Modern Vespa

Hi everyone,

I have a Piaggio 300 HPE and after topping the oil up and replacing the dipstick - the tip broke off and fell in...is this a major problem to ride with - obviously would be better to not be in there - but will I damage anything by riding or will the plastic tip have been caught by a filter guard/just sit in the tank or something and it be ok?

Any help and advice would be much appreciated!

Thanks all👍

chance theoil and see if it comes out if not remove flywheel cover and search for it

Leave it. It is softer than everything else in there. Plastics are made from oil. If it gets hot enough and physically stressed enough it will revert to type.

nope your oilpump does have a plastic sprocked wheel connected to the crankshaft

i have seen broken dipsticks eat teeths of this oilpump it takes only 2 to teath to break off to stop the pump

I'd swear there's a strainer that would stop it from getting sucked into the pump....

there is but the dip did fall in the otherside of the guard so it still able to get in to the sprocket

Ok, thanks for all your help and advice guys. I'll take a look at doing an oil change and hopefully the bit will flush out!

Cheers👍

Here's what I would do.

1) Drain the engine oil, remove the strainer element and leave the drain plug out to allow some light into the sump. Shine a bright light source into the drain hole if possible.

2) Use a endoscope from the fill hole to try to locate the broken off piece.

3) Once located, get a grabber tool (the skinny flex type with 3 prongs) and a helper. While helper holds the endoscope within your field of vision, you try to fish for the broken piece with the grabber tool.

This will be a bit frustrating, but you don't want FOD inside your engine. FOD (foreign object debris) is the #1 enemy for any mechanical device, whether it be a multi million dollar airplane engine, a lawnmower engine, or anything in between (like the MP3). Doesn't matter if the debris is made from plastic, metal, recycled chewing gun, or even air in certain cases.

So I just did this. Seems to be stuck in the hole because I'm unable to screw the remaing dip stick into the threads. Were you able to rectify this? Any suggestions?

If you can't screw in the remaining bit, you probably jammed the end of the stick in between the transmission case and the entry hole of the oil sump cover. There's a gap there - and some people don't realise they can pour oil directly into the transmission case (and so all over the belt etc) rather easily. Rather a poor design - just an O-ring or similar would prevent this.