The brief
Mr Neo's Volkswagen had a chorus of clunking noises from underneath, the sort you hear over bumps and feel on turns. He brought it in for us to track down. A front-end clunk means something in the suspension has worn loose, and play that's left alone wears the parts around it and starts to spoil the steering and the way the car sits. The usual cause is the front control arm bushes. Each front control arm holds the wheel in place and seals to the body through rubber bushes, and those bushes take every pothole and every bit of cornering load for years until the rubber cracks and pulls away from its sleeve. Once that happens the arm moves when it shouldn't, you get a clunk over bumps and on turns and a vague feel through the wheel, and a worn bush doesn't come back. Control arms come as a left and a right, so they get changed as a pair.
The diagnosis
On the lift the front got a proper shakedown. Both front control arm bushes were worn, the rubber cracked and the arms showing play under a pry bar, which is the clunk over bumps and the loose steering feel. The drop links, the strut mounts and the rest of the front held up fine. When the bushes are gone you do the control arms as a pair, fitting one fresh arm against a worn one just leaves the noise and uneven wear, so the call was both sides.
The work
Both front control arms came off and new genuine VW-spec arms went on, every fastener torqued to the manual figures and the suspension bolts done up at ride height so the new bushes aren't pre-loaded. With both arms in, the car went on the alignment rig and the front geometry was set back to VW spec, since new arms shift the numbers. A road test confirmed the clunks were gone, the steering tight, and the car tracking straight.
The outcome
No clunks over bumps, no knock on turns, tight and precise steering, even tyre contact, and the car tracking straight. The Volkswagen went home with the front end solid again. Worn control arm bushes only get noisier and start eating tyres and pulling the alignment about, so doing both arms and resetting the geometry put the whole front right in one go.
