If I'm honest, not noticed any real noise with the car until the other day, took the wife shopping and whilst she popped into the shop I was parked between 2 other cars with the engine idling. Opened the window to let some air in and noticed a noise when she was running, not easy to describe, but sort of grating, intermittent rattling, not to loud, but noticable enough from what is normally a quiet little engine.

 

after call to local VW dealer and lots of money spent on order parts and then a few hours in the garage..........I have a bench full of lots of removed bits to get to the dreaded water pump.

 

The person / s  that designed many things on this twin charger were to put it bluntly..... f'in idiots, in 25 years of tinkering with all makes of cars I have never come across the mess that this engine is when you need to access / fix something. Some things are just plain WTF.....!!!

 

The bench of bits and a little video of the rattling culprit.

 

 

 

Edited 9 December, 20214 yr by UrbanPanzer

This was the faulty part  vid above ^^ when mine was losing coolant, had excessive play and yes there was a weird noise as well very noticeable on idle 

I think the water pump pulley is "to far out" from the mounting surface, which almost from day one promotes wear and eventual failure, add to that the constant force applied on and off all the time with the super charger clutch and pulley engaging,

it's not really up to the job "imo"......hence failures at low mileage.