Heading home from Las Vegas last weekend, the water pump on my '03 X5 failed. Of course being a Sunday, no dealers were open, so I had to leave the keys in a drop box and rent a car to get back to LA. Fortunately, BMW replaced the pump and fan belt under goodwill (thanks goes to Danielle the SA and Curtis the manager at Desert BMW of Las Vegas).

I asked them to check the cylinder head and block for warping, but it doesn't sound like they got to that. How do I know if there was any damage to the engine from the overheating? Will the engine just lose compression, or could it be more subtle than that (like higher wear that won't be immediately obvious)? Also, have the OEM replacement parts switched over to metal impellers or I am just going to have this problem again (and again)?

And for the record, has anyone here experienced a water pump failure earlier than this? 43k miles is really ridiculous. Especially when you're in the middle of Las Vegas trying to get home on a sweltering July Sunday.