Here's What Happened...
Yesterday, I was on my way from southern CT to Great Barrington, Mass ( a drive of about 75 miles). You go east on CT I-84 until you hit Waterbury then catch CT Route-8 most of the way up to the border. The van was doing wonderfully, no issues, drove great all the way up Interstate 84, through Waterbury, and even part of the way up Route 8. Right around exit 39 in the area of Thomaston, CT the highway narrows to one lane due to construction, which is when I noticed the fast-pace dashboard chiming and the temp gauge on "HOT."
I immediately shut the engine off and coasted over to the shoulder. I turned the key to the ACC position and turned both blowers on high so I could assist in venting the hot air from the engine compartment. A few things I noticed though, the air coming through the vents was warm, but it certainly wasn't suicidal-engine block hot. When I got out and opened the hood, the hood really didn't feel hot at all, just warm. Opening the hood there was no blast of hot air, the engine compartment seemed just as hot as it normally is after running for a bit. There was no steam, no smoke, I couldn't hear anything sizzling or leaking, there was no fluid on the ground that I could see. Yet apparently the van was on the brink of over-heating.
So I sat there for a while after I called USAA and they sent a flatbed to come pick me up. Since I had made it 45 miles away from my home in CT, I wasn't aware of any good shops, and so USAA recommended one. The flat-bed took the van and I to A to Z Driveline on Migeon Avenue in Torrington, CT. A very small, hole in the wall type outfit with a bunch of late-model cars packed in front of it.
However, Matt, the mechanic I worked with was wonderful. By the time the flatbed got us to the shop the engine had pretty much cooled completely, so he started it up and drove it down off the flatbed and over in front of his garage. He found exactly what I found- the coolant reserve bottle was half full, so at first, he thought the level in the system was fine. But to be sure he put a pressure tester on the radiator and pressure tested the cooling system.
To my dismay... NOTHING leaked. At all, and the system held pressure. There were four of us sitting on the ground staring intently waiting for a drop to drip, but nothing happened. So when he took the pressure tester off he looked down inside the radiator and found that it was a little low. Puzzling since there seemed to be a good amount of fluid in the overflow bottle, and no leaks to speak of. He ended up having to add 2 full gallons of coolant into the radiator. :blink: At which point he pressure tested the system again to be sure we all hadn't collectively lost our minds.
Still, nothing leaked. When he went to dump excess fluid in the coolant overflow bottle, suddenly fluid went everywhere. :Wow1: Stunned, we realized that the **** plastic bottle has a leak in it, but half-way up and not at the bottom. The overflow bottle is part of the cooling system cycle and the system pushes fluid IN when it doesn't need it and takes OUT when it needs it. Apparently over the course of months and months, every time the cooling system pushed fluid IN to the bottle, if it got filled above a certain point, the fluid just leaked out. This happened enough times until the system purged itself of 2 gallons of coolant. Which would explain why it seemed like my radiator fans have been running a bit more lately.
The coolant bottle is extremely deceiving. Because if the level of coolant in the radiator gets TOO low, it can no longer even pull any fluid from the overflow bottle. Which is why the overflow bottle still had fluid in it even when the radiator actually needed it.
I started the engine and we sat there for nearly 45 minutes while the engine just idled to make sure the engine didn't overheat again, also making sure the water pump wasn't leaking when it was turning. But with 2 more gallons of coolant, the van got up to operating temperature, halfway between HOT and COLD and stayed there as it should. The fans kicked on and off as they should and nothing leaked.
So, 5 hours of my life and $140 was wasted all because some **** plastic bottle has a dumb crack in it somewhere. I keep thinking how on earth that plastic bottle got damaged. The only thing I can think of is the fluid in it froze when I was in Colorado last winter up in the mountains. We had temperatures that would often exceed -10. Which would cause it to split the plastic. He was able to figure out somehow though that the coolant that WAS in the system was -25 degrees rated, which he said was really good. But I've always been taught to mix coolant with water. Something I will NEVER do again. Because it must've been the water that froze and screwed the bottle over.
So, all in all- I'm thankful that the problem isn't worse, bad hoses, or a bad radiator, thermostat, etc. But I'm not happy that I had to get a flat-bed, miss a few appointments, dump $140, and have a really stressful midnight-drive back to southern CT.... ALL because of a stupid bottle that cost $0.05 to make.
The van made the 75 mile drive home perfectly fine, but that's because it would take a drive a lot longer than that to leak enough coolant back out of the blasted bottle. Now I get to go BACK to my parts guy and buy a new bottle. Guess the e-brake replacement's going to have to wait.
/facepalm.