Only seems to happen at 1st use of the day:

Backing out of the garage, everything feels normal.

Bring it to a stop, shift into drive, give it a little gas, it feels like a brake is stuck & dragging. Lots of rolling resistance.

If I immediately shift back to reverse, it rolls fine backwards.

Or, if I just kind of power through it forwards, the problem just goes away. I don't notice it anymore at subsequent stops.

Is this a:
> known issue, you gotta repair so-n-so, or...
> simply time for a full brake inspection to find the problem?

Thx.

 

Sounds to me like the upper caliper bolt snapped and now its rubbing on rotor and hub assembly when moving forward. Had almost the same exact problem on a pathfinder yesterday, but only worse. Front right tire would seize up completly while trying to go forward, but would reverse just fine. Easily fixed (new caliper bolt, lathe the rotor, and sand down the pads), but had a flat spot on the tire when forcing it to roll forward into the shop, and had to rebalance the tire. Good thing your runner is rear wheel driven when not in 4wd, or would probably snap a cv axel.

Just have it inspected. Alot of places will do it for free, but try to make you feel bad and have you have it fixed right then and there. But if you're comfortable doing it yourself, just have it checked out and drive it home and fix it yourself once you know what the problem is.