i don't entirely agree with what they've told you...
for example...
my old Ford Sierra Turbo... was driving along the highway, and noticed that above about 40 - 50kph, and if i turned the steering wheel a little off-centre to the right, there was a sort of 'vibration' coming through the steering wheel... i didn't think any more of it...
drove for about another 100km, and the vibration was getting worse, but still not bad...
drove for about another 100km, and it was now to the point where it was making a noise that sounded like someone banging a hammer on a bit of metal, and the steering wheel was shuddering very violently...
(only reason i had kept driving the thing as i was in the middle of nowhere on a highway up north)
i eventually had to stop it got that bad, and found that it was the lower control arm bush... it had destroyed itself/fallen out, and the arm had about 50 - 60mm of play that it would go up and hit the top, and then hit the bottom, and bounce back up etc, effectively pounding itself into oblivion...
i had to limp the car to a nearby town at about 40kph... as at that speed it wasn't banging, it must've just been sitting in the middle of the hole...
dodgied up a 'temporary' bush out of pvc irrigation piping of different sizes, fitted inside each other