This morning, walking across the parking lot at work, a coworker of mine pulled into the lot in her Blazer. When she made the turn to pull into a parking space it made a strange grinding sound. It almost sounded like the tire was grabing the pavement and not spinning. She described it as if the tire was flat when she went to make the turn. She said that it was hard to turn the wheel. My first thought is that she may have a brake caliper sticking. What do you guys think?

 

It could be a caliper sticking and there is no pad left and its grinding but I would jack up the front end and spin the wheels to recreate the sound to better pin point were its coming from!!

 

Sounds like her 4x4 was engaged. Axle wrap from the front wheels not slipping on the pavement gives the same feeling...front end bogs down, wheel grinds..all the fun stuff.

 

You guessed it Wolfpack. I went out on my morning break to take her Blazer for a ride to see if I could figure out what's wrong, and she had it locked in 4 wheel drive. She must have brushed the button turning or messing with the radio or something. Anyway, problem solved.

 

Woo hoo! Glad it's fixed! You might wanna do a quick inspection of the transfer case and look for leaks/cracks. If she drove it too far or forced the turn with the axles binding, it'll torque the t case in two[:@]

Just a precautionary measure of course, but it might be worth the time.