I am driving down the road.....well highway and when i put on the brakes the whole front end begins to shake and when i am going slower, such as getting to a stop light it feels like it is surging. Any ideas? and the brakes are about 6 months old and i installed new rotors also and hardware....HELP

 

Sounds like the same symptoms I was getting from warped rotors. Turned the rotors and it was brand new again. I'd check that first, pretty cheap and easy to do without spending the farm.

 

I would attach a mag base and dial indicator, without removing the wheel, just lift the front, and check the rotors for runout.

Its also possible you have an incredible amount of brake material built up on the rotors which can be removed with some 80 grit sand cloth used on each side of each rotor.

Abarmby posted a good piece on rotor build up some time ago---you might PM him and ask advice

I'm assuming that you DO torque your wheels down--if not--you should

 

I was just talking to a friend on the phone and he said it may be the tie rods...could it?
I always torque everything and double check all my work.

 

i would have to agree with the other guys and say it is brakes. i warped a lot of rotor's before i upgraded to vented rotors and better pads. if you are doin it on the cheap just work with what u got, get them turned and check for dust build up as stated b4. mike

 

yes, it could be tie rods

One of the guys recently found one of his being held in by the rubber dust boot alone.

You'll be in there, can't hurt to check while you're there.

 

Yeah that was me Gonne Fishin'.
However, I didn't have any of what the OP has. No surging or front end shake.
I had a slight knocking noise and I mean slight. No way would I have thought that the outter tie rod end would be soooo very bad!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hor2hYxXvNk
I agree with other poster and you on this one. I think warped rotors are the problem.
To the OP.....do you feel a "wobble" in the steering wheel and/or when your foot is on the brake pedal, the brake pedal actually pusling?
All usual indicators of warped rotors.
Al.

 

I'll throw my $.02 in on the warped rotor bandwagon. I've had more than a couple warp in my lifetime, and the symptoms are exactly what you're describing.

I'm assuming that you have disc brakes front and rear, so the warped rotor could be a front one or a rear one. It's odd that a new rotor would warp - this is usually caused by the rotor heating excessively.

You'll need to find which one it is and then find the cause. Could be a sticking caliper at any one wheel (or more), or it could be a mis-adjusted or sticking parking brake hanging up and heating up one of the rear rotors. Or, as suggested, it could be a really cheap rotor that isn't adequate to the task.

One question - does it do this when you first start driving, or do you have to drive a few miles before the shaking and surging start?

 

Warped rotors are disastrously bad right off the rip either though. They take a while to get that bad.

 

I've never had any new rotors warped right out of the box, but I did discover (after about 3 sets of ruined rotors) that the local auto parts store that I used to take rotors to for turning apparently either had a slightly bent shaft on their lathe, or were taking way too much material off the rotors. Every set of rotors they turned showed signs of being warped very shortly afterward.

I quit taking rotors to them and the problem disappeared.

Of course, that was several years ago, when you had a snowball's chance in Florida of having enough metal left on your factory rotors to successfully turn them after 2 or 3 Cleveland, Ohio winters. In more recent years, the road salt would cause about 1/4 to 1/3 of the braking surface to rust away by the time the pads were worn out.