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Here are four of the most common signs of a bad radiator overflow tank. Top 4 Bad Coolant Expansion Tank Symptoms This is kind of like a vacuum effect where the pressure decrease allows the excess coolant in the overflow tank to flow back out of it, so it can return to the radiator.
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The coolant will then contract instead of expand resulting in the volume of the coolant decreasing.
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Once the driver parks the vehicle and turns off the engine, the heat dissipates which causes the coolant to not be as hot anymore. The excess fluid flows into the overflow tube and goes into the overflow tank. So, the radiator coolant overflow tank functions to serve this exact purpose. As the pressure causes the coolant to get higher than the radiator pressure cap, the excess coolant needs to be captured somewhere in order to prevent leakage.
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