Passat B6 - squeaky noises from front suspension?

[Old Navman]

I've just bought an 06 wagon and it also makes similar described squeaks in the front. Certainly sounds like a suspension noise.
My front shocks seem to be a little lazier than my rears but I'm not planning to replace them soon.
My mechanic friend who works at a Volkswagen dealer has quickly inspected the car on their hoist and has mentioned that my front swaybar LINK bushes are stuffed .
I purchased cheap replacement ones on eBay at half the dealer cost price.
He's installing them on Friday so we shall see if it stops the squeaks.

I'll ask him tomorrow about the control arm replacement procedure.
Fortunately my control arms have been done already as he says they're a common fail point in these cars.

Has your squeak been resolved yet?

Yes, I've had the 3 lower control arm bushes on both sides replaced. I got my mechanic to press all of them out but if I had to do it again I'd buy new control arms with new bushes per-installed. It's a c@%t of a job to press them out and new ones in. I also changed the lower engine mount bushes (there are 2) in the sub-frame. I didn't change the dog bone link as it was still Ok.

I did change those sway bar end links but the Chinese ones are a bit different to VW as they use spanner on one side to tighten. Consequently, the holding area on the bracket (which is round) is smaller as they're saving on the collar material plus make an allowance for the spanner hold. It's a bit tricky to try to explain but if you compare photos on the bay to the original ones you'll know what I'm talking about.

I did end up changing the sway bar bushes, I was told they're the same ones as on B7 BUT unlike the B7? they're are NOT replaceable. My mechanic drilled them collared mountings out and after fitting the new bushes welded the old brackets around so they would hold.

My car has done nearly 300k now so I don't want to spend a lot of dough fixing it up. Having said that I wouldn't recommend this "procedure" to anyone else. But it would appear that buying a new complete sway bar with bushes installed is the only way. But my mechanic said my old one was perfectly Ok and it was obviously cheaper to do a backyard job on it. The car now drives well, no noises, no squeals, cornering has definitely improved. Now though I have the O2 sensors problems BUT ... that is another story.

Just one more thing, if you end up taking the sub frame off those (TTL) bolts are apparently single use. I splashed out on original VW bolts which ended up costing me about $100. Also if you take the sub frame off it's recommended you should use those sub frame "guiding studs" so you don't muck up your front end geometry. I had mine done afterwards anyway so I didn't bother, You can get them on the bay for about US$30 for 4?.

Cheers