Engine Temperature and Coolant Light

[Reddy Head]

Hello, I'm new to the Boxster world, I just purchased mine about a week ago. Initially I had noticed that coolant was leaking through the cap, as there was condensation on the trunk lid. I went ahead and topped off the coolant and purchased the new coolant cap (part number ending in 04) and installed it. There seems to be no more coolant escaping, and to be thorough I did pull the trunk carpet to check if there were puddles - luckily everything appeared to be dry.

With the old cap on the engine temperature seemed to climb pretty quickly to about 187F and the coolant light would blink.

I took her for about a 35min drive tonight. This being the first time I've driven her at night, and the temperature was low and slowly climbed to the 187F mark - however this time I was pushing her and driving through some pretty twisty roads. I noticed that the coolant light was glowing a very dim red color - it wasn't blinking as it did previously with the old cap...

My questions are:
1. Does the coolant light always glow that dim red color whenever the headlights are turned on? (The dash gauges and everything are lit as expected, I'm thinking that light is supposed to be slightly lit as well)
2. Is 187F a high running temperature?
Keep in mind where I'm staying at the moment temperatures between 90F - 105F in the summer are normal.

The reason I'm a little concerned is that I will be driving her 581Mi. back to my home, as I bought her out of town, and I would hate for there to be a problem on the road.

Thank you in advance, your advice is much appreciated!