How important is the front stabilizer bar? I was hearing an odd noise so I jacked it up and the piece of the frame that the stabilizer bolts to is broken completely off. Help !!

 

It helps you go around curves without the car leaning over so much. That's about it. But beware, as the car leans more, it's behavior gets squirrily. Strange unstable behavior might be fun, but not if you first discover it while trying to avoid a collision.

Remove the stabilizer long enough to shop around for a place to fix it. I imagine welding some brackets or something isn't gonna be too bad. It's underneath, so it doesn't have to look real pretty.

But have the underneath structure looked at. It may be that more extensive damage (corrosion??) will lead you to scrap the car. Just a thought, because I can't see it from here.

 

I put a ratchet strap on it for now and that seems to be working. It must have been cracked for a while because the car rides much better.

 

I am getting the rear portion of the subframe from the scrappers for $200 and the mechaniv estimated $500 for labour. does this sound fair?