally only see oil at the very bottom of the dipstick, is there no way it’s going to come up the dipstick passage that far and come out?
It should be okay, but not for the long term. It is possible that you will get some oil pushed out of the tube, but not likely enough to matter. I would do as little driving as possible, get it to the mechanic as soon as you can.
If no oil leaked out while you had the tube out, chances are very little will when you drive. Do keep an eye on it and perhaps cary an extra quart of oil.
Just anecdotal, but I had the same thing happening to my last car, a 1992 VW Golf. I never bothered to have it fixed and kept on driving with it for at least a year without any leakage, so driving for an hour before you get the car to a mechanic should be no problem.
As others have said, it’ll probably be just fine though some oil will probably splash out. I once drove my car around for an hour or two with the oil cap off. Made a hell of a mess, but I probably lost less then a half a pint of oil.