I bought the Small Car plastic oil dipstick for Subie 2.2; my issue was that it was sometimes hard to discern the 2 scribe lines indicating upper and lower levels.  I did this:  found some stranded copper wire, stripped off an appropriate length, just using 1 strand.  Enough to make 3 turns.  Cinched tightly around the plastic tube, twisted to insure hoop tension.  Got out soldering iron; just a little solder on the copper to form a "band".  This action causes copper to heat up, imbedding itself on the plastic OD.  Trimmed off, and filed smooth.  Works great, easy to see proper marks in all light conditions.  Some folks were apprehensive of me doing this, for fear of copper band sliding off.  But after 4 years, the copper bands are very snug and secure and nicely imbedded.  And makes life easier.

    On Sunday, September 3, 2023 at 10:50:26 AM PDT, John Rodgers <jrodgers113@gmail.com> wrote:  
 
 Anyone who has a Small Car plastic oil dipstick knows they can be fiddly,
but it is nice to be able to check the oil level without having to move
everything out of the rear hatch area just to get to the stock dipstick.
But that plastic tube is a major PITA!

There are two oil level rings marked on the plastic tube. You definitely
want to add oil when the oil is at the low level mark. Trying to check
oil and get that tube back in, I managed to break that tube right at the
lower ring. That is a weak spot. Turned out to be good fortune. I put it in
the oil tube and it went in easily. No more fiddly. As long as there was
oil  anywhere in that plastic tube up to the top mark I was good. IF oil
didn't show, add oil until it showed up the tube again. If oil just barely
showed, it would take one quart.

That little adjustment made having a Small Cars oil tube worth it.