2010 Toyota Tacoma squishy weak brakes

[liberty2701]

I have a 2010 Toyota Tacoma 4x4 4.0l with 190k miles. Brake pedal was soft prior to doing all of the following in order. I did a 4 wheel brake job. I replaced all with a power stop drilled and slotted kit. This includes rotors, drums all new hardware plus new calipers and wheel cylinders, front rubber and metal brakes lines. I power bled the brakes with scan tool. No fix. I than went on and replaced the Power booster which had a vacuum leak and also replaced the master cylinder with a new Advics master cylinder, it was bench bled. I also adjusted the push rod to spec. Power bled the system. Adjusted rear drums again to a light drag. Still no fix. I swapped out the abs unit. Power bled, still no fix. The brakes stop fine on normal driving but will not engage the abs unit during an emergency stop unless on a slippery surface. If you mash the pedal it stops but only slowly rather than abruptly. I also checked live data on wheel sensors and they all the same. I have been through 2 gallons of brake fluid. All brakes bled from rr to lr to rf to lf. Any suggestions?

 

[SilentType]

Did you bleed in proper sequence? Our Mazda 3 and previous Kia Sportage required right rear, left front, left rear, right front. Worth checking in to.

 

[CarLuver]

all the toyotas i have driven have had a brake system that engages lower than other cars i have driven . doing a brake job on a couple of them, i too thought that there was air in the system. bled them multiple times and its was the same .

 

[liberty2701]

Did you bleed in proper sequence? Our Mazda 3 and previous Kia Sportage required right rear, left front, left rear, right front. Worth checking in to.

Yes

 

[meep]

I had a 2006 tundra with rear drums. Using oem shoes in the drums affected brake feel across the whole system. Oem was the *only* shoes that didnt make pedal feel worse. Definitely make sure you have oem shoes.

If there is some wiggle room for pedal engagement height, you might be able to extend the rod a little bit into the MC for earlier engagement?

Are the pads bedded in? Sometimes brakes firm up after a 1000 miles of heat cycles into the pads?

As solid as my 2006 tundra was, it had the most ineffective brakes of any vehicle I owned past 4 wheel drums.

 

[liberty2701]

I had a 2006 tundra with rear drums. Using oem shoes in the drums affected brake feel across the whole system. Oem was the *only* shoes that didnt make pedal feel worse. Definitely make sure you have oem shoes.

If there is some wiggle room for pedal engagement height, you might be able to extend the rod a little bit into the MC for earlier engagement?

Are the pads bedded in? Sometimes brakes firm up after a 1000 miles of heat cycles into the pads?

As solid as my 2006 tundra was, it had the most ineffective brakes of any vehicle I owned past 4 wheel drums.

Pads are bedded. I extended the booster rod out 15 thousand from spec.it created no drag but no improvement. I probably could go more but I probably should try OEM rear shoes first as you stated. Your thoughts?

 

[jtwrace]

Did you properly adjust the rear drums? It's common complaint when they're not adjusted properly.

 

[liberty2701]

Did you properly adjust the rear drums? It's common complaint when they're not adjusted properly.

Yes, in my original post.

 

[Donald]

Did you replace the brake line that goes from one rear wheel to the other?

Bleed the rear brakes again (both sides) with a buddy on the brake pedal. The old fashioned way

 

[Delta]

Had this issue on a 2014 Tacoma TRD Sport. New calipers, rotors, pads. Needed to be taken to a shop with a scan tool to do an ABS bleed procedure. Was a good bit better then.

 

[meep]

Pads are bedded. I extended the booster rod out 15 thousand from spec.it created no drag but no improvement. I probably could go more but I probably should try OEM rear shoes first as you stated. Your thoughts?

Based on the latest, I’m stuck between whether I’d consider @Delta ’s experience with scantool bleed or shoes first. Idk. I learned the expensive way that oems shoes have better feel and twice the bite over the aftermarket and would suggest those regardless, but in my truck the brakes were undersized, so it was a bigger issue there.

?

 

[liberty2701]

Did you replace the brake line that goes from one rear wheel to the other?

Bleed the rear brakes again (both sides) with a buddy on the brake pedal. The old fashioned way

They have separate lines. Part of the bleed process with the scan tool is pumping the brakes. It's a hybrid process by activation of the abs unit also.

