Bad leak, checked everything p, used dye test, winter

[dragonfly12]

Hi All, I would greatly appreciate advice in my unique situation. TIA.
I have a 20 x 40 inground pool with a vinyl liner. It has a set of steps on the side and at the end of the pool. My pool is leaking a huge amount of water per day. I cannot give you an exact number because rain has been off and on; but during the times of no rain it is at about 4 to 8 inches in 24-36 hrs. I tried testing multiple times to determine if the leak was faster with the pump on or off but I never could definitively tell because rain kept interfering. I do seem to think though that it leaked less when the pump was running. It seems that way to me. However, it has leaked well beyond that point now. I have done dye tests multiple times to try to find a leak and cannot locate one. The water has now drained down to about a foot below the jets and of course below the skimmers. The pool liner around the four skimmers at the side steps is very loose, and I can feel lots of air under it. The two jets in the shallow end on each side of the pool, and the one jet and the deep end are loose right around the jet openings themselves, but not further out. Water is now at the top of the second step on the side and front steps. It is only about an inch down on the light right now.. Die around the light does not seem to pull in anywhere near the light. It is, of course, winter. It seems to continue to leak, and I am not sure if I should wait until spring when a new liner will be installed with adequate temperatures or if I must pay a leak detection company to come out and check everything and patch any leaks or fix any problems. I do have a large tear in the liner, but it is above the fill line of the pool. The liner came out of track in a small space in tore a large hole before I could get someone here to put it back in. That is sealed off and is definitely not leaking, and water does not go that far up anyways. However, I am selling my house , or trying to; and I’m giving an allowance for a new pool liner (due to the aesthetics of the tear patch) to whomever buys the house. I do not want to spend $600 plus cost to a leak detection company and have them repair, plus $300 of water to refill it, just to give $6000 to the buyer of the house when it sells (who will have the liner replaced anyway). I am in Alabama so very few people here ever winterize and close their pool. I have handled everything with the pool myself for five years now and had multiple issues that I’ve resolved. However, this is the first time I’ve had a severe leak like this, I don’t know if the pool will continue to leak even more until there’s no water in the shallow end soon, but I was not sure if it was safe to let the water keep continuing to drain because I’ve heard about walls, collapsing and such things.

[Teapot1]

Hmm a conundrum, I doubt you would lose all the water as liners shrink a bit as the water empties and can close up a leak as the liner shrinks. So leave for now and monitor is what I would do. If you have a high water table or are on a hill, you obviously need to take more care and may need to add some water to stabilise the structure.