psfred, thanks a lot for the extensive description. I'm sort of mechanically inclined, but probably not to this extent so I'll see how much the labor would be. What does the torque link do and how can it go bad? Any chance it could've been caused by reckless handling at the tire shop?

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2004 VW Jetta TDI (manual)

Past MB's: '96 E300D, '83 240D, '82 300D, '87 300D, '87 420SEL