Four problems related to steering linkages have been reported for the 1998 Volkswagen Passat. The most recently reported issues are listed below.
My 1998 vw Passat has a loud grinding, rumbling sound and vibration coming from the front suspension, sounds like the wheels are going to fall off. The dealer replaced the cross link arms at a cost of approx $300. I also had the tie rods replaced under recall. But noise/vibration still there. Now the dealer tells me it might be bushings on either the upper control arm or the lower control arm, each costing about $1300 to replace. I asked the dealer if this was a normal repair item, they said "sure", your car has 90k miles on it. I find it hard to believe that a well built, safe car would have this type of expensive repair.
Defective tie rod assembly and lower ink arm-n and lower control arm-n caused potentially dangerous steering condition and made loud grinding noises.
Left lower arm link is broken and causes some noise when driving. Contacted dealer. Ak.
Contacted the dealer at failure and stated that they had no tools to repair the tie rods. Also contacted the volkwageen of America. This item has a recall on my car. But, my chasis is not one of the 51,000 vehicles on the list, but my car is a 1998 vw Passat. I need to find out how to have my car placed on the recall list so that the dealer can re-place my faulty tie rod on my car.