The brief
The Golf had a vibrating, wobbly-feeling steering wheel and clunking noises from the front, the kind of thing that points at worn front suspension and gets you off the road if it's left. He brought it in for a diagnosis. The lower control arm locates the bottom of the front suspension, with rubber bushings at its pivots and a ball joint at the outer end, and when those wear there's play, so the wheel moves around more than it should, feeding vibration up through the steering and clunking over bumps. The wheel bearing on that corner was tied up in it too, rough and noisy. When a corner has gone like that you sort it as a unit, so it was a new lower control arm and a new wheel bearing on the affected corner, with the alignment reset.
The diagnosis
On the lift the front suspension got the once-over. The lower control arm on the noisy corner had play in its bushings and ball joint, the cause of the vibration and the clunk, and the wheel bearing on that corner was rough turning with play, adding to the noise. The other corner checked out. That's a lower control arm and wheel bearing replacement on the affected corner, complete parts rather than just bushings, then a four-wheel alignment.
The work
The corner was stripped down, the worn lower control arm and wheel bearing removed, and a new genuine VW-spec control arm with fresh bushings and ball joint fitted along with a new wheel bearing, everything reassembled with the hub nut and the suspension fasteners torqued to the manual figures. The car went on the alignment rig and the front geometry set to specification. A road test confirmed the vibration and the clunk were gone, the steering tight and steady, the corner quiet.
The outcome
Tight, steady steering, no vibration through the wheel, no clunk over bumps, the corner quiet, and the alignment set so the front tyres wear evenly. The Golf went home with the front corner sorted. A worn control arm and bearing only get sloppier and noisier and they take handling and safety down with them, so doing both on the affected corner and resetting the alignment put the steering back where it should be.