What does a water pump do on a vehicle?

Answer 1

it circulates the coolant in a loop starting at the pump and continuing through your engine block then to your heater core and finaly to your radiator and back to your water pump. the main purpose being to push cool water from your radiator into the engine where it absorbs excess engine heat and then to get that same hot water back to your radiator where it can cool off again. it also makes a side trip through your heater core which is just a mini radiator that is used to send hot air into the interior of the car when you turn your heat on. if your water pump is bad it will usually leak and when you run out of coolant /water your car will overheat.