Volkswagen Repair: 2003 VW GTI 1.8T muffled noise, vw gti, cv joint

Question
There is a noise coming from the front left of my car. This is a front wheel drive manual transmission. The noise sounds like a muffled humming. It increases in frequency as the vehicle speeds up and usually appears at about 20 mph becoming louder with increased speed. When I disengage the clutch and glide, the noise is still there and does not change in loudness or frequency. When I turn to the right, the noise level increases, and when I turn to the left the noise disappears. I replaced the front left tire with a spare and the noise remained and there was no noticeable wear on the original tire. When replacing the tire, I looked at the rubber boots on the drive mechanism on the vehicle and did not see any sign of damage. While going up a hill, I noticed the sound got slightly louder. This has been ongoing for a month and it appears to be getting slightly louder every week. The car has 32,000 miles on it. I am wondering if it could be the drive mechanism for the front left wheel, or perhaps one of the undercarriage plastic shields which are vibrating. I'm also wondering if it is safe to drive. I had an alignment performed at 20K miles because the car was pulling slightly to the left and no other maintenance performed other than oil changes.

Answer
James, thank you for your question.  This sounds like a CV joint or the transmission main gear maybe failing.  Could also be the wheel bearing in the left wheel could have damage.  As far as the drivability, it could get to the point of failure within 8 months maybe less.  My best advice is to get it checked out very soon to lessen the potential damage and higher cost.
Hope that helps