I've had a problem re-occur the last two times I drove my 2006 Audi TT (manual transmission, turbo). It's got about 120k miles and has always been great.
What happened was the front wheels seemed to freeze up. It was as if the front brakes were locked up - accompanied by stiff steering and a grinding noise. I just checked my power steering fluid and it appears to be correct, at the max level.
When this happened, I could not drive the car forward without causing the grinding noise (very similar to if the front brakes were locked up), and smoke even came out of the engine compartment for a second. I turned the car off. Back on and off a couple/few times and the problem disappeared. I may have allowed the car to idle and may have moved the steering wheel back and forth ... to confirm it seemed okay, then drove about 1000 feet to my house (I was almost home). Previous to this happening, everything was fine, and I came to a right turn, stopped because there was a tree down (big storm), and put the car in reverse - putting it in reverse immediately caused this grinding and complaining, and then it didn't matter if it was reverse or forward. Turning off the engine and letting it "reboot" may have been the solution.
Car's in the garage. I'm on a tight budget. Does anyone have any idea what it might be, or what I should try next?