One problem related to water pump has been reported for the 2002 Volkswagen GTI. The most recently reported issues are listed below.
I was driving down the road and I heard a loud beeping noise and looked at my dashboard to see that a red light was flashing and my car was over heating at max temp. . Car was towed to dealership and was found to have a "defective" water pump. I was without a car for 2 days, yippie.