I just bought my second VW (first was a Golf of the same year), and upon completing the nearly two hour drive home, I shut the car off, and still heard a noise. So I poped the hood, and listened intently. It sound like a mechanical humming accompanied by a hissing and gurgling. I hypothesised that it was the water pump running, so to confirm my theory that is was indeed mechanical, I disconected the negative battery terminal. The sound stoped. When I reconected the battery, the sound did not resume. Then I turned the car on and off, and the sound came back, exactly like before. So this time I waited, and after about
10-15 minutes, it turned itself off. My theory is that the water pump continues to run (off battery or alternater) until either, 1)The engine is sufficiently cooled, or 2) in the case of it running off of the alternater, the alternater runs out of juice. Thoughts? Did I just spend 3,500 on a car tat is about to incur major repair bills?