diff --git a/lib/unpack.js b/lib/unpack.js
index 216fa71b..edaf7833 100644
--- a/lib/unpack.js
+++ b/lib/unpack.js
@@ -465,6 +465,19 @@ class Unpack extends Parser {
   }
 
   [CHECKFS2] (entry, done) {
+    // if we are not creating a directory, and the path is in the dirCache,
+    // then that means we are about to delete the directory we created
+    // previously, and it is no longer going to be a directory, and neither
+    // is any of its children.
+    if (entry.type !== 'Directory') {
+      for (const path of this.dirCache.keys()) {
+        if (path === entry.absolute ||
+            path.indexOf(entry.absolute + '/') === 0 ||
+            path.indexOf(entry.absolute + '\\') === 0)
+          this.dirCache.delete(path)
+      }
+    }
+
     this[MKDIR](path.dirname(entry.absolute), this.dmode, er => {
       if (er) {
         done()
@@ -529,6 +542,15 @@ class Unpack extends Parser {
 
 class UnpackSync extends Unpack {
   [CHECKFS] (entry) {
+    if (entry.type !== 'Directory') {
+      for (const path of this.dirCache.keys()) {
+        if (path === entry.absolute ||
+            path.indexOf(entry.absolute + '/') === 0 ||
+            path.indexOf(entry.absolute + '\\') === 0)
+          this.dirCache.delete(path)
+      }
+    }
+
     const er = this[MKDIR](path.dirname(entry.absolute), this.dmode, neverCalled)
     if (er)
       return this[ONERROR](er, entry)
diff --git a/test/unpack.js b/test/unpack.js
index 1b2a0334..db7c8f54 100644
--- a/test/unpack.js
+++ b/test/unpack.js
@@ -2605,3 +2605,56 @@ t.test('handle errors on fs.close', t => {
     cwd: dir + '/sync', strict: true,
   }).end(data), poop, 'sync')
 })
+
+t.test('drop entry from dirCache if no longer a directory', t => {
+  const dir = path.resolve(unpackdir, 'dir-cache-error')
+  mkdirp.sync(dir + '/sync/y')
+  mkdirp.sync(dir + '/async/y')
+  const data = makeTar([
+    {
+      path: 'x',
+      type: 'Directory',
+    },
+    {
+      path: 'x',
+      type: 'SymbolicLink',
+      linkpath: './y',
+    },
+    {
+      path: 'x/ginkoid',
+      type: 'File',
+      size: 'ginkoid'.length,
+    },
+    'ginkoid',
+    '',
+    '',
+  ])
+  t.plan(2)
+  const WARNINGS = {}
+  const check = (t, path) => {
+    t.equal(fs.statSync(path + '/x').isDirectory(), true)
+    t.equal(fs.lstatSync(path + '/x').isSymbolicLink(), true)
+    t.equal(fs.statSync(path + '/y').isDirectory(), true)
+    t.strictSame(fs.readdirSync(path + '/y'), [])
+    t.throws(() => fs.readFileSync(path + '/x/ginkoid'), { code: 'ENOENT' })
+    t.strictSame(WARNINGS[path], [
+      'TAR_ENTRY_ERROR',
+      'Cannot extract through symbolic link',
+    ])
+    t.end()
+  }
+  t.test('async', t => {
+    const path = dir + '/async'
+    new Unpack({ cwd: path })
+      .on('warn', (code, msg) => WARNINGS[path] = [code, msg])
+      .on('end', () => check(t, path))
+      .end(data)
+  })
+  t.test('sync', t => {
+    const path = dir + '/sync'
+    new UnpackSync({ cwd: path })
+      .on('warn', (code, msg) => WARNINGS[path] = [code, msg])
+      .end(data)
+    check(t, path)
+  })
+})