I haven't ever seen this happen. Water pump story
 

My friend was driving back from a car show. Water Pump gave out on him. This is what he found. Mind you this is a China manufactured chrome pump he purchased new a long time ago.
The casting failed and the whole thing let loose. Good news it the total cost, minus the towing bill, was a replacement water pump and the antifreeze.
Life happens at the intersection of hard work, talent and luck.
This was the luck part.

He was in fifth gear cruising about 1500rpm when it let loose.
Cheers

Re: I haven't ever seen this happen. Water pump story
 

Bet that made a helluva bang. Funny how it went from no leak to total failure. That could have been way worse of an outcome. Good to hear the result was pretty tame.

Re: I haven't ever seen this happen. Water pump story
 

Never have seen that either. What a mess.

Re: I haven't ever seen this happen. Water pump story
 

Sure looked purty, though.... right up until it detonated. Dang! Glad it wasn't a worse outcome.

Re: I haven't ever seen this happen. Water pump story
 

I pulled up to a store (fortunately next to an Autozone)…smelled coolant when I got out of the truck, lifted the hood and there was green coolant all over the place…I checked the hoses, connections, etc., and found nothing. Went into Autozone and got hosed buying a gallon of pre-mix coolant; the radiator took the whole gallon…cranked her up and looked for leaks…nothing. Got home, figured I needed to replace the water pump, took the old one off and you could actually hear it grind when I rotated the shaft…that pump MIGHT have lasted anther 10 miles before imploding.

Re: I haven't ever seen this happen. Water pump story
 

Lol… I just went through that about a month ago. Water pump, fan, fan-shroud, upper and lower pulley, radiator, Etc $1000.

Re: I haven't ever seen this happen. Water pump story
 

^ Yeeouch! That really sucks. One of my uncles had that happen while traveling. Nobody needs that kind of aggravation.

Re: I haven't ever seen this happen. Water pump story
 

How tight was the belt!?!? Just kidding...

Re: I haven't ever seen this happen. Water pump story
 

DA71Grande
Was your a new China pump?

The same thing happened to my Chevelle years ago. Newly rebuilt pump i.e. less than two weeks old. The housing cracked. I am sure it happened when the rebuilder pressed the pump's bearing into the housing.
They warranted the pump. The fan, fan clutch and radiator all had to be replaced by me.

Re: I haven't ever seen this happen. Water pump story
 

years ago my toyota hilux, sent my fan thru the radiator on the freeway, turns out the fan clutch let go at the shaft and there went my fan!! i felt a huge boost in power. lol never realized the fan clutch choked so much horsepower. lol

Re: I haven't ever seen this happen. Water pump story
 

I had something similar happen to me, but at high rpm. Discovered I had not installed the bushing for the center of the fan clutch and it was just enough off balance that at high rpm it broke the snout of the water pump off.

Re: I haven't ever seen this happen. Water pump story
 

I didn’t see any type of markings on it so it probably was.

Re: I haven't ever seen this happen. Water pump story
 

My response after reading your post was going to be "Count your friend lucky that it didn't take out the radiator". Then I read all the posts and now you know he was lucky. Just the pump, no other damage. I guess the seal was still good :cool:

The old saying, "Chrome won't get you home", sure played out here