2014 Nissan Frontier with excessive brake pedal travel.

[Dborch41]

The pedal moves almost half of its travel before any braking takes place, push it hard enough and it will bottom out. Replaced the master cylinder twice, tried a used but working ABS module, replaced rubber hoses with braided stainless, and bled about a gallon through the system in accordance with the service manual first using a Motive pressure bleeder then speedbleeders at each wheel. Pads and rotors are fine and the calipers move freely. I even tried bleeding immediately after activating the ABS on a gravel road. No change in any way, the pedal travel is still excessive. Oddly enough, with the engine off and the booster bled down, the pedal is rock hard. The pedal adjustment seems OK.

Mind you I've never much liked the brakes on this thing, but I don't remember them ever being this bad (my wife uses it as her daily, I rarely drive it). I'm totally out of ideas, is there something I missed? TIA.

 

[FowVay]

Here is the procedure from the service manual. If you're following this procedure and still have a failing brakes then you have a component failure somewhere. Be certain to check the vacuum line going to the booster along with checking the booster for leakage.

 

[SC Maintenance]

What order did you blead your brakes? The Nissan ABS system has unusual brake blead order - from memory so please check the FSM:
Rear Right, Front Left , Rear Left, Front Right. Bleading in the wrong order will cause no pedal for a ways then an instantly hard pedal.

You may also have air in your ABS valves - which require a ABS 2 way tool to command the ABS valves to cycle to push the air through. You will then need to bleed all the brakes again. The tool is handy anyway because if your driving never causes the ABS to actuate, the valves can get sticky - which reminds me I need to actuate mine again.

 

[Trav]

Check this out.

https://www.tomorrowstechnician.com/brake-service-case-study-nissan-frontier/

 

[vwmaniaman]

My wifes Mazda had the pedal like that after driving over a big drop off. I bled and replaced master cyl with no change. Finally I bought an Autel 610 with 2 way communication and used the ABS menu to activate the ABS. You then pump the pedal to get it up as high as possible and activate the ABS pump. While holding the pedal after pumping and the ABS activation causes the pedal to drop instantly and then the ABS brings the pedal back up. No more low pedal.

 

[benjy]

my 2011 SV fronty has good brakes but a good tip for sure for possible issues. i read on the Frontier forums + seen the odd sequence, changed all fluids when i got as a preowned lo mile ride. did not have to fuss with the abs + used my motive bleeder as well, going is important BUT stopping is even MORE!!!

 

[Dborch41]

What order did you blead your brakes? The Nissan ABS system has unusual brake blead order - from memory so please check the FSM:
Rear Right, Front Left , Rear Left, Front Right. Bleading in the wrong order will cause no pedal for a ways then an instantly hard pedal.

You may also have air in your ABS valves - which require a ABS 2 way tool to command the ABS valves to cycle to push the air through. You will then need to bleed all the brakes again. The tool is handy anyway because if your driving never causes the ABS to actuate, the valves can get sticky - which reminds me I need to actuate mine again.

I followed the FSM to the letter for the bleed procedure, the order is indeed unusual.
I read about a scanner made by XTOOL that supposedly works on our trucks for ABS actuation, very few consumer-level scanners do that on certain Nissans. I might order it, it's only about $160.

 

[Gasbuggy]

I had a heck of a time bleeding my old 05 CTS-V after replacing a brake line. Air stuck in the ABS. The trick, when you don't have the company software to cycle the ABS valves continually for a bleed, was to the turn the key on and off about 40 times with a Motive pressure bleeder hooked up. Every time you turn the key on the ABS unit cycles once as a system check, or something like that. This eventually got the air out of my lines.

 

[D1dad]

I know my 18 Nissan models and on up it’s, disconnect battery negative terminal, then

Front right
Front left
Rear right
Rear left.

My 09 Altima is as described above. Although I always did it the old fashioned way and never made a difference in 200k of bleeding.

 

[D1dad]

I had a heck of a time bleeding my old 05 CTS-V after replacing a brake line. Air stuck in the ABS. The trick, when you don't have the company software to cycle the ABS valves continually for a bleed, was to the turn the key on and off about 40 times with a Motive pressure bleeder hooked up. Every time you turn the key on the ABS unit cycles once as a system check, or something like that. This eventually got the air out of my lines.

I replaced all the calipers on my 18 rogue and had the same issue. The first 1/4 of the pedal was soft and then it would grab like before. I pulled it up on the ramps every night for a few days and took off the reservoir cap, then ran it like normal during the day and it’s better than before. One bubble can mess the whole system up, and good luck finding it.