05 dodge ram - radiator level drops when its cold, but doesn't draw coolant from tank? tank stays at the operating temp level all the time. new cap and flush over the summer. truck runs normal, doesnt overheat or run hot.
thinking the reservoir might be bad, but don't know if these go bad..

 

John, are you saying you're losing coolant somewhere ? And what exactly is cold in Arizona..lol

 

John,

When the vehicle is cold, you should be able to remove the cap and not have fluid be right there at the top.

Are you having any white smoke come out the tailpipe? Have you changed the oil lately and noticed any coolant in there?

 

no loss of coolant, oil good. when the level drops from cooling off it doesnt draw coolant back in the radiator.

 

My j10, D200, YJ, and 92 Dakota were all like that. You could have a small leak in the bottle that is allowing it to pull air in instead of coolant.

Heck, I've got no bottle on my Valiant, just a hose that runs down the side of the radiator support. Same thing with my j10 and D200 til I installed a bottle.

 

My 95 Ram 5.2 did that for years. Bad head gasket. I took the oilpan off and had antifreeze dripping out the bottom! Ooops! Oil would be frothy if I only drove it for short trips. My commute is 44 miles so I guess the antifreeze burned off. Used some aluma-seal and havent lost coolant since. If this is a 4.7 I would say you have a bad head gasket for sure. They have an issue with hot-spots in the head, clogging the oil passages, warping the heads and blowing the gaskets, and valve train failure. They fixed the problem with additional oil passages and recaommended synthetic oil. But I dont know what year that was. Google- Dodge ram, 4.7, problems. Lots of info out there.

 

went under and poked around, found some wet coolant under the tank. double checked oil as well as the oil level - both are perfect, changed it a month ago and it still looks new. going to get a new reservoir and hope for the best