My experience with the loose gas cap was that it took a little while for that to reset. As far as the service light you could get an OBDII code reader and plug it in. On my Cayman the socket in in the footwell of the drivers side under the steering wheel. The code reader will return some code wheich can be looked up.

Once you know that then you'll know what's needed.

 

As was said, you need to read the code, if you are near OP, KS bring the car by I have a code reader and can tell you what the code is for and whether or not it is anything to be concerned about.

 

Most of the time, the CEL is related to exhaust/emission control issues, and it is unlikely you would do any damage driving it 200 miles to get home or to a dealer, especially if the car seems to be running fine. A flashing CEL is more concerning. As others have noted, it sometimes takes restarting the car a few times to clear the CEL from a loose gas cap.

If there is an Autozone or similar place near your location, you can usually get them to read the code for free with their OBD reader; they may not be able to tell you what all the Porsche codes mean, but at least you would have the number to check further (e.g. call a Porsche dealer, etc).

 

If I remember right, I had this same message after my original battery died and I had to replace it. I rode around for a while without any problem and then took the car into my dealer, where I paid a cool $125 for a reset. Nothing else was wrong, except for a number of faults detected when my battery was failing and I had to keep recharging it. "Visit Workshop" is code for "We haven't seen you in a while. It's time for us to take more of your money. If you don't pay, we'll leave this annoying message on your screen."

 

Thanks for the feedback everyone. It's probably not a terrible idea to have a OBDII reader on hand, anyway.

 

My '06CS just started showing this message Friday and otherwise seems to be running just fine. I thought it might be related to the fact that the dealer didn't reset the "service due" message at my last oil change and after 10k more miles the computer elevates this to a higher level? Also could be the gas cap- I will have to remove it and re-tighten, or perhaps my battery as it is the original and was checked off as a watch item at 25k (36k now.). Either way the thread gives me hope this isn't as serious as I feared it may be initially- hope not anyway!

 

I may be missing something here, but if the car is still under warranty why not have the car towed? Would that not be covered under the warranty?