I have a 1991 Dodge Spirit. I took it into the shop for a new fan belt a couple months ago, and they told me I also needed new front sway bar links. I decided not to believe them, so I didn't have them put in the new links.
Afterwards, I thought about it, and I wondered if I should have had them do the work. My Dodge has had steering problems for a while -- it takes a lot more effort than it should to make it steer straight, especially at highway speeds. And I started wondering if this was because of the sway bar links.
So I took it into a different shop. I had them do an oil change, and I specifically told them to look for any problem with the front sway bar links. What they said really surprised me. They said that (1) my 1991 Dodge Spirit isn't even supposed to have front sway bar links; (2) even if there was a problem with front sway bar links, they wouldn't expect it to affect steering; (3) they tried driving it, and saw no steering problem; and (4) they also said they looked at the whole front end and didn't find anything wrong.
It's weird that the second shop would be wrong about this, because it's in their interest to find things to fix. But they were certainly wrong about #3, since there is a steering problem (though it's less noticeable at slow speeds).
So I'm left with these questions:
- Is a 1991 Dodge Spirit supposed to have front sway bar links?
- If there's a problem with the front sway bar links, what symptoms would I notice as a result? Will it make the car harder to steer straight?
- What's a fair price for fixing the sway bar links?
Thanks to anybody who can help me with this.
Greg