Hello, all. I found this forum tonight and have already found a lot of useful information here. I signed on to inquire about the front end "popping" noise and have found a lot of things to check. I have an additional and possibly related problem.

On the driver's side front, there is a shiny spot on the sway bar where the tire has been rubbing. Is this normal? Is this possibly a result of ball-joints, tie-rods, etc. needing replacing? I have a strong feeling that these problems are related.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

2003 S-10 Blazer, 2wd, 4 door

 

I am assuming that you have checked all the bushings in the front suspension ie. sway bar, torsion bar, control arm etc etc. I havea 2000 blazer 4wd so these should be some what similar. If you get the front end up in the air there is a metal buffer pad that should hit the wheel before the wheel is able to get to the sway bar, so I would check to see if that is there. It is not very big so it might be kind of hard to find at first, just check the back of your wheel and see if there is any scraping near to the inside of the wheel. Also just a question, have you done any suspension mods? How is your alignment?

 

I have a shiny spot there too, but my tire deosn't get close to it...