Potential problems?

[fr0 masta j]

So it was a warm day, so I popped open my hood today to take a peek at my vitals, the last i checked was 3000 miles ago.

My coolant was near max level, and now it is brown in color...and below the min level.
And I have burned off nearly a quart of oil it according to my dipstick (using synthetic).

Those are bad things i assume? Any input?

[Red Lion]

^It's funny, synthetic is supposed to help fight burn-off, but I get a lot of it using Royal Purple. Samir suggested using a different weight of oil.

The brown in your coolant is most likely rust, perhaps from the radiator somewhere or from a pipe?

[carfreak67]

A change in coolant color can be a very bad sign.
Something, somewhere may be amiss.

It's funny how I hear that people's VQs use oil since mine is just about right on the money every time I change mine.
I had been using Mobil1 before I started hearing about the wear problems it has with the VQ so I switched to the Valvoline 10w30 full synthetic.

I hate it when my car's fluids are not the color they are supposed to be.
It bugged the heck out of me that my brake fluid had gotten a little dark until I did a major flush of the whole system.

[Turbo_U13Man]

Yeah man! I'd flush your radiator and change ure coolant and do an oil change! I always check my car regularly, maybe once a week just to be safe! I use Castrol Edge oil, seems to be good quality! Also I've heard if you put new coolant in and you use a different kind and there's still some old coolant left in your engine it can chemically react and turn to acid, something to keep in mind!