I was on the way to work yesterday and I noticed the engine temperature climbing towards the red zone. Hey, it never gets even close to half way, so must be something going on.
I pulled over by a parking lot next to my normal Mini garage (a Rover dealer) and the steam started to come out from under the hood even before I got out of the car. By the grill I could see brown dirty radiator water coming out on the right side. I opened it up and thought for sure the radiator was blown or maybe a hose. The water got all over the fan belt and was thrown all over under the hood. I checked the water level in the radiator (careful, it is under pressure and hot) but plenty of water so it was not leaking there. Turns out the water pump blew up on me.
I let it cool down a bit and was able to drive it over to the garage itself for repairs, about 100m away. They were really great (Damon & Kroes in s-Hertogenbosch), even brought me home so I could take our other car to work.