JHZR2
Staff member
I am not sure what should be expected, since all the cars I’ve owned have either been new with pristine cooling systems, and/or used a pressurized tank with no overflow.
For vehicles with overflow, like my 96 Ram CTD, is it expected that coolant should balance and “pull back” from that bottle to maintain level?
I know that the truck seeps slightly overboard from the front part of the HG. Very common. Ill fix it one day but for now it’s not a big deal given other priorities at home.
But one day after a long trip, few thousand miles, I found the radiator level low, like maybe an inch or a bit more when I looked inside. The overflow bottle was at the full line. So obviously as the system heats up, pressurizes, then cools down, it does not pull any coolant back from the bottle. I thought it was supposed to develop a bit of a vacuum and suck back from that bottle, because the inner seal is not as tight as the outer seal.
Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe I don’t understand. Or maybe it points to some other issue (?).
Is it expected that the level is maintained by the overflow? If so, what does it mean when the bottle stays full and the system is not?
Thanks!
For vehicles with overflow, like my 96 Ram CTD, is it expected that coolant should balance and “pull back” from that bottle to maintain level?
I know that the truck seeps slightly overboard from the front part of the HG. Very common. Ill fix it one day but for now it’s not a big deal given other priorities at home.
But one day after a long trip, few thousand miles, I found the radiator level low, like maybe an inch or a bit more when I looked inside. The overflow bottle was at the full line. So obviously as the system heats up, pressurizes, then cools down, it does not pull any coolant back from the bottle. I thought it was supposed to develop a bit of a vacuum and suck back from that bottle, because the inner seal is not as tight as the outer seal.
Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe I don’t understand. Or maybe it points to some other issue (?).
Is it expected that the level is maintained by the overflow? If so, what does it mean when the bottle stays full and the system is not?
Thanks!