Ok...I had a flashing red light on the temp gauge...low coolant right? That's wierd, had my coolant tank and coolant replaced less than 15K miles ago. I have 72K miles on the car. I also have a slightly low oil level, so I decided to top off both fluids and when I opened the oil filler cap, the filler tube had light brown, dried crust on it. Wierd. So I topped off the oikl and went to the coolant. Then I saw on the coolant cap, light brown, oatmeal looking gunk. I filled the coolant tank, and thought uh oh....head gasket? The car is under factory warranty still...thank God. Could it be something else? Car runs PERFECTLY. Fast as the day i bought it, no hiccups. Smooth idle...ideas? I am going to have the dealer look at it soon.

 

UPDATE...spoke to dealer...they say it's an intermix oil/water problem. Cracked cylinder, head gasket, etc....great....well, I'll drop it off in the morning and expect to be without it for the week. Again, at least it's under warranty.

 

Doubt it is head gasket as you would be blowing steam out the tailpipes as you drive. Could be nothing but haveing been screwed my the dealewr whent they changed the coolant tank for you. Change oil and drain and refill collant system. (quite easy) See if it happens again.

If you have never changed your collant, it may look pretty crappy. If the car ghas sat around off and on in humid weather, it is common for a slight brown paste to form at the beginning of the filler tube. Drain the oi yourself and see what it looks like. If there is water in it, you will see it.

 

More than likely it is the oil cooler. I have seen a couple of them now that intermix. If it was a head gasket it would be steaming out of the exhaust. I doubt that it had anything to do with the dealer replacing the coolant tank.
Just curious, how is your car car still under factory warranty? The factory warranty is only good to 50k. Yours has over 70k. Or are you talking about extended warranty?

 

If it is the oil cooler (Oil Water Heat Exchanger) Then you will have to have the new sealing rings installed, or you can do this yourself. However, I would first change oil and replace coolant before trying anthing else. You may have a slight leak in one seal that has taken 70,000 miles to notice and therefore I wouldn't worry about it until a time when you work on the engine for something else.

I doubt whatever it is is a large problem because you do not have any steam out of the tailpipes.

 

I bought the car used from a Porsche dealer, the certified pre owned warranty covers the car up to 100K miles. I have had other cars with Head Gaskets that went and the tell tale signs are the heater not working, and wild temp gauge. Now I don't have either of those signs, so I don't think it's a heag gasket. Also, there is no "gook" on my dipstick...So let's see what the dealer says...