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I think the following message (from 'Bonnie') accidentally got posted as a follow-up to a different thread. I'm re-posting it so it'll be more noticeable and maybe we can get Bonnie some help...
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I have a big problem & I need some help. I just spent too much money fixing up my '76 Saab. I love my little car but I haven't driven it in 2 years so it needed some work. Lately, no matter what, I keep losing water from my radiator. But I can't see where it is going. It is not leaking on the ground, so I tried keeping the heat off & still no luck. It is disappearing! Help. I don't have any more money for this car.
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Bonnie, you didn't say which model Saab you have. If it's a 1976 model I'd guess it has to be a 96 or a 99, and it makes a difference because they have different engines and there could be different things causing your disappearing-water problem. It's not necessarily going to be something expensive -- but to find out what needs to be fixed and how expensive it's going to be, you have to figure out where the water is going. In general, I can think of three possibilities:
-- It's leaking out onto the ground. This can happen without your noticing because sometimes it only happens when you're driving, so you don't notice a puddle underneath. Depending on what's leaking, this can be major and expensive or easy and cheap -- I had a leak on my Sonett that I thought was going to require replacing the water pump, but it turned out that the only problem was that the clamp on the hose to the pump had worked loose; all I had to do was tighten it.
-- It's getting into the cylinders where the fuel burns, and going out the exhaust in the form of steam. This can be hard to spot, although white "smoke" from the tailpipe can be a clue. It usually means something pretty bad such as a defective head gasket.
-- It's getting into the crankcase and mixing up with the oil. A tip-off to this might be that if you check the dipstick regularly, the oil level goes up over time rather than staying constant or going down. Oil and water don't mix, so sometimes you can actually see water drops if you look at the oil on the dipstick. Again, the problems that cause this are usually pretty serious, so hope really hard that your problem is from group #1 instead of group #2 or #3!
Once you've got a better handle on where the water might be going, there are probably people here who can give you advice on what to do -- although again, it'll be different depending on whether you have a 96 or a 99, so be sure to specify when you write back. Good luck!
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