VW Passat (Swinging arms???, NCT)

ploughbynight

Boards and its members have gotten me out oseveral holes in teh past especially in the 4x4 section. So here goes again!

Our VW Passat 02 1.9tdi with >250,000 miles failed nct last week. I had just changed 2 CV joints and replaced fuel pump relay and serviced it. My wife brought the car over to NCT (Kells) and it failed on the follwing:
Front Suspension (46) Swinging arm Worn Offside Front, Foremost
Front Suspension (46) Swinging arm Worn Nearside Front, Foremost
Re Test Repeat side slip test.

Problem I have is I dont know whihc arms they are talking about abnd when I google it it, know one is talking about swinging arms.

Can anybody tell me what arms I need to buy.

Thanks for reading this thread and hopefully you can help.

Chimaera

The front suspension on the B5 Passat is a multilink setup.

Each side has two upper arms and two lower arms, and the balljoints tend to wear out in them. By the looks of it, it's the two from lower arms they're talking about. It's a pretty easy thing to check: jack the car up and use a pry bar on the links until you find play at either end. The front arms are about €50-80 depending on brand and source plus whatever labour you get charged for fitting. Febi Bilstein are ok, Lemforder or OE are best.

Tropheus

Also check the bushings on the other end of the control arms. In my experience they tend to go before the ball joint itself. You can get the bushings separately, although I've tended to replace the whole control arm as the ball joint probably isn't far behind in terms of wear.

ploughbynight

Thank you both for your contributions. I try to do as much work myself and we have recently installed a used car lift so that tonights activities are sorted out.
Hopefully i will have some news later tonight. Thanks again.
And apologies for the atrocious spelling etc.. in original offering.

ploughbynight

Turns out its teh top control arms.
The the passenger side both of the upper control arms are sloppy and loose but on teh driver side only the foremost upper control arm is loose.
Thank you for the responses. These are the least expensive of the lot. I will try to get Febi Bilstein or Lemforder if I can.

Tropheus

Take a look here. This is where I got mine and delivery is reasonable.

www.mister-auto.ie

ploughbynight

Sorry to prolong this thread but have you any experience with BOLK, DELPHI or TRW?

Tropheus

None with Bolk and Delphi when it comes to control arms. From what I worked out in the past, TRW and Lemforder are the same company. I've used TRW previously with no problems.

George Dalton

TRW are good. Don't waste your time and money with the other two.

debabyjesus

Get lemforder or trw. Don't forget to have weight on wheels for the final torque of any nuts an bolts!