The plastic bit at the end of the dipstick has broken off and hopefully is in the sump. I dropped into a few scrappies at the weekend but no L series freelanders. Now I'm wondering if a rover car with the l series diesel would have the same dipstick. Does anyone know? Any chance someone could measure the length of the dipstick from the base of the plastic handle to the tip. I can then compare with any rover ones that I find. Ta much.

Yep same thing happened to me ages ago. You are actually better off without it. You might need to bend the tube so that the dip stick has a straighter run but you don't need the plastic ball thing. In fact mine fell off and blocked the dipstick tube.

Cheers, I'll try to bend the tube a bit. The same thing happened to my old L series Rover 400 as well. At the time there were plenty of Rovers in scrappies, so it wasn't hard to get a replacement.