[robdelorenzo]

I'm sorry maybe I misunderstood. Are the purge valve and the bleeder valve the same thing?
It's definitely dumping liquid coolant and not steam and it is coming out from what the mechanic told me was the overflow that dumps above the passenger rear tire.

As it has cooled over the last hour or so, no new liquid drained out, but the tank is now well below the minimum mark and less than 1/3 full again.

No, there is no white crust around the valve or in the oil/coolant fill area. When it's dumping liquid, I don't see anything going on (steam or liquid) in that filling area.
It's all coming out from under the car above the passenger rear wheel.
Which is what the mechanic told me was the overflow while it was on the lift yesterday.
I'm also wondering now if that valve is bad. When I pull up on the wire it doesn't move very far and then when I put the wire back down it doesn't move too far either.
Should it be flush with the top of the valve in the closed position? Because it's not. But you also mentioned that this should release steam and not liquid.
I did hear it gurgling air while the coolant was dumping out, though.
The other part that I'm not clear on is if the valve is defective, should I be seeing the liquid and steam collecting in the basin and then running out through the hose or only as it runs out the hose?

I'm not doing something right, as I'm getting the same results.

I'm obviously not understanding something correctly here, Lew.

But I am learning and I think we are getting closer to where I understand what's going on.