Bearing wear (due to normal friction) or hardening of seal (also normal).
Water pumps bearings move so they wear out like all other moving parts in your car eventually will. The seal is made of rubber (really good rubber) so it will eventually harden and shrink and fail.
Things that are likely to contribute to early failure of water pump:
-Old or contaminated anti-freeze.
-Overtightened belt (assuming water pump is belt driven).
-Excessively high speed operation (as from prolonged high speed driving, improper transmission shifting, lots of hard acceleration.
-Pump wasn't well made.
-Excessive vibration (from old multi-V belt or engine or belt-driven things.)
yes and no, if the water pump seals are bad antifreeze will leak from the weep hole on the water pump, but it is possible for the pump to go bad and not leak at all.
yes and no. depends on what you mean by "bad" the bearings can go out in it but it will still move water keeping engine cool but making a heck of a racket.
I presume you mean car water pump? If the water pump is faulty the car will over heat and the temperature gauge will go up. Make sure that there is enough coolant in the radiator, the radiator or the hose pipe is not leaking and the radiator cap is not faulty, as all of these faults can cause overheating. Once you have excluded these then you can blame the water pump.
The use of regular water creates sediments and bad function of the water pump bearing.
it get rusted
Bad fuel Pump? Bad fuel pump relay? Plugged fuel filter?
The alternator is belt driven and so is the water pump but that is where the correlation ends. There is no way a bad alternator could cause a water pump to go bad unless the alternator pulley was warped. Then there is a small chance.
Yes. A pump does not have to leak to break down
Probably not in the context you had in mind. If the thermostat is constantly open, however, it can cause the water pump to run excessively or even continuously, and that'll cause the pump to wear out faster.
yeah go for it
the timing belt can cause a water pump to go bad if the belt is on too tight, because that will put stress on the bearings making it wear out rather quickly.
if you are talking about the weep hole in the water pump. that hole will let water out when the seals in the water go bad. that will tell you to get the water pump replaced.