Water pump OEM FORD or OEM Volkswagen

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.

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.

Turned out to be the water pump

Only main issues I saw were leaking vacuum pumps, valve cover gaskets, pcv leaks (whole valve cover assembly) and water pump sepage.

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.

I was sitting at an In-n-Out drive-in when the low coolant warning dinged. Drove it the 2 mi home while keeping an eye on temps and popped the hood. The overflow tank was 75% empty and there was an apparent leak. By the end of the hour, it was completely dry. Got it towed to the local dealership and it took a day to diagnose and another day to get my car back. I'm grateful it didn't blow during my little road trip.

155k miles - water pump leaking again, gaskets in inlet/outlet pipes need new gaskets, put on aftermarket aluminum water pump in hopes to prevent future leaks.

Then I hear a squeal in the water pump and a few days later it dies a silent steamy death.

I joined the water pump failure club this week in my 2013 GTI. Got lucky and they happened to have one sitting around the dealer...

Had the first water pump replaced 02/13. The coolant warning light went on this week so I made an appointment with my dealer. 25k and on the 2nd replacement water pump.