So I finally found what I thought was a good 2003 Excursion loaded and when I got it shipped home the first thing I did was pull the dipstick and bam, it just came apart into pieces! Is this common?

I have not seen that before!

 

First I've heard of it as well.

 

Mine broke also. Right around 40,000 on my 03'. I bought the OEM replacement from the dealer and it's been good so far since.

 

Yep, my dealer handed me a new one.

 

Hmmmm.... Very interesting. Good feedback guys.

 

Good think you got the rest of it out huh.

 

What came apart? The handle or the actual stick itself?

 

I am on my 3rd one. The second one was a real bitch, took forever to fish out the shaft that was about 2 inches down the pipe!!

 

Yeah, I've seen it. A good friend of mine's ripped through two of them. The plastic handle breaks about halfway down the sleeve that goes over the metal tube. The plastic looked to me like it had just degraded from getting too hot. It just kind of crumbled.

 

Never heard of this happing. I going to check this in the mooring

 

I'm on my second since I've had the truck, could be more on the truck though

 

That's exactly how I would describe how mine broke.

 

^^^

same here. On my 2nd one as well.

 

i do the maintenance on my brother's '03 and his dipstick was broke at 40,000 miles. I replaced it with an OEM unit from the dealer for 25.00 and will keep an eye on it. The flange that goes over the dipstick tube breaks off for some reason. Sounds like it is a common occurence.

 

OK I am glad to hear this... I JUST got this truck and I thought I spent a LOT of money on something that was just the start of many more bad things to come.