My car now has a loud tapping noise from the engine bay. Hot or cold its there, and today its got a lot louder. Not lost any power or nothing else seems wrong, but now its loud enough to worry me. Its coming from AROUND the front left at the bottom, and not coming from the cannister.

Any ideas plz?

you got aircon?

If so check the compressor clutch isn't working loose and the nut is tight.

That is of course assuming by bottom left you mean standing infront of the car looking towards windscreen (well the up bonnet)

Thats right mate. I`ll check it tomorrow

Also check the tensioner on the aux belt and if you can't track it down it might be worth getting it checked.

The aux and cam belts are both on that side of the engine IIRC, certainly is on the TDI and both have tensioners that have been known to break up. That plus the water pump falling apart on the 1.8T and other engines could also be a possibility of the noise.

I had the aux belt tensioner on mine go under a month from I bought the car. No warning; it just went and the charge warning light came on.