97 tahoe steering wheel wobble/shimmy when braking

[otis13]

Hello peeps,

I own a 97 tahoe , 2WD , 4 door.
The truck has a steering wheel wobble/shake when braking.
Feels like my front wheels are turning from left to right.
The front rotors were replaced a few months ago , but that didn't help. I just recently replaced both inner and outer tie rod ends , pitman arm , idler arm , both front tires , and had it aligned. Still , same problem. What do you guys think? Can it be my ball joints , wheel bearings , bad caliper(s)?

BTW , seems like I go through front brake pads alot quicker than rear .

[ZR800]

That realy sounds like rotors. I bought a 99 with 44K on it from a dealer. They put brand new front rotors and pads on it before I picked it up and had the same problem. I doubted they had replaced the rotots, or that the new rotors they put on were warped. They gave me a nother set, and I put them on myself. They had indeed put new ones on, but by replacing them, I cured the problem. First time I had heard of brand new rotors being warped.

[ZR800]

One more thing on the brakes. When you have front disk, and rear drums, you will always go through front pads extremely quicker. I think there is a ratio of front to back braking. Not sure, but I think it is something like front do 80% and back to 20% (if it is even that much). My 99 Tahoe with 107K on it is on its 3rd set of front pads, and only just replaced the rear pads at 100K and they still had life.
Fronts were replaced at 44K, and 92K.

[otis13]

Thanks for the reply ZR800. I'm going to resurface my rotor's. If that doesn't work I guess i'll have to replace them. They aren't very old , Maybe 8 months max. Thanks again for your input. Take care

[tahoeman1999]

Originally Posted by otis13

Thanks for the reply ZR800. I'm going to resurface my rotor's. If that doesn't work I guess i'll have to replace them. They aren't very old , Maybe 8 months max. Thanks again for your input. Take care

i have a 99 tahoe, with 93k and i had my rotors turned and it fixed tha problem too

[otis13]

Wheel shake stopped after new brake pads and rotors were resurfaced.
Thanks