Ed-I will be curious to see the Listees responses.  We have had the same problem going on two years now, ours is an '85 and also an automatic which leads me to wonder if it might be some sort of a a neutral safety switch problem-I assume they have them.  We are the second owners so I don't know if this is the original starter or not.  It does seem to get worse in very hot weather and after driving in hot weather shutting down and restarting before the engine has a chance to cool down.  The grounds have been checked, the battery is fairly new and there is no other obvious reason for this to happen other than something internal to the starter.

Wendy & John
Cape Cod, MA

'85 Westy,   "S-CAPE"
'98 Passat

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