hummerston

Okay so I know most times burning of coolant is caused by a bad intake mani. gasket...right?
But I had it checked and i was told the gasket is fine. A friend mentioned a theory to me that could make sense... but im wondering if its possible...
The theory is that maybe my coolant temp sensor is shot , because it spikes up to around 110 , sometimes up to 130 and stays there , i attempt to park the car and let it idle to bring the temp down , even shut the car off completely and let it drop down to almost 50 , often times goes back up to 90 , and stays there , but after a bit of time passes it rises back up. So taking that into consideration , maybe the car is then forcing more coolant into the engine thinking its overheating and buring it , therefor causing the smell of burning coolant and the constant lowering level of the coolant.
Can someone please help me out on this , maybe mention a new theory and/or tell me if this is possible?

cheeba

Your theory is invalid - the cooling system doesn't work that way.

If the coolant is being burned inside the engine, then it is getting into the cylinders, and it's almost guaranteed to be the head-gasket. Are you positive that the coolant is not just leaking onto the exhaust manifold? Do you have coolant in your oil, or oil in your coolant? Is the burnt coolant coming out of the tail-pipe? If so, it's time to get a compression/leak-down test done, and likely pull the head for a new gasket.

hummerston

no , no oil in coolant or coolant in oil. Yeah its being expelled from the exhaust , and if it was a head gasket then would that be the cause of the random temp changes ?, because i thought that it would just get really hot and stay there , my gauge just randomly shoots up to 110 , recently its going right up to 130 and staying there , then i pull over and put it in park and its slowly cools back down to around 90. and often times when i park the car shut it off , and maybe 5-10 mins later i come back out and start the car the temp is above 110 , when the car was shut off it rose up from 90- 110. im so confused with this , but thanks for the advice cheeba.

cheeba

Regardless of what your temps are doing, if you're burning coolant it's likely coming from the head-gasket. No one can diagnose your car over the internet - you need to get some actual data. I also would not be driving the car, because if coolant is getting into your oil, you'll trash the engine.

Since they are notorious for going bad, I would replace the CTS with a green-top version anyway. It's not very clear what you mean about the temps fluctuating, but if you turn the car off, it's always going to slowly cool down.

voodooca

How much coolant are we talking about?
Is your resivor down constantly?
How much are you adding and how often?

Chad

hummerston

ummm from the max line , itll be down to just below the min line after about 3-4 hours of driving , so it lasts me about a week , its been like this for about a week anda half , at first it went through almost a full tank of coolant in a day or 2 , now its not as bad for some reason. and whenver it gets just below the min line i fill it up to just above max.

voodooca

Wow... thats moving some coolant...

I found this writeup about the turbo possibly leaking - I dont know if this is possible or not but I was just trying to find stuff online about coolant going missing and having it NOT be gasket related... it does not look promising for you.

Do you notice any coolant from the heater core inside the car by any chance...?

Chad

hummerston

nope , its all being burnt through the exhaust im sure. it smells from the engine bay , and from the tailpipe , thanks for the advice man , i appreciate it. In a way im hoping its a gasket , id rather it be something that is straight forward and be fixed in one visit lol.