Dear Car Talk:
I have a 2001 Nissan Frontier, and the dipstick is stuck. I can't pull it out.
-- Francisco
That's unusual, Francisco. The dipstick is just a straight metal rod with a plastic puller attached to the top. It slides through what is usually a metal tube and drops into the oil pan off to the side, where it's not really near anything that could damage it -- or vice versa.
So, the first thing I'd try is pulling harder. Rather than pulling the plastic finger grabber off, I'd try pulling it lower down, if you can, with a pair of vise grips. Or, once you break the plastic piece off, grab the top of the metal stick with vise grips.
If you don't feel comfortable forcing it or are afraid that you're going to break something, take it to a shop and ask them to go ape on it. Just avert your eyes while they do the work.
One way or another, you have to get the dipstick free, because if you don't, someday you'll run out of oil and ruin the engine.
If it really seems stuck and won't come out, then my guess is that someone recently removed your oil pan. When the oil pan is reinstalled, you're supposed to remove the dipstick first. Otherwise, you could bend the bottom of it. And once the bottom is bent, it won't slide out through the dipstick tube.
Which brings me back to my first suggestion: pull harder. If the stick is bent, then forcing it out could damage the dipstick tube. But replacing that tube is easier than dropping the oil pan again.
There's a very remote chance that when the oil pan was replaced, the end of the dipstick got trapped between the pan and the block. In that case, you'd have to remove the pan again. But that's very unlikely.
So, take it to your favorite shop and give them carte blanche to mangle it out of there somehow. Then replace the dipstick tube if necessary, and you'll be good to go, Francisco.