A few weeks ago I performed a coolant flush on my 04 (46k miles) following replacing a heater hose that had started to leak. For the future I have a couple of questions that will help me and hopefully others.

1. When bleeding, is it normal for coolant to bubble/gurgle out of the reservoir tank? I was a bit surprised at how much overflowed out of the reservoir (as well as somewhat concerned on how to collect the overflow...).

2. Is there an easier way to catch the coolant that you are draining? I attempted to drain from the lower radiator hose, but found it difficult to catch the coolant in my bucket.

 

1) If you have the tank raised and fill it all the way to the top then lower it back down then yes you should expect some to overflow.

2) Your gonna need a bigger boat.

 

The gurgling was the air forcing its way out, coolant on top of the air bubble, the air bubble rises and forces the coolant out with it, thats a good thing.
Had you tried to bleed the system with the cap still on the air could never escape.

X2 on the bigger boat.

 

I use one of those big shallow rubbermade bins you use to store sweaters under a bed or whatever. Shallow but a large area and volume. Buy a new one, my wife was kind of pissed when she saw her sweater bin full of coolant in the driveway and her cashmere sweaters dumped in a pile on the floor.

 

Cashmere is absorbent, you should have left it in the bin. However the word pissed may have been replaced with postal!