Wheel not moving freely when jacked up
 

Had the front end of the car up as brakes were being changed. Noticed that the front passenger side wheel does not spin freely and needs a fair bit of force to get it to turn. Driver side is opposite and spins nice and freely when in the air. Gears were in neutral position. So, this will make the car work more to get the wheel to turn and potentially use more fuel. Any idea what the cause of this is? Thanks.

If not a tight bearing or c.v joint then may just be mechanical play in the diff or the tire or rim rubbing when car is jacked up...

One drive shaft is longer than the other do this could be an issue with rubbing and the suspension hanging loose...

Could you move the brake pads, i.e. piston, a fraction and see if there is a significant difference? it may help to point the way?

It's not the quickest in that you would have to get the wheels off.

i should of mentioned as well as the brakes being changed, the passenger front caliper was also changed as my caliper was sticking for the past few days causing problems. The replacement seems ok so far...I think the wheel was still hard to turn even after the replacement caliper was fitted...I’ll double check.

Check the disk see if it's not warped by the sticky caliper maybe ?

Ok. It’s still the same. New discs and pads fitted yesterday and replacement caliper. Out come is still the same - the wheel needs considerable force to get it to turn round.

is it rubbing on the strut or is the drive shaft touching the suspension?

Doesn’t appear to be I don’t think. I’d imagine there would be some sort of noise when turning the wheel. There’s no noise. Just that the wheel needs force to turn it unlike the other side.

Drive shaft ?

A bit of a faff but try popping the brake pads out completely.

If the wheel now spins freely you've identified that it's to do with pads/calipers/disc. Hopefully not but maybe the replacement caliper is a bit sticky - piston properly lubricated?

If the wheel is still hard to turn then it's drive train/bearings.

Good Luck.

Andy.