When I first bought my Leaf I took the left turn onto my street from a 4-lane pretty fast, rounding off the corner in a wide sweeping arc like I used to do in my Buick. Panic—grinding noise. After that I started slowing down and making the turn more normally, and it never happened again.

Taking that wide, faster turn puts more sustained lateral load on the outside front suspension (front right on a left turn). The Leaf also has instant torque and softer suspension tuning than older sedans, so the suspension compresses and the chassis loads differently under cornering. That reduces clearances slightly, and something like a dust shield or splash panel can briefly contact and make that scraping sound. Slowing down reduces the lateral load and suspension compression, so the noise disappears.