Drove for 23 miles with NO WATER PUMP!!?!?!?!

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Forgive and spelling or grammar mistakes, im very shook up.

INSANE:
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1990 Mazda protege 1.8 DOHC motor. I picked up this old Mazda that only has 54K miles on it. The PO put a new alternator in it but the charge light sometimes would flash randomly. ANYWAY

On a drive home tonight on a long and dark stretch of the long island expressway the light comes on and stays lit. I pay no mind as this happened once before and i changed the belt and put in a new alternator and the light would still come on from time to time, new battery too. Again, ANYWAY.

I make it home and notice the headlights dim down. I get out and open the hood and the alt/water pump belt is GONE! GONE!

I then realize i just drove over 20 miles with no water pump. I think "that is it the head is gone" But the thing is this, the temp gauge never went up, i look around under the hood and see a crack in the tube to the over flow, i see some coolant had sprayed all out a bit, im thinking the head is gone, motor done.

I then say to my self. The gauge never went up because the was no water moving at all the sensor must be some place that did not get super hot. And RIP to this car

with a huge rag i crack the radiator cap, no huge steam blow out! Then I pop a new belt on, the charge light goes off and the temp still stays in the middle. I shut the car down, and look for oil in the coolant and vice versa, NOTHING. No smoke, or steam and the car runs exactly the same. I drove the car a few miles and it never overheats, no steam or oil mixing or anything, no loss of power.
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QUESTION, HOW IS THIS REAL, HOW DID THE CAR NOT DIE? How did the head gasket or head itself not blow? Will it still blow down the road? How did the car survive this? It was 70f degrees out tonight and i drove like 70 miles and hour FOR TWENTY SOMETHING MILES WITH NO WATER PUMP. Its unreal.

It might just be waiting to blow tomorrow? Its so insane.
 
Maybe it was loose and slipping but didn't fall all the way off until closer til you stopped.

Maybe it's over engineered and the air cooling was enough to keep it alive
 
maybe, i just went now for a drive, its late now so little traffic and the temp never went up, car drives fine, i got home and check oil it was fine no milk or scum, but i did hear bubbles and gergaling sounds from the radiator, that i never heard before.

i have no idea anymore. So crazy
 
little traffic and ur engine insulation is good could be the factor.

i had experience like this in one of my dad's diesel truck. it could drive around 20-30 miles when we are in texas.
 
i just used a block tester, the one where the blue fluid turns yellow, i pumped and pumped and it stayed blue till it sucked up some coolant.
 
Light load, lots of air flow around the engine, some convection flow with the coolant.

Looks like you dodged the bullet.

I use to ride air cooled motorcycles, all they had were a few cooling fins and a bit of slop in the tolerances. They ran fairly cool at cruising speed, it was heavy traffic or slow sandy trails that pushed the heat up.
 
Are you certain that the V-belt actually drives the water pump?

Many engines have a water pump that is driven by the TIMING belt, and a pulley cover that routes the v-belts to the alternator, AC, and PS. E.G the Toyota 3.0 3VZE V-6.

I'll wager your water pump is NOT driven by the broken belt, despite appearances, and is, in fact, driven by your timing belt.
 
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Mazda BP water pumps are driven by a V belt...or multirib, not the cambelt anyway. They can be tough, or not.
 
Yes, you were lucky!

Was most of your driving was on the highway/highway speeds?
OR, were you driving continuously(even slowly) without stopping?

There was probably enough air coming through the radiator to keep the engine cool and the cooling fan probably WOULD NOT have come on anyway during this kind of driving!

I don't think you hurt anything. I would suggest that you try to get the air out of your cooling system as this [MAY] cause some over heating OR...cause your TEMP Gauge to act erratically!

Some cooling systems are amazing. You may have one of them!
 
95% of the driving was at 50-70 mph, only a few stop signs towards the end i blew past around 15-20mph as I was sensing something was drastically wrong (roads were deserted, rare for this part of Long Island) and one traffic light that might have been 1-2min
 
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Originally Posted By: Why_Anything
... but i did hear bubbles and gurgling sounds from the radiator, that i never heard before.

...


Did you check the quantity in the radiator? You're probably losing coolant through that cracked return hose...which should be replaced asap.
 
Two explanations exist:

A) a complex miracle of thermodynamics coupled with perfect environmental conditions.

B) the water pump was still turning.

Everyone here is buying into A.

Hogwash.

Rock Auto sells a timing belt/water pump kit for your car: 1990 Protege DOHC water pump

Because your water pump is driven by the timing belt. Making your title inaccurate, along with the rest of the posts. Search YouTube, or the web, for how to replace your water pump. Pictures and videos prove my point.

You drove 26 miles without an ALTERNATOR. That's it. No miracle happened.
 
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I cant explain it but be thankful it seems to be ok. It seems it is driven by the alternator belt not the timing belt so yep it was not turning if the belt was gone.

 
Look closely at part 16. It's labeled "idler". That's a separate pulley, which...

Drives the water pump!!!
 
Dude, enough. On this motor the water pump and alternator runoff the main crank pulley with a belt. I have done the timing belt in this motor the 1.8 dohc motor.
 
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