Well...just had to have my car towed back home as it looks like the toothed belt/toothed belt tensioner has had enough and completely given up. Was doing 25mph up a small incline and a sudden grinding sound accompanied by total loss of power, thought oh no clutch has gone as I can't engage gears, but tried to start the engine and again a grinding coming for the camshafts, oh dear. The belt and tensioner weren't due to be replaced for another 10,000 miles, no warning at all at was given that the belt was about to give, the car felt slighty more sluggish than I expected but nothing a bit of crappy fuel wouldn't cause. So it certainly sounds like there's damage to the head at least but won't know if a whole rebuild is needed until it has been stripped, or even better a whole new engine !
![Sad :(](./images/smilies/icon_sad.gif)
i've lost count of the number of problems this car has had now, I love it to bits but it is incredible the amount of serious problems that each and every gti seems to encounter at one point or another.
I had the belt and tensioner checked over only a few thousand miles ago and it was fine, my advise is not to trust the tensioner/belt for any more than 40,000 miles
![Rolling Eyes :roll:](./images/smilies/icon_rolleyes.gif)