After the fan was wobbling about anywhere and the coolant shot out last night without warning, when taking out the waterpump to investigate I found what I think are the bearings outside the casing. There were little tiny rods of metal, and the shaft does not seem to be broken (I assumed it had snapped). Is this a common problem?

Also ar there markings on the casings to identify if the pump are genuine or not, or how to identify which aftermarket it could be?

Unfortunately it was chewed up the plastic fan. Luckily it looks like the rad was spared.

The dirty one is genuine, the OEM replacement isn't much different so no markings to say which is which.
I replaced my discos pump due to the bearing failing and supprised to see the original it was so clean inside after 14+ years.

discool said:

The dirty one is genuine, the OEM replacement isn't much different so no markings to say which is which.
I replaced my discos pump due to the bearing failing and supprised to see the original it was so clean inside after 14+ years.

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Don't believe there's any such thing as an oem pump. L/Rover get them from whoever at the time of build.