Like several people I’ve complained about my gti sounding like a tractor, I’d say sounding like a diesel but that would just be insulting most modern diesels!
http://s296.photobucket.com/albums/mm182/hbuyer2005/vw/?action=view¤t=gtisound.mp4 - link shameless stolen from another post but mine sounded exactly the same, mines black too!
Once the engine was warm on idle it would sound real ruff and that diesel noise wouldn't disappear until doing over 20mph, just so annoying and embarrassing at traffic lights, it was nice and quiet when the engine was cold. My cars a 2005 gti axx engine code. So as everyone said I ordered my cam chain and tensioner and booked it in to my local vw specialist, they'd never heard of the problem before or ever changed one on a mk5 so they ordered the tools in specially that vw recommend to do the job. Dropped the car off 1st thing in the morning, should be ready late afternoon, rang up late afternoon, car not ready - didn't have all the locking tools. Tool ordered from vw be here first thing in the morning. Rang up the next day late afternoon, they'd come across a slight problem. New chain and tensioner fitted but car sounded exactly the same, they'd even taken it off and put it back on again to see if something was not right first time. Chain was as tight as it would go. They'd taken it out for a test drive and everything was fine, power still there, not a problem with it apart from that noise. On closer inspection there was a problem with the camshaft (bent I think), so a new camshaft adjuster kit was ordered (£279.48). Next day that was fitted, got a phone call tea time to say it was ready! Was shown the broken bits and asked if I wanted to keep them when he was explaining it all to me. And the bill..... well they did me a bit of discount as a regularly customer and the cock up of the locking tool, originally it would have just been £300 to replace cam tensioner kit as I supplied the parts and 5 hours labour to fit it, the camshaft adjuster kit cost £279.48 plus 3 hours labour totalling £515.38 so the total bill was £815.38!!!!
And after all that the car is amazing! So quiet on idle, feels more responsive - its like a different car, so happy with it, its how a gti should be. But as my brother in law did point out £815 is a lot of money to fix a rattle