Originally Posted by
Waterlogged
If the pump still runs, it's not the electronics, and the electronics certainly wouldn't cause a vibration.
Here's my theory...somehow, air got into the loop and vapor locked the pump causing either the bearing (white ball) or the mating part of the impeller to over heat and deform. Considering the bearing is ceramic, I'm guessing that isn't the weak link, more likely the mating piece in the impeller. The bearing likely transferred it's heat into the surrounding stainless steel as did the mating part until the stainless could no longer shed the heat it was getting and that's when failure occurred.