If my water pump went out on the freeway going a hundred miles an hour what damage is likely to have occured

Question

If my water pump went out on the freeway going a hundred miles an hour what damage is likely to have occured

Answer 1

It depends what you mean by water pump going out, did it lock up, did it loose a seal and start leaking, did the impellor come off, did the drive pulley come off?

Most likely there is no damage, unless you overheated it

Answer 2

Well unless you threw it into neutral and then immediuately killed the engine you would probably instantly overheat the engine causing massive internal failure such as a spun bearing or thrown rod, either of which means big money. And if the water pump actually fails into peices remember the water pump is usually right in the middle of the accessory drive and will most likely damage the serpentine belt or other accessories(alternator, a/c compressor, power steering pump), and at 100mph+ that spells disaster.

Answer 3

Nothing.

The speed has nothing to do with the damage to the engine, But, on the other side, the faster you went the more air was coming to cool the engine.

Water pump failure means no refrigeration and an engine that will soon overheat. Was it summer? winter? how long did you drive w/out the pump?

Did you check the engine temp?

Answer 4

HI

It could be minimal to catastrophic.

it could just go out and leak all the water out. or it could come apart and take out the radiator  even cut a hole in your hood with the fan blades.

Good Luck

Tim

Answer 5

If your engine did not overheat, there would be no damage except the water pump and possibly a fan belt if it seized up.

Most likely if you stopped in a reasonable time, you are OK. If your engine did overheated, it could have caused all kinds of damage like the head warping and stuff.