Can a Bad Radiator Cap Cause Coolant Loss? Symptoms & Fix

So, can a bad radiator cap cause coolant loss, actually? The answer is, yes, it does. Coolant is highly connected with a radiator cap. If the cap is faulty, the coolant will get leaked with a vast waste. A damaged cooling system will eventually affect your vehicle too.

Not only this, but your engine will also face many issues such as overheating, hose collapse, reservoir overflow, and many more. And all these things will happen just because of that coolant loss.

Hence, today, we’ll be discuss this in-depth, including the symptoms of a faulty cap, how to test it, and how to replace it.

Let’s dive deep, shall we?

Can a Bad Radiator Cap Cause Coolant Loss?

We all know you must give pressurized coolant to keep your engine from overheating. If the engine isn’t working correctly, at the end of the day, you can’t drive accordingly.

Here with the coolant, the radiator cap comes in. This cap mainly works like a gatekeeper of your vehicle’s cooling system. When you give coolant to the engine, the cap provides the exact amount of pressure to maintain the pressure process.

If the cap itself is not good or has leaked, the pressure inside the radiator won’t be perfect. And if it’s not perfect, the leakage will happen.

Besides, with this coolant escape, your car will overflow, and engine failure will happen.

So basically, you’ll face a coolant leak from the radiator cap, engine exhaust, engine failure, and eventually, a big issue in your vehicle parts.

Symptoms of a Bad Radiator Cap

A radiator cap usually ensures the vehicle’s cooling system is alright. This is because, the pressure inside the radiator is around 13 - 16 PSI, and the radiator cap strictly maintains this consistency.

But if it gets damaged, the pressure won’t be constant. There are a few things from which you can understand the radiator cap needs to be replaced. They include,

· Coolant Leak

The common issue with a faulty radiator cap is the coolant leakage. Manufacturers of vehicles usually create the cooling part to maintain a specific pressure. But the coolant will break out if the pressure goes up and down.

This coolant will leak from every weak point of your car system for over-pressurization. For example, it can leak from the radiator, water pump, hoses, and gasket.

Hence, if you ever see this scenario of coolant spreading from here and there in your car, you’ll get that the radiator cap here is the villain.

· Overheating Engine

Another easy way to tell if your radiator cap is faulty is the overheated engine. A bad cap can’t hold up all those boiling points from your engine, nor will it be able to accept the pressure.

Plus, your engine will face airflow because of the coolant air pocket, and that is also for the ineffective radiator cap.

So, if you’re driving and notice an overboiled engine, you better stop your car and look for the repair shop. It’ll stop your vehicle from getting more injury.

· Bursting Hoses

A fact about radiator hoses is that low pressure can make the hose collapse. It’s because of the creation of a vacuum inside it. On the other hand, if the pressure is high, it’ll tear the hose.

So, a bad radiator cap can create a high and low pressure, which can collapse or crack your radiator hoses.

If you see this, know that your radiator cap is faulty.

· Overflowing Reservoir

When you give coolant to the engine, it releases that coolant to the reservoir. The reason for the release is to balance the pressure in case the pressure becomes high.

But if the radiator cap is faulty, the coolant release won’t have any control, and there will be no balance.

This reservoir overflow can dangerously harm your engine, so change the cap as soon as possible if you see this.

Then again, few things can give you broken radiator cap vibes, such as

· Low coolant level

· Tube breakage because of the airflow in the engine

· Overheated car hood for the boiling coolant

How Do You Test A Radiator Cap?

Your radiator cap is going to tell you if the engine is alright or not. To understand the health of the cap, you need to test it. Let’s see the process,

· First of all, you have to let the whole system cool down. And then slowly remove the cap.

· Watch out for any leak or seal for the impairment.

· If you find the rubber part of the cap is too hard or if the seals are split, it’s evident that the rad cap leaking is happening.

Now you have to move on to check the pressure of the radiator. For that,

· Take a tester set and install the cap above the main radiator cap.

· The installed cap will look like filler.

· After that, connect one side of the adapter to one end of the cap and put another side on the pressure tester.

· Select the adapter size that matches your actual radiator size.

· It’s time to pump the tester.

· If you see the pressure releasing before reaching the exact pressure point, then the cap is damaged.

· Likewise, it’s definitely faulty if the cap can’t hold any pressure.

· You can repeat the pressure test a few times, and if each time the pressure doesn’t seem accurate, you need to change the faulty radiator cap.

How to Replace A Faulty Radiator Cap?

Now that you know the symptoms and testing process of the radiator cap, it’s time to consider how to replace it.

The changing process is super easy to do. Such as,

· When the test session is done, try to cool down the radiator area, especially the faulty cap. It’ll help to calm the coolant inside it. Otherwise, that coolant might get sprayed on you, which can burn your skin.

· After that, uninstall the cap by unscrewing the bolts.

· Take the cap off carefully and keep it in the recycle bin.

· Install the brand new radiator cap.

· Screw the bolts again tightly.

That’s how you can install the radiator cap by yourself. Try it!

Conclusion

So what do you think now? Can a bad radiator cap cause coolant loss? It definitely does, and we’re sure you got all the information about this piece of writing.

Be careful if you ever see coolant loss because, in the long run, this might harm your vehicle, including you. Therefore, it’s better to observe the symptoms fast and get them replaced as soon as possible.

Therefore, a good radiator cap will take care of the cooling system, engine, and the whole performance of the vehicle.

All the best!