 

[liberty2701]

Well, I finally was able to install OE Toyota front pads and rear shoes. Absolutely no improvement and it may feel slightly worse.

 

[liberty2701]

So to sum it up. New master cylinder bench bled, new power booster with push rod adjustment .015 further out, new OE pads, rotors, drums, shoes, new calipers and wheel cylinders,new rubber brake lines , used abs unit and finally the entire system power bled using scan tool. Rear shoes are adjusted to a slight drag. Still can't panic stop on pavement to engage abs but this will happen on dirt.

 

[Devo242]

Since you seem to have run through an extensive list of likely causes, I'll add the unlikely possibility. My father had an issue with the MGA in my signature many years ago where rear drum brakes were weak to engage after going through a full overhaul, he tried what seemed like everything possible to correct this. When I inherited the car I discovered the rotors were slightly larger and would not let the shoes engage fully with the drums. A new set of rear drums with smaller inner diameter validated with a caliper measurement to confirm and the issue was solved.

 

[t1snwrbrdr12]

I’ve never thought the pedal feel was good after a brake bleed with a power bleeder. Whether it be a BG machine, a mighty vac system, a pressurized tank that seals on the master cylinder reservoir….whether it had been for maintenance or for a repair…never mattered to my foot. I’ve always felt it came out soft.

Buddy bled the old fashioned way and I’ve never had a problem. Just my experience. Been working on cars since 2000 or so and used quite a few fancy bleeders. I’ve also never run across a situation that I needed to use a scan tool to bleed air out of a system…but admittedly I’ve been out of the “real world” shops since about 2013 so my experience with new stuff is limited now.

Not saying you’ve done anything wrong, but
-calipers on the correct side? So the bleeders are up?
-hoses aren’t bound or twisted up?
-there’s been a lot of possible introduction of issues with all these new parts and parts quality these days. Pushrod length being adjustable is a huge variable too. Sounds like you’ve tried the exact correct length and longer which should help your situation, so it’s likely not that…just sucks that there are so many variables here now.

 

[97prizm]

I have a 2010 Toyota Tacoma 4x4 4.0l with 190k miles. Brake pedal was soft prior to doing all of the following in order. I did a 4 wheel brake job. I replaced all with a power stop drilled and slotted kit. This includes rotors, drums all new hardware plus new calipers and wheel cylinders, front rubber and metal brakes lines. I power bled the brakes with scan tool. No fix. I than went on and replaced the Power booster which had a vacuum leak and also replaced the master cylinder with a new Advics master cylinder, it was bench bled. I also adjusted the push rod to spec. Power bled the system. Adjusted rear drums again to a light drag. Still no fix. I swapped out the abs unit. Power bled, still no fix. The brakes stop fine on normal driving but will not engage the abs unit during an emergency stop unless on a slippery surface. If you mash the pedal it stops but only slowly rather than abruptly. I also checked live data on wheel sensors and they all the same. I have been through 2 gallons of brake fluid. All brakes bled from rr to lr to rf to lf. Any suggestions?

Did you change the size of the rotors (diameter)? If you went with high performance brake pads then it's very likely that the compound is designed for track driving. If certain brake pad compounds are cold you can stand on the brakes and not get much stopping force. Only once did I get a set of brake pads that were similar. I took them back.

 

[97prizm]

Since you seem to have run through an extensive list of likely causes, I'll add the unlikely possibility. My father had an issue with the MGA in my signature many years ago where rear drum brakes were weak to engage after going through a full overhaul, he tried what seemed like everything possible to correct this. When I inherited the car I discovered the rotors were slightly larger and would not let the shoes engage fully with the drums. A new set of rear drums with smaller inner diameter validated with a caliper measurement to confirm and the issue was solved.

I'm thinking either mechanical like you mentioned or brake pad/shoe compound. When the OP says they "stop slowly" vs abruptly when mashing the pedal ie a panic stop it sounds like the type of friction material.

 

[liberty2701]

Everything is installed correctly. That's been quadrupled checked. I did bleed the old fashion way after the initial brake job. As the repair progressed I switched to the Scan tool bleed. Interesting idea on the brake drum diameter. They are Toyota OE pads and shoes. I think that has been missed by some.

 

[ARB1977]

Considering the age. Try stainless braided brake lines. They won’t expand like rubber does.