Our water pumps are notorious for breaking. They have a plastic impeller inside which eventually breaks into little pieces because of the heat and pressure. And because of the high-temp nature of our engines, overheating happens quickly and with irrepairable effects.
Its considered wise to replace your pump with one that has a metal impeller inside. I've heard tales of newer Contours having a black plastic impeller that is supposedly not prone to breaking like the older, white plastic one. I have no idea which years/build #'s have the newer pump, but at ~$70 for the metal pump, I'd say just replace it anyway.
Check out the mods section of the website to find the BAT catalog which carries such a pump.
