Anyone experience any brake pedal travel issues? Anyone try bleeding brakes, but still have troubles with soft pedal? A friend of mine mentioned he knew someone that brought their vehicle into the shop, hooked up the computer to activate the anti-locks and pump up the system, which gave them back a couple inches of pedal travel.

Guess I'll try bleeding and see if that helps.

How many miles on her? With an 2003 model you could be close to needing new pads.

You talk about soft pedal and long travel. Does the pedal actually feel soft, or do you just get longer pedal travel (without the spongy feeling.) If your brakes feel solid, but the travel is longer than it used to, your rear brakes may need to be adjusted. Try tightening up the rear brakes using the star adjusting wheels until you feel a bit of rotation resistance when you spin the rear wheel by hand, then back the adjusting wheel off a couple of clicks. The goal is the get the shoes as close to the drums as you can without them actually touching. (Do a search on this if you need help.)

If the pedal does feel spongy, then look at bleeding your brake system.

From his name I assume he has a 2003, which doesn't have drum brakes so I don't think that is his issue.

I agree with bleeding the brakes. You've got 3 year old brake fluid in the lines and they may have absorbed some water causing a "spongy" feeling. I'm still using the original fluid and the brakes still impress me everytime I have to do a sudden stop. This thing probably had better brakes than my Celica.

Yep! I guess I'm paying attention. Thanks, Sharp4runr.

As far as water is concerned, that would only make the brakes feel spongy when they get hot enough to cause the fluid/water mixture in the calipers to boil. (liquid water is still as in-compressible as brake fluid [but a lot more corrosive, which is another reason to flush your fluid periodically]... it's the steam when the fluid/water mixture boils that is compressible and causes loss of braking.) Still a good thought, but we need specifics on when the brakes feel spongy. All the time (even the first couple of times you apply the brakes in the morning)? Only on long downhill grades which require lots of brake usage?

Regardless, I agree that it's time to flush the system with new fluid if the original stuff is still in there. I do mine every 25000 miles or so. Cheap insurance, I guess.

Are you under warranty? Hope you don't need a master cylinder. Check the pads and replace if needed. Change/flush the fluid, bleed the brakes and see what happens.

Koz

Truck has 53,000 miles. I inspected pads about 10k miles ago and they still had quite a bit of pad left. I was told worn pads wouldn't affect pedal travel. Is this true? I'm not sure if spongy is the right term to use. I jump in a newer vehicle or even my old camry and the brakes are grabbing as soon as you touch the pedal. In the 4 runner, it seems like I'm pushing a few inches before I can really feel them grab. Air in the lines or worn pads? Both are easy fixes. Just prefer to not change the pads yet if they don't need to be changed.

OK... when your brakes do grab, does your pedal feel solid (if you keep trying to push the pedal down lower)? Try it with the truck not running. Pump your brakes a few times to get rid of the vacuum in your booster. If there is no air in your system, your pedal should feel right solid when you apply the brakes (you may still have the same travel, though).

For a 4 wheel disc system, pedal travel shouldn't change with wearing pads.

There are specs for minimum pad thickness. Don't just change them if you don't need to. For my 3rd gen front brake pads, the min spec for pad thickness is 1mm. Not sure about your 2003, but somebody with the FSM should be able to give you the specs.

Good luck.

Pulled the wheels off tonight and found an issue with right front brake. All other pads aren't bad, worn about 50%. Pulled the right front and there's about 1/16" left of pad. Looks like I could have an issue with the caliper. Looks like I might get to make good on the warranty. I'll start a new thread on this issue. Thanks for the comments.

When the pads wear the fluid level drops and can sometimes affect the pedal travel.

koz

when i bought my 03 4runner from carmax, the brakes absolutely sucked...they put new pads on it, and the pedal came wayyyyy back up to a comfortable area. Its not soft anymore like it was...it was bad enough that i wasnt going to buy it if they didnt fix the brakes...

hope that helps

I've got this same problem. The dealer says there is nothing wrong, (basically- get used to it). I disagree.

I found this TSB #BR004-06 on ALLDATA that may be useful.

Its relates to 4runners 03-05 and is entitled" Inconsistent or Unusual Brake Feeling"

Intro to TSB states: "Some customers may experience a slightly lower brake pedal feel intermittently. A new brake pad anti-squeal shim, service part # 43512-60151, has been developed to address this problem."

Not sure if the description fits exactly but I am going to see about getting this part and installing it myself anyway. I won't let the dealership touch my truck anymore.

Sure hope this helps.

-Toy-Man-

I would do a brake job and possibly add the new & improved shims, if I had any decent mileage on her.

greasefingers,

My thoughts as well. My 4R just turned 60,000 KMs a few days ago, (about 40K Miles). I ordered the new shims and got them to add a set of new pads. Might just as well go all the way.

The shims cost about $30 pr Cdn at my dealership
Pads (front) are about $70 Cdn.
I will pick them up on Monday, 12 June and maybe install that evening or the next day.

Hope that will fix it. I will let you know what happens, if anything.

-Toy-Man-

Here is a link when I did my brake pads. I have since then replaced the rotors and pads. It is my belief that the ceramic pads thermally warped my rotors. I will only use Toyota pads in the future. They are made of great materials, IMO.

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/showth...ighlight=brake