Steam coming off engine

[STEVEG]

We went to the Lake District for a run today, before we left I checked oil, water ,tyre pressures...
One the way back, driving up the twisty bits towards Alston my wife wanted to take some photos at the top of the hill. we stopped and I noticed steam coming from the rear spoiler vents, I opened the engine hatch it was a bit hot...
The water fluid level had dropped to just above minimum, and temperature on the dash water temp gauge was between 80 and next mark above, usually it stays on 80'ish..
I have never seen or heard the fan under the rear spoiler working.. does everything seem normal to you?
You can feel is quite a bit of heat from the back end when you walk around it after a run but steam coming thru vents is a first...

[Martin & Kim 6853]

I've seen that steam!!, I had a leak from the rads (I know that's not your problem) so had to keep topping the water up. After the first time of seeing steam I took a bit more care in case I spilled and it just heated off. The only conclusion I came to was that when it got really hot it kind of burped from the overflow and either burnt of from the engine heat or puddled on the floor.
Glad you said you've never seen the fan under the boot lid working, nor have I. When I had a hot problem in Laon we lifted the lid on a mates 996 turbo and the fan was fair whizzing round. Have had mine checked but OPC assures me all is ok.
I then discovered some how the bleed valve on the top of the filler had gone into the lifted position and diagnosis was steam was coming from that bleeding/ vent valve.

[Sean Smallman]

The cap on the filler bottle can fail.

[TTX50]

Another reasonably common possibility is a cracked coolant reservoir? Had it on mine.