Now they say it's a trans bearing or a relay thing.

I don't know much about the relay thing but I did have trouble with my
starter bearing when I first bought my van. It's an easy thing to check.
Simply take off the starter, shine a torch into the starter mounting hole
in the gear box and look at it. It should be round and have about 1mm of
bronze coloured metal visable all round. A slight amount of wear is ok. My
bearing had dissapeared completely and the starter shaft was happyly
chewing its way into the alloy casting which had to be repeared with
catalloy. If it is knackered don't worry since the bearing from a VW dealer
is only about the same price as a can of coke, and simply pushes into
place.

Martin
'82 Aircooled Camper