It had a birthday and turned 100k. But now the problems have started. On the way home I noticed the temperature gauge pegged into the red. I was almost home when it did this so I drove it the final extra mile. Well I'm assumming the thermostat is stuck shut until I pop the hood and discover that my radiator has no water in it. So now i'm either thinking that my water pump is out or I have no clue what it is. All I know is for the past month or so my pulleys have been making a weird noise so i'm assumming it'* the pump. Also one other complaint. How low on coolant do I have to be before the check gauges add coolant light comes on. I'm a little disappointed cause mine didn't work. The only thing that happened was the check gauges light came on once it was in the red.

You drove it "the final" mile all right.
You're bad.
That temp gauge is not like your boost gauge.

Hopefully you didn't fry something.
Water pumps either work or they fail by loosing a bearing or seal.
Belts make noise if they have been cooked. Change them first to rule this out.

I don't know how the engine detects low coolant level. Where is the sensor?....or is there some sort of algorithm....

More importantly, where did all your coolant go? Better check your crankcase.

Crap... good luck with that man :(

I think all it is really is just the colant temp sensor that runs that gauge...I don't think that there is a coolant level sensor or light??? I could be wrong? I'll look when I fire up in the morning.

The book says there is a low coolant level light. The only one that came on during my overheating was the check gauges light which was suggesting the coolant temperature gauge which by this time was pushing 250 degrees.

I doubt that you did any real damage but let the system cool and top off and run it without the rad cap on make sure that you can see the coolant circulating in the radiator, check your belts, and check the water pump pulley with the car running and look for any type of vibration or wobbling from the water pump pulley, my 2 cents...

2 more cents....i'm sure you've been around the club long enough to hear of this, but its not the throttle body gasket or plastic elbow on the accessory side of the engine is it?

I've had both of those fail and dump lots of water....
I did have a low coolant light come on long before the engine got hot.

Well I checked the oil today and found no evidence of water in the crankcase. So I proceeded to fill the radiator with water and started the car. Well I get running and start looking for leaks and all of a sudden it starts pouring out the side of the water pump. So now I know what I need to do. How hard is the water pump to replace? I have the factory service manuals so it shouldn't be too bad i'm hoping.

Electric water pump???
I've been wanting to see one of these on a series 1 since the summer.
The gaskets are the same and i'll take as many measurements of my w/p as you want.
It might be too pricey but i just thought i'd throw that out there.
Just lemme know.

my dad ghetto replaced his water pump in his 95 se in like 1 hour. one bolt wouldnt come off so he power chiseled it off then had to chisel off the same part on the new pump and wedge it in there. so technicaly it could fall off at anytime, but it must be in their good.