Q: if my car overheated for the first time today and it's my water pump do I have to be worried about a head gasket

Hello, thank you for writing in. Water pumps can fail for many reasons, and your pump may have built pressure before bursting open. It may also have come loose over time, but either way they are very common place to develop leaks. It was the lack of coolant that lead to the vehicle overheating to begin with. Now that you know the cause, you do want to be concerned with the rest of the cooling system, and your head gasket CAN fail when the vehicle overheats. There is no way to access the head gasket to check it, because once you take off the heads, you must replace the gasket anyway as it is now ruined. You should repair the water pump that you know has failed, and then check that the coolant level is holding. If the coolant is still disappearing, and you cannot see a leak, then the head gasket is likely to blame. For more help with testing or repairing the cooling system, contact our service departmentto schedule an appointment.