Yesterday I had my oil changed for the first time since I purchased the car (only 34k miles on car -- bought it with 29k). No big deal, I had the shop order the correct filter, changed and installed with no problem along with 9-QT's of fresh Mobil-1. They told me to run by Porsche and get the Porsche brand coolant since the level on mine was at the min.-marking in the reservoir.

Went to run an errand this morning (and to go get the coolant), the check engine light came on. I quickly went to the dealership and purchased the coolant and asked for a service appointment. The service advisor told me it could not be the coolant, but it could be any number of things (e.g. dipstick was not replaced well enough, gas-cap loose, oil-cap lid not replaced correctly, etc. -- basically anything that involves the emissions). I am taking it in tomorrow and for ONLY $120 they will hook up the computer and tell me what they think is wrong...

My question is, how is the check engine light in my car set-up? If the problem is corrected will the light turn itself off, or do they have it set-up so that it will remain on until they turn it off?

All thoughts and help is appreciated!

 

Make sure all the items you mention are tightly in place, then if you disconnect the battery the ECU will reset itself... just make sure that you have the radio code. If you fixed the problem and the light stays off... no worries. If the light comes back on you will need to visit the dealer.

 

Thanks Sloth --

I had already checked everything, added the coolant, but the light was still on. I came up here, read your message, ran down unhooked & waited 60-sec -- and viola!

*only problem is that I was a little overzealous on adding the coolant/water. Filled it up too high and when I went for a drive to test it out and as the coolant heated up it expanded. Now it is leaking slowly via the overflow. Is this a big deal????

 

Wait and see if the light comes back on, if it does I would bring it in for a check. You could always use a turkey baster to siphon out excess coolant from the reservoir... once it cools down of course.

 

Now the car is shooting all of the coolant/water through the overflow valve -- NOT GOOD...

Having it towed to the dealership to see what is wrong...

Any ideas what it could be?

 

It sounds like you simply overfilled the coolant reservoir. After realizing that you overfilled it, the best solution (as Sloth suggested) was to take off the extra coolant... not test drive it!

Your coolant system has an overflow reservoir and what I believe is called a pressure-relief valve. Although I don't fully understand the function of this valve, I do know that some people drive around with it open all the time.

It sounds to me like you just need to let the car cool down and siphon off the excess. I hope the reservoir and release valve were enough to pop off the excess... meaning I hope you didn't blow a hose.

You probably fixed the check engine light by going through the "tighten" checklist.

 

After spending the weekend at the dealer, I got the car back late last night -- (after spending $150 for the tow & $750 for parts/labor). They found that the reservoir had a small leak, they had to replace the part. The dealer said they only see a few of these instances happen a year -- guess being a 99', it was just time for something to go wrong...

Thanks to everybody who left suggestions.

Tim