Water pump seized, destroyed alternator belt

[Ron Jefferson]

Has anyone ever seen this happen? I was out looking for a vehicle for work and noticed a awful smell and saw my temp gauge rising. I pulled off as quick as I could popped the hood and saw my alt belt was broke. Well I got a ride to a local parts store, got a new belt and had it up and running in about a half hour. Well started up, the belt was just spinning on the water pump, was turning it at all, just smoking and spinning. Any ideas? I ordered a new water pump to be safe but I'm looking for any insight on how the hell this happened. Thanks guys.

 

[Maple191]

With the belt off can you turn the water pump by hand. Usually they make a hell of a noise before completey being siezed.

 

[Ron Jefferson]

Yeahs it not moving. It did squeak like crazy this morning. Guess the bearing went and gtfo of there in a hurry. Easy fix. Thanks.

 

[Poodles]

Running only water?

They usually make noise for some time before failing, so something is weird...

 

[Zumtizzle]

happened to my dad once. get a new water pump.

 

[Ron Jefferson]

It was some weird sh!t lol. I put a new pump on last night. Cars running fine. Have no idea what locked it up but just happy its running good now.

 

[Dan_Gyoba]

Had a cheaper aftermarket water pump on my GE (for about 6 hours) where one of the blades on the pump hit the water channel in the lower timing cover. Stopped the pump dead on my drive home. Zero warning, just the alternator belt went BANG. I stopped the car before the temp needle even blipped. Took that pump back to the place I bought it, and bought an OEM one.