Coolant issue
 

Bought a 2003 Tiptronic last September with 65K on it. Runs great. Drove with the wife to Truckee yesterday. At the to of Donner Pass, we stopped to raise the roof due to rain beginning to come down. While idling on the side of the highway, what seemed like a couple of cups of coolant were on the pavement below the reservoir.

I had topped it off a few days before, but honestly have a difficult time telling what the level is in the reservoir.

The car continued to run at its normal a hair over 180F. This morning, as we were leaving the resort to go up the road to Tahoe, the low coolant light flashed on and off, then went out. Again, the temp never got higher than normal.

Any ideas what is going on?

Your trip may have uncovered some air in the system. Open up the bleed valve and drive the car. Make sure you keep an eye on the coolant but go ahead and enjoy your trip.

Not sure where you started from and I'm not going to get out a map to understand the distances involved but my guess would be that you overfilled the coolant and it's coming out of the overflow line and dripping onto the pavement. I recommend getting a strong flashlight so that you can see the coolant in the reservoir. Slightly bump the reservoir and you should be able to see the level when it sloshes around. If it's low you can buy a gallon of the pre-mixed Porsche compatible coolant at the local parts store and add some. Worst case, you can add distilled water alone and even more worst case is you add tap water if necessary to get you where you need to go. If it's low be extremely cautious about running out of coolant somewhere because it's going somewhere it shouldn't either on the road or into the engine.

The reservoir was empty. Bought some Zerex for Porsche in Truckee and refilled it. Lost a very slight amount, but holds steady now. I did figure out to use the light on my phone pointed through the fill orifice while cold. MUCH easier to see the level. Drove the 200+ miles back without incident.

I just lost about a gallon right as I pulled back into the house today. By the right rear wheel for the most part but saw some dripping off the underbody tray right in the center. Also had a lot of moisture around the cap. Cap has no part number so I ordered a genuine Porsche cap off Amazon to get it here tomorrow. Hoping that's all it is. The reservoir had been overfilled and now is at the low level mark.

Drain and purge of the coolant system may be in my future. My temp is usually on the right side of the 0 in 180. The coolant is also a blue color so I don't think it's genuine Porsche.

Blue is still an OAT coolant. As it seems you're planning, I would put the right stuff back in which has a pink color to it.