Temperature Gauge Flashing Red

[Ronny]

Happy new owner of a 2000 Porsche 911 Carrera, just picked it up a few weeks ago.

The engine has always been running anywhere between the left and the right side of the 0 in 180.

I'd say ~ 190 - 215 degrees.

Today was no different, except that the red section started flashing red every few seconds. I shut the engine off for 10 minutes, and it seemed to be fine for about 50 miles. Then it reappeared a few hours later when I took it out again.

What exactly does this mean? The needle never went past the 0 (~ 215)... I'm fairly paranoid right now as I had a BMW that suffered innumerable overheating issues. Eventually dropped more than $15K in repairs on that car.

The RMS was replaced 3 weeks ago. Since then I've put on 2000 miles, and the oil level according to the dash was 1 bar above the minimum...

[RFM]

Red flashed indicator means low coolant level, there is maybe a leak or air bubbles in the cooling system.

[Ronny]

Does low coolant not have an actual icon on the dash?

I just filled it up with Porsche coolant last week... Do I need to add water or is it already mixed in with the Porsche one? If so, how much? 50/50?

[RFM]

You have to mix 50% Porsche coolant 50% water.

[Lee Quave]

Since you filled up lately your coolant may be low due to air in the system. It can take some time for the air to work its way out. Open the bleeder on top of the tank, bring engine up to operating temp then let it cool down enough to open coolant tank to fill to proper level and repeat as needed.

I hope this is all that is wrong. The flashing light was the first indication that I had a serious engine problem. When my light started flashing I check the owner’s manual and found out this was a warning that the coolant was low. I filled the coolant to the proper level, it took almost a gallon, and figure that I had air in the system since I change a coolant hose a few week prior. The warning light started flashing the very next time a drove the car to work and back. I figure that there must be a leak since the car needed as much coolant as the day before but I found no leak. I added more coolant to the tank and notice a gray substance floating on top when I did. It looked like oil. I immediately check the dip stick and found the level very high with a brownish substance on the stick.

I had an intermix problem. I still to this day don’t know what failed but according to the Porsche dealer it was either a failed head gasket or a cracked head. But since doing research I discovered early 996 such as my 99 model it could have also been porous engine or a failed cylinder sleeve.

Hopefully you don’t have the same problem. It cost me about $12,000, below cast according to some sources, to have a “new/remanufactured” engine installed at my Porsche dealer along with removal of the radiators and a complete flush/cleaning of the coolant system. Porsche’s policy at the time as to replace the engine instead of rebuilding but that may be changing according to some in the know.

Good luck,

[Ronny]

I just filled the coolant up... took a good 2 L total of water + coolant. Doesn't look good. Guess I'll keep bleeding/adding it for a week as Loren suggested in earlier threads

The oil was light brown.. Orange/brownish. Is that a bad sign?

I did mix 10W40 with the 0W40 yesterday as I couldn't find any 0W40

Edited July 14, 2007 by Ronny

[Lee Quave]

I just filled the coolant up... took a good 2 L total of water + coolant. Doesn't look good. Guess I'll keep bleeding/adding it for a week as Loren suggested in earlier threads

The oil was light brown.. Orange/brownish. Is that a bad sign?

I did mix 10W40 with the 0W40 yesterday as I couldn't find any 0W40

It sure does sound like you have the dredged intermix problem. Two liters is a lot to add at one time. That’s how it was with mine. Check the coolant tank to see if there is oil floating on top; that’s a sure sign.

Good luck.

[Chuck Jones]

Wait a minute....before you go getting too anxious here...if you're just seeing the level go down with no oil in the water or water in the oil...you could be just seeing the system burping itself. I had a similar thing going and Loren told me to just keep adding a bit of distilled water at a time whenever I'd check it. I checked it several times over the period of a few days...would find the level down a bit....add distilled water....check again later...add a bit more. Eventually, it worked itself out and now it's at a constant level.

As long as you don't see goop on your dipstick, or gunk floating on top of your coolant...you should be ok. Another thing you have to remember is that when you take off your cap to check your coolant level...make sure you seat the cap properly....coolant can leak out through a loose cap. Hopefully this will turn out to be nothing more than the cooling system settling down.

[Lee Quave]

Wait a minute....before you go getting too anxious here...if you're just seeing the level go down with no oil in the water or water in the oil...you could be just seeing the system burping itself. I had a similar thing going and Loren told me to just keep adding a bit of distilled water at a time whenever I'd check it. I checked it several times over the period of a few days...would find the level down a bit....add distilled water....check again later...add a bit more. Eventually, it worked itself out and now it's at a constant level.

As long as you don't see goop on your dipstick, or gunk floating on top of your coolant...you should be ok. Another thing you have to remember is that when you take off your cap to check your coolant level...make sure you seat the cap properly....coolant can leak out through a loose cap. Hopefully this will turn out to be nothing more than the cooling system settling down.

Hey, I have my fingers crossed and I sure hope its not but, the only time I seen light brown/orange colored oil was when my 996 had the intermix problem. When this first happen to me the Porsche dealer said it could be the oil cooler or oil/air separator. One can hope as I did. Two liters is a lot of coolant to add just for air pockets.

I suggest you drain the oil and them you will know for sure.

Best of luck.

[g_j_d]

Wait a minute....before you go getting too anxious here...if you're just seeing the level go down with no oil in the water or water in the oil...you could be just seeing the system burping itself. I had a similar thing going and Loren told me to just keep adding a bit of distilled water at a time whenever I'd check it. I checked it several times over the period of a few days...would find the level down a bit....add distilled water....check again later...add a bit more. Eventually, it worked itself out and now it's at a constant level.

As long as you don't see goop on your dipstick, or gunk floating on top of your coolant...you should be ok. Another thing you have to remember is that when you take off your cap to check your coolant level...make sure you seat the cap properly....coolant can leak out through a loose cap. Hopefully this will turn out to be nothing more than the cooling system settling down.

Hey, I have my fingers crossed and I sure hope its not but, the only time I seen light brown/orange colored oil was when my 996 had the intermix problem. When this first happen to me the Porsche dealer said it could be the oil cooler or oil/air separator. One can hope as I did. Two liters is a lot of coolant to add just for air pockets.

I suggest you drain the oil and them you will know for sure.

Best of luck.

Got the exact same problem on my 2001 911 (63k miles bought new and regularly serviced). Now after 3 months of messing around with Porsche I got their best guess diagnosis today - complete new engine required. The most frustrating thing is that they couldn't diagnose it properly - it seems like a process of elimination by changing parts one after the other in order of expense.... $3k so far (oil cooler, compression checks, leak tests, various oil and radiator things and $13k now for the engine). Quite frankly I would definitely not recommend this car to anyone thinking of buying a sports car - just a quick Google of "996 engine problems" will show how often this problem is cropping up.