water pump dead???

the other day my temp gauge started to read that it was over heating then suddenly dropped then back up again then back to normal ,so i put it down to a fault with the gauge . now this morning on my way home the car started to fill with steam and i put that down to a fooked heater matrix so i got a bit of pipe to bypass the heater matrix . when i bypassed the matrix i noticed that there was no water going through the pipes so ran to temp still nothing took top hose off the rad and it was bone dry

checked the thermostat it doesnt open in boiling water but ran it with out the thermostat and the pipes are still dry only thing i can think of is an air lock or water pump is there any other things i can check ?

thanks andy

Take you front grill off and check that you have still got fins in the radiator.

take your belt off the pulley and see if there is any play in the bearing to the water pump, mine sheered off last week :doh:, better to be safe than be sorry. also take your 2 plastic filler plugs out and top up system (300tdi can hold 11.5 L or 2.53 gallon) and keep redoing this until you cant fit anymore coolant in the filler plugs start her up and check if the water in header tank is staying level, if so stop engine and check filler plugs are still topped up, does this solve your prob? let me know Ian

thanks for the replays guys the water pump is fine but think the temp gauge might be faulty and the thermostat is defo fooked as is the heater matrix. i was driving around with a mobile sauna but have bypassed the matrix and is fine now