Yep, done that several times. I wish the bottle was a tad bit clearer and not as opaque. Either that or there was some sort of tube on the outside like a catch can to show the level better.
I can't think of the number of times I've went to add coolant thinking it's low then whops, it's overflowing b/c I couldn't see the level.
I'm constantly checking my coolant after a bad incident a few years ago.
It's a long story... I was on my way back from N2K6 (I think.) in Dallas, TX. From Dallas I drove to Texarkana, TX and decided to stay there for the night since it was getting late and I was tired. I found a hotel, checked in, drug my bag inside then drove to the Burger King right down the road.
I pull through the drive-thru and placed my order. As I pull forward and start paying, the person at the window goes "Is your car overheating?!?" I look at them say "Umm, No."
and I proceed to look at my temp gauge
"ACK! What the!!!"
I grab my food and whip around into the parking lot, shut her off, pop the hood, grab a flashlight and inspect whats going on.
As I'm digging around in the engine bay with a flashlight, beating on the coolant bottle in hopes of seeing the coolant jiggle between the lines, a car pulls into the parking lot. The car kind of circles around me, then parks facing me. I look around and think, great... probably didn't pick the greatest neighborhood around here to break down in or get a room for the night. I let her cool for a little bit and see that my radiator fan is busted and not attached to the fan motor at all. Perfect... and how far away from home am I... just 12-13hrs.
Still thinking my coolant bottle is bone dry I start looking up on my phone where there's an autoparts store that sells G05 or a dealer to grab some coolant. Crap, dealer won't be open in the morning and not many autoparts stores sell G05... I'm kinda screwed. I decided I need to get out of this parking lot and get back to the hotel so I take my chances and now that the engine is a bit cooler I drive the 1/4 back up the road to the hotel and park it for the night. I go inside, sleep in my clothes and end up waking up every 2 hrs checking on the car to make sure it's still there or that it at least still has it's wheels.
I wake up around 9am, check out and go look at the car again. Now that it's daylight I look at the coolant again and phew... it has coolant in the overflow.
I figure as long as I keep moving I'm golden. I'll just drive home, don't stop anywhere but to get gas and hope I don't get stuck in any traffic. The rest of the way home I'm bookin it, windows down. That's when I get to Memphis, TN and hit traffic... Normally I'm not one to weave in and out of traffic or cut in front of people but I didn't care right now.
I finally get home and sure enough the fan has sheered off the fan motor... it's happened before but I figured it was a fluke the last time and put a new fan on. This time I'm looking at the motor, maybe it's damaged causing it to hit the shroud so I replace again. For 2-3 years it never did it again until one day coming home from a local meet. I took the car to work the next day and I heard a big scrape and knew exactly what it was. Three times and I start digging into what the hell is going on. The one trend I noticed is that it only does it when I have the AC for a good period of time while moving.
Turns out when the car was new I took it to the dealer and they pulled the fan shroud. Apparently when they did this they just pulled the wires out of the plug somehow and when they went to put it back they reversed them. The fan still worked but it blew air towards the front of the car. When I reversed the wires back to what they should be the motor didn't turn on... turns out there's a delay and 10sec after it's connected the right way it kicks on. Now that the fan is blowing air the correct direction it's been good every since but I still always watch my coolant.
