thewatcher101

The car started to smell like coolant, I can definitely smell it.

No other issues yet, like hard starts, or rear end smoke.

What steps should I take to narrow down where the issue is?

Coolant pressure check, oil analyst, then compression check?

RX8Soldier

iTrader: (24)

^this

Are you noticing your coolant levels dropping?

thewatcher101

It's kinda of really hard to check with the crappy coolant bottle design. I can't even see into it.

In what order are those test best perform?

I am guessing an oil analyst would be 1st. If there is no coolant/water in the oil.

I would go on to check if there was a leak in the cooling system.

I don't see why I would need a compression check.

hoosier1104

iTrader: (2)

I would go simple to most time consuming personally; coolant, compression and then oil. Oil last due to turn around time.