Suspension knock, Anti Roll Bar links?

[audi B5I]

hi i have a poblem with with my nearside there is a knocking when ever you go over any sort of bump, and also a squeaking noise coming from it aswell. when i aply the brakes it feels like somthing is lose u get a sort of judder. can anyone help me to diagnose the prob thanks.

[TDi_B5]

Thanks for taking the time to take those photos, much appreciated, don't think it is the anti roll bar links afterall, my search continues!

[scotty33]

Hi, and welcome to the forum.
I would say it's likely you have worn ball joint(s) on the track control arms, as discussed above, here are 4 on each side. Depending whether the car has had any of them changed already, I would say the bottom rear and the top front arms seem to see most stresses, and on my car seem to be the worst for wearing. It is really difficult to see which one(s) are worn with them all still connected up, until they are very worn, it helps if you disconnect them.
The judder is possibly due to a warped brake disc? Fixing the arms may help?

[tonyp1]

The ball joints fail to show up on the standard tests, you have to know how to make them show up by using a very large pair of grips on the lower joints.

Crasher, many thanks for your very informative comments on all things Passats. Hope you can help with some in depth detail on exactly how to test for wear in the lower ball joints i.e. wheel under normal compression etc. My Passat has developed a bad crashing noise when the front offside wheel hits a very poor road surface or sudden pot hole. When driven on a local road that is like being on a roller coaster the front suspension is exercised with no evidence of the noise being evident. It has passed an MOT yesterday with an advisory that the anti roll bar link bushes on both sides are slightly deteriorated but not resulting in excessive movement.(2.4.G.2) Its a pity I am located in Cheltenham and not Nottingham Hope you can help with some details. Many thanks and regards Tony.
2003 Passat pd 1.9 engine code AVB