Forgive me,i am a keen Bugger,,,but. I also have a beetle, it made a horrible whining noise like a morris minor when i changed down a gear,using to reduse speed. Today i started up to move from garage for a clean the whining noise was there already,put clutch in,,,,, gone. Repeated a few times,,,,same. Any ideas folks. After cleaning i was going to check the gearbox leval. Could it be something else.

At a guess from what you are saying it will be the thrust bearing on the clutch forks.

Ideally the free play on the clutch should keep the bearing away from the cover that is spinning so the noise that goes when you put the pedal down will be a gearbox one, the kango whines when cold with the clutch up and goes quiet with it down then goes silent after a mile or so. Check you clutch free play and perhaps change the gearbox oil.

That sounds ' job on',crap!

The noise is there after 50 miles,but never on tick over before. I don't drive it very often,could it be a cause ?

I would drain the gearbox oil have a look and see if there are any metal particals visible and check the colour if it is darkish brown and very smelly it has gone past best. A simple job of fresh oil may help a bit.

Cheers Snoops, i'll have a go in the week.

Turned out to be a dry thrust bearing.

That's good a easy fix then