My golf tdi mk4 has worn lower arm bushes.

What does this mean?

£££

it means that a rubber bushing has worn out on a bit of the suspension, and therefore a man working in a garage is going to help himself to the contents of your wallet.

In truth though, it’s a wear and tear item, not too difficult for a garage to change.

ETA:

It’ll be something like this:
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=154137

Once fixed you might notice that its easier and more precise to steer round corners, or maybe you will not.

In this image:

there is a dome shaped bush in the lower left of the image and a cylindrical one in the top middle. They are hard rubber and are connecting points for (in this case) suspension components onto the car chassis. That arm is for a Kia Picanto (from the image description).

They wear over time & depending on the car, either the whole arm is replaced with the bushes, or just the bushes can be replaced.
As above, depending on how worn they are, you might notice that the steering feels a bit tighter and precise once changed, but on the other hand you might not….
If the bushes wear excessively, I think that excess tyre wear can result as the suspension isn’t holding the wheel onto the road, as it should.

Could it feel like my wheels are unbalanced at high speed? I know they aren’t since I’ve just had new tyres all round.

Are they front or rear or both?

Car wheels can get buckled, both alloy or steel wheels.
A possible cause of wheel wobble at speed.
Also if you use tyre sealant in a car tyre it will congeal / solidify and cause the wheels to wobble, impossible to balance without removing tyre from wheel taking out the lump of sealant then putting the tyre back on and rebalance.

scholarsgate – Member
Could it feel like my wheels are unbalanced at high speed? I know they aren’t since I’ve just had new tyres all round.

Erm, maybe. I’ve never experience it, but perhaps if they got bad enough.
It often manifests itself as creaking/knocking noises from the suspension at low speed while manoeuvring, while going over speed bumps etc.

Did the wheels feel unbalance before the new tyres were put on? Maybe they haven’t been balanced correctly or you’ve lost a balance weight? Although unlikely if you are having the same ‘unbalanced’ feeling before & after tyres being changed.

I had the lower rear suspension bushes go on my Polo last year (not shown in stumpy01’s pic). The steering on the car doesn’t feel right when they are worn, it was obvious when I went over a speed bump as you could feel the front wheels kind of push back rather than transfer the compression up through the suspension. Bushes can affect tracking which could present it’s self as an imbalance i guess

For my car as with a good few of the VW/Scoda/Seat range the lower rear bushes on the front suspension are a common failure point. They are pressed in a “console” – cast housing that the lower suspension arm (sumpy01’s pic) then slots into. VW recommend replacement of the console and bush as the console can be damaged by clumsy mechanics. As far as i am aware this is VW just trying to get you to bend over.
The consoles for my car were £90-100 +VAT per side the bushes were £12-15 per side. I got an independent garage to remove and replace the bushes and got charged 1hr labour per bush.

If it is the front bush that has gone get new suspension arms fitted, the time saving in replacing the arm generally out weighs the additional cost of it as it will have new bushes pre pressed into it.