468 votes
So it turned out to be the water pump. According to the service manager, they've had plenty of TSI engines come through with the same problem and he wasn't surprised about my issue. The repair was covered under the powertrain warranty. I'm happy to have my Tig back.
My water pump just needed replacement as well. I didn't have any visible or audible signs besides the low coolant level alert. The dealer said that this has been a fairly common issue but there is still no recall.
Just got a call from the dealer. Water pump is leaking coolant.
Irregardless of what route you go, just make sure your water pump has a metal impeller and not a plastic one. The plastic one (factory on many VW) chips off and degrades over time causing all kinds of cooling issues.
My 2012 GTI, with only 10.000 miles started leaking coolant, turns out the water pump is bad, it is now sitting at the dealer waiting for the part.
Not Always True I replaced mine after 100k w/ an OEM water pump (plastic). Here I am 2 years later w/ another broken water pump. Now, I'm looking into metal & electric water pump. VW makes a piss poor plastic water pump. I'm very frustrated about having to address this issue again, so soon at $800-$850
I had been hearing a hitch-pitched noise from my engine that almost sounded like a vacuum cleaner about 5-10 minutes after engine start up. Took the car into the dealer to find that it was a water pump failure (as I kind of knew from poking around here). It looks like this is a fairly common issue for 2012's unfortunately, but just a heads up for people as this didn't trigger a CEL or anything.
They also mentioned that the waterpump is leaking really bad and is shot and needs to be replaced.
Turned out to be the water pump
water pump should be changed to metal impeller version at the time of timing belt change
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