Thanks for the suggestions. Got this today from Lokar : "The simplest thing that you can do to this dipstick is to rough up the end of the Teflon inner wire with sandpaper or a scotch brite pad. After doing this you will want to spray the end of it down with a carb cleaner. This will give the oil a good place to adhere to on the dipstick." The use of Teflon definately explains why oil has a hard time sticking to it, which suggests to me that it would be in cross purposes with the item's intended use...but then again there a lot of things that seem confusing to me in my old age. I will file this with the others. I sandpapered it and it works like a champ.