Squuze the upper hose when thermo is closed. You will feel water circulating when thermostat is open. If it is circulating you are ok. Not much can go wrong internally, they either leak or the bearings go out which make noise but you can see or hear that..
It is rare for a water pump not to work however a water pump going bad will leak coolant and can be noisy from bad bearings.
It will leak if it is broken
If it is stealing stuff.
what if my top radiator hose is very hot and the bottom hose is cold,would that be a bad water pump?
In most cases the water pump will start to leak coolant when it is going bad.
It is important to know the symptoms of when a car part goes bad. The symptoms of a bad auto water pump are overheating, weeping, and grinding gears.
If it is leaking water, it is bad.
Noisy, leaking from the weep hole on the bottom of the pump, or engine overheating.
You will see coolant leaking around the water pump, your car will overheat.
you would need a tool which is called a pressure tester, if you see a leak from the water pump during the test then your water pump is bad and need to be replaced a.s.a.p
That hole is called a "weep hole". When the water pump goes bad, water will leak out of it. If you plug it, you won't know when the pump goes bad.
In most cases the bearing goes bad and makes noise then a coolant leak soon develops. most vehicles have what is called a weep hole on the water pump. if the pump goes bad it will leak.