HELP! Big 750iL Coolant Leak! Water Pump? (archive)

Help. I drove my '90 750iL (124k) this this afternoon for about 10 miles without incident.
Several hours later, I got back to my car and started it up, but it hesitated (rough idle), and the power steering worked only intermittently. I backed out and found a rather large puddle of coolant.

I stopped, opened the hood, and found coolant spraying up from the front of the motor. I can't tell what the actual source of the leak was, but it was dripping down onto the drive belts, which in turn were spraying the coolant every which way. I gather the slipping drive belts were the cause of the intermittent power steering and hesitant idle.

I stopped the motor, and carefully opened the surge tank cap to inspect the level (the coolant temp was at less than 1/4). Upon doing this, the pressure change in the system caused whatever is leaking to pour another half gallon or so on to the pavement.

The car is undriveable, so I'm going to have to tow it home or to the shop.

So, does this sound like a water pump? What are the possibilities here?

Thank you very much in advance for your helpful suggestions.

Jason Ferguson

Follow Ups:

Thanks to everyone for your responses Jason R. Ferguson 13:54 4/08/2001 (0)
HELP! Big 750iL Coolant Leak! Water Pump? Nishi 23:24 4/07/2001 (0)
Re: HELP! Big 750iL Coolant Leak! Water Pump? Bryan 22:58 4/07/2001 (0)
Re: HELP! Big 750iL Coolant Leak! Water Pump? Tony V. 19:41 4/07/2001 (0)

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