I've noticed recently that the front brakes on my '98 SR5 seem to be locking up. Pedal travel and feel seems fine compared to before it started.
They don't lock up until the pedal is all the way through its travel. It seems like the brakes are not releasing when I release the pedal.

Planning on starting with bleeding them today.

Any ideas what it could be?

Check the condition of the caliper/slide pins and make sure they are lubed/not sticking or frozen. I'd start here first.

Check the condition of the pistons to see if they will retract all the way also.

If you have a lot of miles on the 4runner, check the brake lines as well.

I had a similar situation on my 99 a couple years ago. It turned out my rear axel seal was leaking on the rear drums and causing the impresion the fronts were locking at the end of a stop. I swore it was the fronts, even replaced a caliper before we found it was the gear oil on the rear drums.

I can tell it is for sure the front brakes. Confirmed it a couple nights ago when I was leaving my friends house and when I tried to go forward it felt like my 4Runner was doing a brake stand burnout. I need to get this figured out before snow falls.

Thanks for the input.

of course it could be a couple things other than rear seals i guess, but the leaking rear axle seal also caused my 4runner difficulty to get going from a stop as well. Especially after I reversed and then went into drive and also it was worse when it was cold. The cold coralation could have been coininsedence. Unless you have replaced both rear axle seals you may want to just take a look at the rear brake shoes. In my case I was even making skid marks with the front tires but the problem was the rear brakes being contaminated with oil. I justed need to clean them, no need to replace the shoes. I had no idea the rear brakes could affect the performace of the fronts until I had to deal with this issue. Like I said, it may not be the axle seal or even related to the rear end but it's idea. Good luck, it can be tough to find the cause of these things.

That sounds exactly like what mine is doing. It doesn't seem to happen as bad if I grab drive when I'm still rolling back. But when I come to a full stop in reverse it take a lot of pedal to get it to go forward. Thanks. I'll check into that this weekend.

Revisiting this issue. It only seems to happen when it's cold. And now it is just my passenger front wheel that seems to be doing it. Major PITA. A friend of mine suggested that I possibly need to bleed my brakes. I would do a brake job, but I'm flat broke currently.